Jonquel Jones has flown home to her native island in the Bahamas many times since she moved to the U.S. as a young teen.
But nothing could have prepared her for the hero’s welcome that awaited the WNBA Finals MVP last month.
Jones knew this homecoming would be special.
It was her first time back since she won a WNBA championship with the Liberty.
A parade in her honor was planned.
She had school visits scheduled throughout the week and a meeting with Prime Minister Philip Davis.
Knowing all this, Jones thought she would have a moment to compose herself as she walked down the plane’s ramp at the Grand Bahama International Airport to grab her luggage before the festivities began.
But that wasn’t the case.
Jones, her fiancée Dinesha Keeshone, teammate Betnijah Laney-Hamilton and several Liberty staffers were greeted by a crowd of roughly 100 people outside the plane.
People whom Jones hadn’t seen in years showed up for her return.
Some were waving Bahamian flags, others proudly held up handmade posters dedicated to Jones.
Music blared from the speakers.
“From that moment on, it was just a whirlwind,” Jones told The Post.
People reached out to touch her Finals MVP trophy. Kids swarmed her and hugged her. Many asked for her autograph.
The parade through Jones’ community, Eight Mile Rock — near Freeport — may not have been as grand as the Liberty’s procession up the Canyon of Heroes, but it was just as meaningful, if not more.
“It was great to be able to have my island embrace me and give me my flowers,” Jones said. “Obviously you know that you’re a role model. … But it’s one thing to know that and another thing to kind of feel that and experience that energy from your family members, from your community and from the Bahamas in general.”
Jones’ primary school principal wasn’t able to meet with Jones when she returned to her old stomping grounds.
But she sent a voice memo, reminding Jones of the buzzer beater she made to win the school a championship all those years ago.
“It was something I hadn’t thought about for a long time,” Jones said. “It made me emotional, it made me happy and it just was a starting point to an amazing journey. But none of us knew it [at that time], we were just in that moment. And so that really did touch me.”
Jones has bounced around a lot over the years.
She played a season at Clemson before transferring to George Washington for the remainder of her college career.
She has been traded twice in her nine-year WNBA career since the Los Angeles Sparks took her sixth overall in the 2016 draft.
She has also spent her offseasons playing in South Korea, Russia, Turkey, Mongolia and China.
Despite the constant movement, Jones has maintained an unbreakable bond with her homeland.
Her love for where she came from inspired the Nike KD17 sneakers she designed earlier this year and wore during her hometown parade.
“It means everything to me,” the five-time All-Star said. “I put the islands of the Bahamas on the back of that shoe because I wanted every kid in the Bahamas that would be able to get a pair of those shoes to be able to look on that shoe and be like, ‘Oh, this is the island where I’m from,’ and really envision themselves.”
Bahamian basketball has been on the rise since Nassau native Mychal Thompson was the top pick in the 1978 NBA draft.
Players, such as Jones and Buddy Hield, though, have continued to fuel the sport’s growth there.
“It’s amazing to see,” Jones said. “But I think it’s an eye-opening experience for the government of the Bahamas. I think that they should realize the amount of potential that we can have in the Bahamas and the fact that there needs to be more investment in sports.”
Last month’s visit reminded Jones why she sacrificed so much over the past 16 years.
She hopes to continue to be a beacon of pride and inspiration for the Bahamas.
At 30, she still has plenty of years left of playing.
She already has her eyes on helping the Liberty become only the fourth WNBA team to win back-to-back titles.
For now, though, Jones is enjoying some much-deserved down time before she heads overseas to play for the Chinese basketball club, Sichuan Yuanda Meile. She said she had a chance to play in next month’s inaugural season of Unrivaled, a 3-on-3 basketball league co-founded by her teammate Breanna Stewart and Lynx forward Napheesa Collier.
But upon further reflection, she decided to use the time to rest.
“I just felt like I took this time off to spend time with my fiancée, to be in my house because I’m never here,” Jones said. “It’s hard just to play consecutively. There’s not really time off. And so I didn’t want to do something or play Unrivaled and then kind of have a little bit of resentment and then kind of burn out at the wrong time, especially coming into the WNBA season.”
