Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I can’t believe we still have to endure more than a week of NFL draft speculation.
In today’s SI:AM:
⛹️♀️ WNBA draft recap
Draft night takeaways
Monday night’s WNBA draft began with the pick everyone had expected ever since the Dallas Wings won the draft lottery back in November. They selected UConn Huskies star Paige Bueckers, the clear-cut best player in the draft. Bueckers going with the No. 1 pick was an inevitability, but after that, things got more interesting. Here are the most noteworthy developments from the rest of Monday’s draft.
Strong international showing
The Seattle Storm selected 6'6" French center Dominique Malonga with the second pick, making her the highest-drafted French player in WNBA history. She’s also the first foreign-born player to be selected at No. 2 since Finland’s Awak Kuier was picked by the Wings in 2021.
Malonga was born in Cameroon and raised in France. Her mother is Cameroonian and played professionally in Europe and for the Cameroon national team, while her father played for the Republic of Congo’s national team.
While there are plenty of foreign-born players in the WNBA, it’s been uncommon for players who did not play college basketball in the United States to be selected at the top of the first round. Before Kuier was selected by the Wings, the last non-NCAA player to be selected higher than ninth in the draft was Liz Cambage (the No. 2 pick in 2011). No non-NCAA players were picked in the first round of the ’22 draft, one went in the first round in ’23 (Maïa Hirsch, with the last pick of the round) and three were selected in the first round last year (with three of the last four picks of the round).
But Malonga wasn’t the only foreign-trained talent to go in the top half of the first round this year. Lithuanian wing Justė Jocytė, Malonga’s teammate with the French club Lyon ASVEL, was selected with the fifth pick by the Golden State Valkyries. She’ll be just the third Lithuanian to play in the WNBA. A third player from the French pro league also went in the first round. Slovenian forward Ajša Sivka was taken by the Chicago Sky at No. 10. They were joined by Australia’s Georgia Amoore, who played college basketball at Virginia Tech and Kentucky. She was picked sixth by the Washington Mystics.
American college players still dominated the draft, but the presence of foreign-trained players in the top half of the first round is a reminder that women’s basketball is becoming increasingly international.
Two UConn players shocked to get picked
For the second year in a row, a player who attended the draft strictly to support a star teammate ended up being selected themselves. Last year, Kate Martin, Caitlin Clark’s teammate with the Iowa Hawkeyes, had her name called in the second round. This year, there were two: UConn’s Kaitlyn Chen and Aubrey Griffin.
The whole UConn roster made the trip down from Storrs to be at the draft in Manhattan in support of Bueckers. Two members of the supporting cast also ended up getting picked. The first was Chen, who was picked in the third round (30th overall) by the Valkyries, followed by Griffin, who went with the second-to-last pick to the Minnesota Lynx. (Griffin is the daughter of former NBA player Adrian Griffin.)
The best of Sports Illustrated
• Clare Brennan was at the WNBA draft in Manhattan. Here are the moments she found most notable.
• Stephanie Apstein has a good profile of Red Sox rookie Kristian Campbell, a top prospect whose personality is already making teammates smile.
• Tom Verducci broke down how some of MLB’s hottest hitters have retooled their swings to find success early in the season.
• Albert Breer explained why Shedeur Sanders appears likely to slip in the NFL draft.
• Gilberto Manzano conjured each NFL team’s dream scenario for how next week’s draft could play out.
• Here is the list of players who will attend the NFL draft.
• Aaron Judge will captain Team USA at the next World Baseball Classic.
• Ken Griffey Jr. worked the Masters as a credentialed photographer and got a great shot of Rory McIlroy’s winning moment.
• The Suns will reportedly explore trading Kevin Durant this summer.
The top five…
… things I saw last night:
5. Juan Soto’s attempt to stay warm on a cold night in Minneapolis.
4. Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s sixth home run of the season, tying the MLB lead.
3. An elderly Dodgers fan wearing his giveaway Hello Kitty hat.
2. Russell Westbrook’s interview about designing WNBA draftee Georgia Amoore’s draft night outfit.
1. Canadiens prospect Ivan Demidov’s first NHL goal.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as SI:AM | WNBA Draft’s Biggest Surprises.
