A top 2023 WNBA Draft pick shared her game day 'hype songs' before the biggest night of her basketball career

• Stanford superstar Haley Jones is expected to be a top pick in the 2023 WNBA Draft.
• The point-forward is sharing her favorite pump-up jams live on Tidal before her name gets called.

NEW YORK — Haley Jones is on her way to the WNBA.

The Stanford superstar — who led the Cardinal to the 2021 NCAA championship and earned Final Four Most Outstanding Player honors — is expected to be one of the top picks in the 2023 WNBA Draft. And as she prepares to hear her name called Monday night, Jones is documenting her entire draft experience — through old-school camcorders, TikTok videos, and music.

That latter medium has been "a big part of my journey" and helped her "set the mood" throughout her basketball career, she told Insider. So it was only fitting that the biggest event so far — the night she goes pro — would be yet another musical experience for Jones. She's sharing her pre-draft playlist with fans by going Live on Tidal before she officially becomes a professional basketball player.

"This year what I've done is for every game day, I've had a game day song and then I've added them all to a playlist," Jones told Insider. "So I think I might curate a new one and then take in some of those songs to think about the journey that I've had throughout the season.

"But I think I'll be curating something new, something fresh [for the Draft]," she added. "It'll definitely be a little bit all over the place, ranging from Aretha to Stevie Wonder to Lizzo and all over the place —but it'll be good."

Jones told Insider that her inspiration in choosing each individual game day song "was straight up mood — literally wake up, 'What am I feeling today?'" But true to her Stanford roots, she also incorporated a bit of strategy.

When she had a considerable walk to get into an away arena — "for example, when you go to a place like UCLA" — she would pick a longer song she "could stride with" like "I'm the One" by The Cheetah Girls. When the walk was a bit shorter, she'll opt for Beyoncé's "Crazy in Love."

And at home, she'd go with her "favorite song ever: Lenny Williams' "'Cause I Love You."

"That's probably my number one hype song," Jones said. "Those three will definitely make the cut."

Jones says her music taste is emblematic of "the way I play." She likes classics and she'll listen to the top songs of the day. She's dominant in the paint and brings the ball up the floor.

In other words, she's versatile.

"People compare me to somebody like a Magic Johnson, where I like to do it all," Jones said. "I like to play in that point-forward position. I like to take different aspects from different people's games and that can be from different eras, different teams, different positions, whatever it may be, kind of like in my music taste where I like to listen to different eras, different genres, different artists all the time."

Her objective as she heads into the pros, she says, is "to continue to expand my game and play every position" the same way she continues "to expand my knowledge of music."

The 2023 WNBA Draft kicks off Monday at 7 p.m. ET. Fans can watch Jones and her peers take the stage on ESPN.