SEATTLE — An old live stream of Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi, recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic, has made its rounds on social media. The future Hall of Fame players discussed everything from their welcome-to-the-league moments to their pleasure dishing out those moments to incoming rookies.
At one point, Taurasi asked Bird if she had to put $1 million on it, who would be the best player in the 2020 draft class.
“Chennedy Carter,” Bird said without hesitation.
That class included Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu and Wings forward Satou Sabally.
Ionescu is eighth in the league in scoring, averaging 18.9 points, and Sabally has been sidelined since the start of the season with a shoulder injury. Carter is the Sky’s leading scorer at 16.3 points per game.
After sharing her take, Bird told a story about a time she was tasked with defending Carter during a USA Basketball scrimmage against her alma mater, Texas A&M.
“What the [expletive]” was Bird’s response to her assignment.
On Sunday, Carter smiled as she recalled the game in which she said she dropped 34 points with Bird guarding her. During the bubble season in Bradenton, Florida — Carter’s rookie year — she scored a career-high 35 points against Bird’s Storm.
“I love Sue,” Carter said. “Sue has typically been vouching for me since I’ve been in the WNBA. Having a veteran, an Olympian as great as she is, it’s an amazing feeling for her to see my talent.”
Reese tells Seattle crowd to hush
Angel Reese doesn’t hear a thing when she’s standing at the free-throw line.
Forget that there were 10,725 in attendance Friday night as the Storm nearly erased the Sky’s nine-point lead in the fourth quarter. When Reese made back-to-back trips to the free-throw line, she tapped into her clutch mindset, which includes tuning out everything.
But that didn’t stop her from taking a moment to silence the crowd. After making her second shot on the first set of free throws, Reese held a finger to her mouth, hushing the crowd’s attempt to distract her.
“There were a lot of people in here,” Reese said ahead of the teams’ rematch Sunday at Climate Pledge Arena. “They were yelling, booing and everything. They probably don’t expect a rookie to step up there in clutch moments and make free throws. So it boosted my confidence.”
Reese shot 9-for-10 from the line in the Sky’s 88-84 victory against the Storm on Saturday.
In her senior season at LSU, Reese was second in the nation in free-throw attempts behind USC freshman JuJu Watkins and third in makes behind Watkins and then-Iowa guard Caitlin Clark. Nine weeks into her rookie season, Reese is sixth in free-throw attempts (107) and makes (81).
Reese went 2-for-8 from the line in her WNBA debut against the Wings on May 15 and vowed to improve. She’s shooting 79.2% from the free-throw line in the Sky’s 19 games since.
“I knew I was going to get to the line a lot [as a pro],” Reese said. “Early on in my college career, I wasn’t clutch like I was clutch the other night. Coach [Kim] Mulkey always knew that when it came down to the line, I was going to make my free throws. Being consistent is something that I work on.”
This and that
- Marina Mabrey is in one of the worst shooting slumps of her career. She’s averaging 37.8% from the field this season. It’s her worst field-goal percentage since her rookie year, when she shot 34.4% for the Sparks.
- The Sky have four games remaining until the three-week Olympic break. They are the only team in the WNBA with no players represented on an Olympic roster.
