When the New York Liberty defeated the Minnesota Lynx 67-62 on Oct. 20 to win the WNBA championship for the 2024 season, Jaylyn Sherrod became the second former Alabama high school player on the roster of a title team in league history.

The former Ramsay High School star followed Fairfield’s DeWanna Bonner onto the list. Bonner won WNBA titles with the Phoenix Mercury in 2009 and 2014. Bonner nearly made it to this year’s championship series with Sherrod, but the Lynx eliminated Bonner’s Connecticut Sun in the WNBA semifinals.

Sherrod almost was a state champion, too. Ramsay lost to Hazel Green 56-54 in overtime in the AHSAA Class 6A girls’ basketball championship game for the 2018 season.

On Tuesday night, Ramsay honored Sherrod for her basketball career, which includes starring at Colorado between the Birmingham prep work and her first WNBA season. Ramsay retired Sherrod’s No. 00 jersey.

“It’s just a blessing,” Sherrod said. “Having time to sit with it, realizing the magnitude of it and just kind of coming into it with a lot of gratitude and a lot of thankfulness.”

Colorado had been to the NCAA tournament once in the preceding 18 years when Sherrod helped the Buffaloes reach the Sweet Sixteen in 2023 and 2024. Sherrod averaged 12.1 points, 3.1 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game as the point guard for those two teams. In both seasons, Iowa, paced by current WNBA star Caitlin Clark, ended Colorado’s campaign.

Sherrod was not selected in the 2024 WNBA Draft. She participated in training camp with the Liberty, but New York released her at the end of the preseason.

An injury opening prompted the Liberty to sign Sherrod to a seven-day contract on July 6, and when that deal ended, New York signed the 5-foot-7 guard for the remainder of the season.

In the No. 0 jersey, Sherrod had 19 points, three rebounds, five assists, three steals and one blocked shot in 10 regular-season games for the Liberty, then played in two postseason contests.

New York won the championship on Sherrod’s 23rd birthday.

“Never let anyone tell you no,” Sherrod said at the Ramsay ceremony. “So many people told me no. I’m still hearing it to this day. That’s really all my story is. I just kept my head down and kept going. I keep pushing still to this day, trying to just be better at something or achieve something new, and I really just never let anybody tell me no.”

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.