Sabrina Ionescu did not turn down the WNBA Three-Point Contest. According to the New York Liberty star, she was never formally asked to participate.
“I can’t decline an offer I never officially got invited to,” Ionescu said while rejecting reports that she had passed on the event.
“I can’t decline an offer I never officially got invited to.”
Sabrina Ionescu would’ve loved to beat her record in the three point contest, but the invite from the WNBA never came. pic.twitter.com/YRijofzzGR
— Sportico (@Sportico) July 22, 2026
She added that neither she nor her representatives held official discussions with the league about competing.
That makes her absence especially surprising. Ionescu set the WNBA contest record with 37 points in 2023 and returned to win the event again in 2025. She said she would have welcomed another opportunity to chase her own mark.
Instead, the 2026 field will feature Azzi Fudd, Rhyne Howard, Marina Mabrey, Bridget Carleton, Natisha Hiedeman and Janelle Salaün.
Ionescu was not criticizing the players selected, and she expressed excitement about watching the competition. Her frustration was with the suggestion that she had declined an invitation that, in her telling, never existed.
For a league trying to showcase its best shooters, leaving out the defending champion and record holder is certainly a curious decision. Ionescu was prepared to defend her crown. The invitation simply never arrived.
