Jonquel Jones should not have made it to the WNBA. The odds were stacked against her. Jones was born on 5 January 1994 to Ettamae and Preston Jones in Freeport, Bahamas. Only 2 players had gone on to play Division 1 basketball in the US before Jones, and basketball remained a dream for the population of the Bahamas, especially girls. At the age of 14, Jones jetted to the US thousands of miles away from home to start her journey that has culminated in the WNBA. That call took even more guts from the parents who answered it—meet the bravehearts behind the WNBA star.

Who Is Jonquel Jones’ Mother, Ettamae Jones?

Ettamae has been a welfare officer for the Department of Social Services for almost 25 years. She has been among the premier guides to Jonquel in her journey from the Bahamas to the US and eventually to the WNBA. There are a few players who are recruited from the secluded Caribbean island of the Bahamas, but Jonquel was determined to do the impossible. “Every day [Jonquel] would lament about the fact that there was no place here for female basketball players,” said Ettamae.

In fact, Jonquel used to regularly disobey her mother as a child to play basketball. On Sundays, when her mother told her to put the ball down, stay inside, clean up, and go to church, Jones would sneak over to her grandmother’s house, who had a court in her yard. Jones would play all day, and soon she got to take her game beyond her small court to big stadiums. 

By sheer luck, Jones had come to know Yolett McPhee-McCuin, who not only is the first girl from the Bahamas to receive a Division I scholarship straight out of high school, but she also would become the assistant who recruited Jones to Clemson. McPhee-McCuin knew Diane Richardson, who recognised the spark inside Jones and became her guardian in the US. 

“When I met Coach Richardson, it was like I had known her all my life and it was if Jonquel was her child and I was just turning her over to her,” Ettamae said. “It was like I’d raised her to be 15 or 16 and was giving her back to her mom. It confirmed that Jonquel was exactly where she needed to be.” And rest, as they say, is history. 

Who Is Jonquel Jones’ Father, Preston Jones?

Jonquel Jones’ father, Preston Jones, is a heavy equipment operator who coached locally when she was young. It was Preston who sowed the seed of basketball into Jonquel. The game hooked her early, as she shadowed her father to practices, watching him run a boys’ team from the sidelines. “But for as long as I’ve known myself, I’ve known the game of basketball,” Jones says.

Does Jonquel Jones Have Siblings?

Yes, Jonquel Jones has six siblings: two brothers named David and Tino, and four sisters named Danielle, Niya, Juanita, and Prestina.

While details about most of her siblings’ lives are limited, Jonquel shares a close bond with her oldest brother, David Adderley, who is 19 years her senior. They connected over shared interests in sports, video games, comics, and anime. A memorable story from her childhood involves David gifting her a Nintendo GameCube he had hidden, which brought her to tears of joy on Christmas morning. David has been supportive of Jonquel’s identity as a lesbian, encouraging her to be herself. The siblings grew up in a large, extended family in Freeport, Bahamas, contributing to a communal upbringing.

What Is Jonquel Jones’ Family Background and Ethnicity?

Jonquel Jones is Bahamian by birth and upbringing, with deep roots in Freeport, Grand Bahama, and she later became a naturalized citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina for international play. She is ethnically Afro-Caribbean in nature. Despite getting a Bosnian citizenship for international play, she has maintained that the Bahamas remains her home and is pushing for development in basketball at home. 

“I want it to get to the point where they can stay at home and be able to develop their game and still have the possibility of being a scholarship athlete and going to college for free,” Jones said. “Right now it’s not at that level yet. If I could go back in time and not have to leave my family that would be amazing. I want that for the next generation.” 

Jones has become a role model for girls back home. Jay Philippe, a native of Grand Bahama and a friend of Jones, says, “When anyone thinks of women’s basketball, the first thing they’ll say is Jonquel Jones. Jonquel alone has brought the awareness of women’s basketball, the WNBA in particular, to the Bahamas.”

However, that almost did not happen. Jones’ parents, Preston and Ettamae Jones, did not think they would be able to afford to pay for their daughter to live and attend high school in the United States. The family had lost almost all of their belongings in two hurricanes, and Preston Jones was treated for a brain tumor before Jones left for high school in the US, adding even more tension to the family finances. “I spoke with Jonquel and her mother. She wanted to play here, but tuition was a lot. ‘You can apply,’ I told them. Mom said they couldn’t afford that,” Jones’ high school coach Richardson recalls. However, after conversations with her husband, Richardson decided to sponsor Jones and become her temporary guardian, providing the support the Jones family needed to take Jonquel to the next level.  

What Is Jonquel Jones’ Relationship With Her Parents?

Jonquel Jones’s life as a WNBA star is still intertwined with her parents, Ettamae and Preston. Jones frequently has her parents over in the US to watch her play and dominate for the Liberty. Her parents, beaming with pride, “never gets old,” for Jones

“Happy Father’s Day old man!! We gottah stop living in the moment so much and take more pictures 😂. You don’t have IG n you know how much I love you so let’s not get lengthy. You the best…” Jones wrote in 2022, and the father-daughter duo definitely made an effort to take pictures together as Jones posted a carousel  on her Instagram last year. “Happy Father’s Day to the best cook and funniest guy I know!! Love you, old man, appreciate all that you’ve done and continue to do in my life.” Jones captioned. 

The Liberty star is appreciative of her mother, too. “Happy Mother’s Day Mummy! You know what you mean to me and all you’ve sacrificed for me to live my dreams! I love you I love you I love you!!!”Jones wrote in 2021. Jones’ parents have been the rock behind the center, and because of their unending support, the highly unlikely journey from the neighborhoods of the Bahamas to iconic stadiums in New York became easier.