Bahamian women’s professional basketball player Jonquel ‘JJ’ Jones underwent surgery to address instability stemming from sprains in her right ankle on Monday, and is now in recovery mode, heading into the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) offseason. It is reported that she still intends to play overseas for her Turkish team, Fenerbahçe Opet, this winter.
The New York Liberty post player initially suffered a sprained ankle on June 5 in a game against the Washington Mystics, and re-aggravated the injury in a game on June 19 against the Phoenix Mercury. The latter caused her to miss nine games in the midst of the Liberty’s title defense season.
Jones posted a video on her Instagram story on Monday, revealing that she was in “day one of recovery”.
The Bahamian basketball star, now 31 and heading into her 10th season, is an unrestricted free agent, but has stated her intention to return to the Liberty for 2026.
Jones had an up and down season for the Liberty, playing in her fewest games since joining the team in 2023 due to injury. Still, she notched her eighth consecutive season of double-digit scoring.
The former WNBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) scored 13.6 points and added 8.1 rebounds per game in the 2025 season. She shot 49 percent from the field and 42.4 percent from three-point range. Jones’ field goal percentage was her lowest in the last five seasons, but the 42.4 percentage from deep was her highest from downtown since the 2018 season.
The Liberty labored through a season in which a number of their star players, including Jones, missed significant time due to various injuries. Sabrina Ionescu, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, and Breanna Stewart also sat for extended periods.
They finished fifth in the WNBA Standings with a 27-17 win/loss record, and were then taken out in the first round of the playoffs by the Phoenix Mercury. Prior to this year, the Liberty had back-to-back 32-win seasons in 2023 and 2024 and advanced to the WNBA Finals both times. They won the title in 2024, taking the championship series three games to two over the Minnesota Lynx.
This year, the Liberty’s season ended with a hurtful 79-73 loss to the Mercury in game three of their first round series in which Jones struggled, shooting 1-of-10 from the field, including 0-of-5 from three-point range. Jones scored just three points in that game, and added eight rebounds and four assists.
The Liberty fired four-year coach Sandy Brondello shortly after the loss to the Mercury.
Jones along with Liberty co-stars Ionescu and Stewart are all free agents, and team general manager Jonathan Kolb stated in an interview that he has the “utmost confidence” that all three will return to the team.