Her presence was sensed right away, despite exchanging her jersey and shorts for street clothes.
In the Atlanta Dream’s season-opener against the Minnesota Lynx, Angel Reese had a chance to put her new team ahead with a second-chance look from inside five feet, but missed the shot. Jordin Canada corralled the offensive rebound and the Dream called timeout.
Reese was visibly down on herself, and Naz Hillmon went over to her on the low block, put her hands on her shoulders for a few seconds, and told her “next play.”
But right after Hillmon lifted her up, it was Brionna Jones in her street clothes who went over to her to encourage her.
Jones can get lost in the background because she’s more reserved than other players are. She’s a big who prefers to have her on-court game do the talking for her. On a team filled with stars and personalities, she’s the Dream’s quiet superstar — her presence can be overlooked, though her contributions come in significant ways.
Jones, who played all 44 games last year for the Dream and was one of their three WNBA All-Star representatives, is making her impact from the bench to start the season after tearing her meniscus in late January while playing overseas for USK Prague of the Czech Women’s Basketball League.
While she would certainly prefer to be on the court with her teammates, she’s still embracing the opportunity to step up and help in any way that she can.
“It’s definitely easier to see things from a different perspective when you’re not in the game, because it feels different than what it looks like,” Jones told The IX Basketball in an exclusive interview during her injury recovery.
“There’s times where when I was playing, and I would come over and coach [Karl Smesko] would say things, I’m like, ‘That’s not what it feels like,’ and then you watch it on film and he was right, so I definitely feel that now, more watching it from the sideline versus being in there with the team and then just being able to impart my wisdom and my experience to the young players.”
Coaching up young players isn’t anything new to Jones. During the 2023-24 college basketball season, Jones returned to her alma mater, the University of Maryland to join her former coach Brenda Frese’s staff.
“She just has had so many high-level experiences now after college and in the pro ranks and overseas, that she’s just not afraid to use her voice and be able to lead,” Frese said in a phone conversation with The IX Basketball. “Whether that’s the way she sees the game with her high IQ, or meeting the team as they are coming to the bench, or in the huddle. She just offers up any kind of expertise.”
During the Dream’s first three games, that’s exactly what Jones was doing. She was on the bench and chatting up players while they were waiting to get their name called.
But during the Dream’s most recent homestand over Memorial Day weekend, Jones was absent. She was away at a wedding, but on the buffer days of Friday and Sunday she made sure that she watched her teammates secure wins against the Dallas Wings and Phoenix Mercury from afar.
“It’s definitely more stressful watching the games away from the team, because I can’t give that same input like right away when I see things, and just being away from the team in general just tougher on me,” Jones said. “But I do see things differently watching it on the screen versus watching it in person.”
After the holiday weekend, Jones was back in the gym at the Dream’s practice facility in Chamblee, Georgia. While her teammates were going through on-court drills in preparation for their rematch against Minnesota before catching their charter flight, Jones was in the background with the team’s trainer, Katie Buria.
She was doing her strength exercises and squats in the background as she put in the work to come back from her meniscus injury, which required surgery — a procedure that Jones wanted to have done stateside.
While Jones was locked into her rehab, her eyes would look up after drills, catching glimpses of her teammates. The looks spoke volumes. She would give anything to be out there with them.
“We love Bri and can’t wait to get her back,” Smesko said during a practice session. “She’s such a great player.”
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The return to the court will come this year, though she’s without a timeline as of now. And the injury isn’t the first Jones has suffered in her career. After playing 13 games to start the 2023 season with the Connecticut Sun, Jones tore her Achilles tendon in June, which cost her the rest of the season. She also tore an ACL during her senior year of high school, her first experience with the rehab process.
When the injury happened overseas, Jones knew that something was wrong, but knew it wasn’t another ACL tear.
“I knew it was something different. I could tell from how it happened, but it felt like it wasn’t an ACL injury,” Jones said. “I knew that. I swole up a little bit, and I was like, ‘yeah, it’s probably gonna be a little more than like a hyper extension,’ but I definitely knew it wasn’t an ACL.”
For most athletes, injury recovery is as much a mental process as it is physical, and Jones is no exception. She is on both the mental and physical journeys right now, and though she’s dealt with injuries in the past, that doesn’t necessarily make this one easier; it does, however, provide some important perspective.
“The mental aspect at this point in my career, after I’ve had two major injuries, is it’s not easy for sure, but it’s a little better, because I know where I’m supposed to be, what I need to do to get back on the court, and just being able to trust my body to withstand the rehab and everything of what I need to do to get back,” Jones said. “I’m just making sure I’m taking care of my body in every way in order to get back the best I can, and then just physically just taking it day by day to find the small wins, being able to celebrate those, like when I started running again, when I started jumping again.”
Celebrating personal wins is a huge part of the mental recovery, alongside knowing one’s ability to contribute off the court to their team.
“You’re going to see the game in a different lens, and when you’re not playing and you’re observing a lot more, there’s a valuable role,” Frese said. “We always tell our injured players that we want them to be really involved as much as they can possibly be involved. It matters.”
It matters for Frese. It matters for Jones. It matters for Smesko. It matters for the members of the Atlanta Dream.
“I think the thing that’s so valuable with Bri is that everybody loves her,” Frese said.
Take for instance, rookie Madina Okot, who just started playing basketball six years ago. When she was drafted by the Dream in the first round last month, she knew that she was going to be counted on to play a big role for them in a season where the team has championship aspirations.
But when players are tasked with running a Smesko system, they have to learn his terminology and phrases and adjust to the speed of his game.
Okot described his terminology as “feeling somewhat like in chemistry class,” but she has had veterans like Reese, Hillmon, and Jones to help her out.
“[They are] just giving me the motivation that I need, the care that I need,” Okot said specifically about Jones and Hillmon. “They’re going to bat the ball to me when I’m open on offense, and she’s encouraging me to grab the rebounds now that most of the time I’m going to be the tallest person on court.”
While Jones is out, she’s taking these moments to use what she calls her “vet vet” status to help the younger players like Okot during the game, in practices, and however else she can.
“For me, it’s just making sure I get when I see things, it’s going over to the young players. I’ve been in Madina’s ear a lot, just making sure that she’s good with everything, but she’s done a really good job of picking stuff up, and so have all of our rookies,” Jones said. “I guess I’m that vet vet now that made it to 10 years.”
Jones said that last part with a laugh afterwards, celebrating the fact that she’s made it a decade in the WNBA — one-third of the league’s entire existence. But she’s still finding her voice and her comfort level as that quiet superstar.
“She’s a top-10 player in the entire league,” Smesko said. “She’s just more quiet than some other players.”
“I feel like she leads by example, like she’s in the right place at the right time, just a good teammate overall and a good human being,” Nia Coffey, Jones’ teammate last year in Atlanta added. “She just, she’s always where she’s supposed to be and does what she’s supposed to do. You could tell she’s a vet and that she’s been here before.”
Jones is working on that quiet part. She knows that marketing herself is part of what comes with being a WNBA player, but it is just “isn’t really her personality.” While she has been finding ways to do that with different avenues like a cooking demo with Chef Carla Hall, the voice that she’s finding is more on the basketball side of things than the public side of things.
And that’s perfectly okay with her.
“I think it’s a lot easier now to be able to have that voice with the experiences that I’ve had, and coming to this team after they welcomed me with open arms last year,” Jones said. “I’m just making sure I give all the experience of wisdom that I’ve had over these years and be able to continue to impart that on them and use my voice as much as I can, as much as I can.”
Jones is finding comfort in Atlanta, just like she did in Connecticut, and just like she did at Maryland before that. Finding that comfortability can be a key element to finding your voice — just ask Frese.
“She’s never going to be anyone that’s really loud and [a] showboat and needs the attention on her,” Frese said. “I think that’s what makes it so remarkable that she’s so talented and doesn’t need all of that, but I think because she is so soft spoken and sweet. She’s not someone that needs to always have her voice in the huddle 100 percent of the time, but I think her timing is always appropriate when it’s needed.”
Jones is looking forward to getting back on the court rocking her No. 42, which she gave up last year for Brittney Griner. The return to the jersey will be nice, but it’s the return to form that she and her teammates are looking forward to.
“We have some shotblockers who can hold it down while Bri is out who can get down there and protect the paint,” Hillmon told The IX Basketball after practice. “But I think that we have to protect the perimeter first and not let teams get downhill.”
The Dream, sans Jones, have been successful at that so far — sort of.
As of May 27, the Dream rank No. 2 in points allowed per game and No. 3 in the WNBA for opposition field goal attempts inside the restricted area, but No. 9 in field goal percentage in that area, as teams are shooting 62.2 percent. But outside of the restricted area, the Dream rank dead last, allowing teams to shoot 46.5 percent.
It’s an area that Jones, who had a team-high 2.1 defensive wins shares last season, can help with.
“My whole career it’s been whatever the team needs, and if that’s interior defense, I’m excited to be able to bring that back,” Jones said. “I know we have some things that we need to clean up, but I think that they’ve been doing a great job of holding it down until I’m until I’m able to get back, and we’re just gonna get better, get better, and continue to get better until I’m back, and then once we do, hopefully we’ll just extend to keep it rolling.”
She’ll have a chance to keep it rolling with the Dream when she returns and two years after that, as she signed a three-year contract to remain with the franchise that returned its core from a season ago.
That future is certain, but what about her overseas future?
Jones has been with USK Prague since 2019, but a lot has changed since then. For example, in 2021, after Jones signed a two-year extension to remain with the Sun, she was making $120,000 per year in the WNBA.
Going overseas to maximize your earning potential and supplement their WNBA salary made sense, and it was a tell as old as time for WNBA players.
Now that a new CBA is in place, though, and with Jones making $1 million this year as a base salary with escalations over the next two years, does someone like Jones still need — or want — to play overseas and risk an injury?
“I definitely have a little pause there,” Jones said. “I think it’s a case-by-case scenario. I’ve enjoyed my time playing overseas, and at this moment, I have the ability to pause and be like, ‘do I want to go overseas, especially with injuries and things?’ Having that ability to choose, I think it’s something that’s really big with this new CBA.”
She’s seeing the game through a different lens on the bench through her recovery. She has the coaching experience from helping out at the University of Maryland.
It’s fair to ask — is she getting the coaching itch?
“I’m going to say no, but don’t ever say never,” Jones said, with a smile.
Frese thinks it’s something that Jones could succeed at if she wanted to go down that path.
“I think that Bri would be great at whatever she puts her mind to,” Frese said. “When she came to Maryland, she wanted to be a doctor. She was pre-med. Whatever Bri decides at that point in time when it’s time to hang it up, she’s going to be amazing at that.”
She’s the quiet superstar for the Dream. The vet vet. While she’s away from the game, her impact is felt. And when she returns to the court after recovering from her injury, she’ll still have the veteran presence. But she’ll get to contribute on the court as well as off of it. Just like a true veteran does.
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