WNBA No. 1 draft picks Wilson, Stewart, extra on rookie years

A’ja Wilson swept each nationwide participant of the 12 months award as a senior in faculty. The South Carolina Gamecocks star gained an NCAA championship as a junior.

However nothing fairly ready the No. 1 decide within the 2018 WNBA draft for taking part in towards the Minnesota Lynx and two of the league’s all-time prime rebounders in her rookie season.

“I had watched this lineup win championships collectively … and right here I’m, simply little rookie A’ja pondering she might get a rebound over Rebekkah Brunson and Sylvia Fowles. I felt like they had been enjoying on a pinball machine with me simply in between them bouncing round,” the Las Vegas Aces’ Wilson stated, laughing. “To say that I shared the courtroom with these Corridor of Famers was a ‘welcome to the league’ second, in good methods and dangerous methods.”

A lot of the 2024 WNBA season has been centered on welcoming one of the crucial anticipated rookie lessons in league historical past. Led by No. 1 decide Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever, this 12 months’s rookies got here into their first season with unprecedented consideration and large expectations. Clark and the Fever stumbled to a 1-8 file initially however are actually 6-10, and he or she leads all rookies in factors, assists and minutes performed.

The Chicago Sky’s Angel Reese additionally has obtained numerous scrutiny. The No. 7 decide, partially as a result of WNBA coaches and normal managers weren’t certain how her recreation would translate to the professional league, Reese thus far has proved the Sky’s religion in her and ranks first in rebounding and steals amongst all rookies.

Forward of the Fever and Sky dealing with off Sunday (3 p.m. ET, ESPN) for the third time this season, we talked to a few of the WNBA’s prime rookies through the years — all No. 1 picks — concerning the ups and downs of their first season, and once they knew for certain they had been going to make it work.

play

Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese matchups do not come with out controversy

Check out the drama surrounding Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese’s rookie seasons because the Fever put together to tackle the Sky for the third time this season.

What was your hardest adjustment as a rookie?

The New York Liberty’s Breanna Stewart gained 4 consecutive NCAA titles at UConn, ending with a 151-5 file in faculty. Her first WNBA season, 2016, the Seattle Storm went 16-18.

Stewart: “Shedding so many video games, particularly after I did not lose that a lot in faculty. And simply the physicality. Understanding that everybody is larger, quicker, stronger and also you’re enjoying among the finest gamers on the earth each single evening.”

Wilson — a two-time MVP who has helped lead Las Vegas to back-to-back WNBA titles — was the second No. 1 decide in a row for the Aces, who moved from San Antonio to Las Vegas earlier than Wilson’s first season. She got here from South Carolina, her hometown faculty that she had led to its first NCAA title, to a franchise that hadn’t made the playoffs the previous three seasons and was making an attempt to ascertain itself in a brand new metropolis.

Wilson: “How rapidly video games go by. You do not have time to linger. We did not have the most effective season my rookie 12 months, however I did not even have time to consider it as a result of we had been simply on to the following recreation. Simply the tempo of scheduling was an eye-opener for me.

“And in video games, you had been going towards grown girls who had been coaching for months and months for this, and also you’re simply getting out of school.”

The Storm’s Nneka Ogwumike performed within the girls’s Last 4 all 4 of her seasons at Stanford. Her professional profession started about 360 miles south with the Los Angeles Sparks in 2012.

Ogwumike: “The pace, the power. Enjoying each different day. The journey. All the things. There’s little or no that is the identical from the extent that you simply’re coming from in faculty. Additionally, protecting accountable and disciplined as a participant as a result of nobody’s actually telling you what to do. You are the professional, so you must behave like one.”

Jewell Loyd was eligible for the draft as a junior and opted to go away Notre Dame after her third season in 2015. She joined a Seattle franchise that had gained titles in 2004 and 2010 however missed the playoffs the 12 months earlier than Loyd arrived.

Loyd: “If you’re a high-level scorer in faculty, it is type of simple. If you’re right here, you’ve got individuals [whose] job is to be sure you do not rating.”

Jackie Younger additionally was eligible for the draft as a junior and opted to go away Notre Dame after her third season. In 2019, she grew to become the Aces’ third No. 1 decide in a row, following Kelsey Plum and Wilson.

Younger: “I used to be enjoying out of place — level guard after I’m actually not a degree guard. So simply coming into a brand new position and having to basically run the crew out of place. That was positively arduous for me.”

“If you’re a high-level scorer in faculty, it is type of simple. If you’re right here, get to the league normally, you’ve got individuals who their job is to be sure you do not rating.”

Jewell Loyd

Sabrina Ionescu’s first season in New York was very temporary: It ended with an ankle damage in her third recreation in 2020. Even in that brief timeframe, after which in her first full season in 2021, she realized how various things had been.

Ionescu: “Physicality and the IQ of the sport was in all probability the most important. Everybody’s been enjoying for a extremely very long time, the age hole is massive. You are not likely stunning anyone with what you are capable of do. I used to be getting trapped and double-teamed and picked up full-court by the most effective defenders within the league, and it wasn’t as simple because it was in faculty to have the ability to simply cope with it and get by.”

Aliyah Boston gained a nationwide championship and went to 2 different Last Fours at South Carolina. In 2023, she joined a Fever crew that had not been to the playoffs since 2016.

Boston: “I might say endurance, simply giving myself grace. I really feel like that was the toughest factor since you are available in with expectations for your self, for the crew and when that does not occur precisely, you need to get it now. Issues do not simply occur for you completely in Recreation 1, and so simply having the ability to perceive that.”

play

Caitlin Clark will get leveled by a Breanna Stewart display screen

An unsuspecting Caitlin Clark barrels into a tough Breanna Stewart display screen, briefly sending Clark to the ground.

What was your ‘welcome to the WNBA’ second?

Wilson wasn’t the one participant who listed dealing with gamers from the Lynx dynasty — Minnesota had 4 titles and two different WNBA Last appearances from 2011 to 2017 — as having a huge impact on them their first season.

Loyd: “Having to protect Maya [Moore] and Seimone [Augustus]. That is when Minnesota was next-level. It was an expertise, having to discover ways to guard, additionally simply how arduous it’s to attain and likewise defend on this league. Any time you performed Minnesota, it was tough.”

Ogwumike recalled making an attempt to cease one other legend, one who scored 27 factors for the Indiana Fever towards the Sparks the primary time their groups met in 2012.

Ogwumike: “Positively guarding Tamika Catchings, for certain. Realizing that I used to be a rookie having to defend her and simply stepping as much as the plate.”

The 6-foot Younger remembered one other sort of “impression” — the bodily impression of operating right into a display screen set by 6-9 Phoenix Mercury heart Brittney Griner.

Younger: “It is like, ‘Be careful for these!’ I am unable to keep in mind if anyone referred to as it … as a rookie, you do not actually hear as a lot. There’s so much occurring and also you’re making an attempt to do every little thing proper.”

play

Breanna Stewart discusses her WNBA rookie expertise with McAfee

Breanna Stewart explains to Pat McAfee the adjustment interval for rookies from enjoying in faculty to the WNBA.

When did it really feel like issues had clicked for you?

Younger and Rhyne Howard, the highest decide in 2022 by the Atlanta Dream, stated they by no means actually doubted that issues would work out, regardless of any rookie difficulties.

Younger: “I believe I knew all alongside simply due to my work ethic and having a willingness to be taught and get higher yearly. After I got here into the league, I shot the midrange very well, after which as soon as I lastly expanded to the three and was knocking that down persistently, that is when it actually modified for me.”

Howard: “I believe after coaching camp, I used to be good. Possibly after the primary recreation, simply going towards any individual that wasn’t one in every of my teammates. However after that, I believe the way in which that my coaches and my teammates held me to a typical from the start type of set me up for fulfillment.”

Ogwumike, Ionescu and Boston had been extra self-critical. Ogwumike was the MVP and a WNBA champion in 2016, and is aware of she is likely one of the greats — but it surely took her awhile to get that perception. Ionescu’s confidence grew final season with the Commissioner’s Cup closing win and reaching the WNBA Finals. Boston, in her second WNBA season, continues to be constructing her confidence.

Ogwumike: “I might say in all probability the length of my rookie contract, about three-four years.”

Ionescu: “It was powerful as a result of I used to be nonetheless battling damage [in 2021] and so there have been so many hurdles that I used to be having to recover from. I do not actually know what was from resulting from damage and what … would simply be the extent of consideration that you simply get.

“Now, it is a lot nicer to have gone by way of a lot already as a result of there’s nothing actually stunning. the extent you must attempt to preserve even by way of highs and lows to have the ability to grind it out.”

Boston: “It is arduous for me as a result of I simply need success and I would like it actually badly. I am making an attempt to know that I want to provide myself grace, however I do not actually know if I actually am. However that is what makes prime elites so good, proper? It is simply that aggressive nature in us.”

“Everybody is larger, quicker, stronger, and also you’re enjoying among the finest gamers on the earth each single evening.”

Breanna Stewart on her changes to the WNBA as a rookie

Stewart went from profitable an NCAA title at UConn to a cross-country transfer to Seattle to the Rio de Janeiro Olympics to the WNBA playoffs in a matter of some months. In some methods, the very fact she barely had time to suppose helped.

Stewart: “The extra video games I had below my belt — I do not know if there is a sure quantity — however between the video games, the practices, [it being an] Olympic 12 months, issues had been occurring actually, actually quick, and [I was] simply taking it in stride.”

Wilson remembers it not as an “aha” second, however extra a rising realization that she was going to make it. It crystalized after her look within the 2018 All-Star Recreation as a rookie.

Wilson: “I did have some awe, enjoying towards those that I had appeared as much as and had seen on TV, and now I am on TV with them. However after All-Star, it type of settled in for me. I stated, ‘That is my job, I’ve received to return into work identical to they do and be me.’ That is after I began to flourish.”

Loyd provides credit score to Storm veterans resembling Sue Fowl in serving to her transition to the WNBA.

Loyd: “I had actually good vets coming in, so I used to be fairly spoiled. I really feel just like the second half of my rookie season, I type of discovered how I need to do issues. I put the most effective crew round me on and off the courtroom to verify I used to be in the most effective scenario and did not really feel overwhelmed.”

What recommendation would you give rookies?

Stewart has gained two WNBA titles, two MVP awards and is headed to her third Olympics with Crew USA.

Stewart: “Proceed to be taught from each second. It won’t at all times go the way in which that you really want and a few days are going to be higher than others. However proceed to be sure you observe that vet that you’ve got and be taught from every factor that is occurring.”

Aces guard Kelsey Plum, the No. 1 decide in 2017 when the franchise was nonetheless in San Antonio, struggled her first 12 months on a crew that appeared directionless. It was arduous to not let it have an effect on her view of herself as a younger participant. Now a two-time WNBA champion headed to her second Olympics, she needs rookies to understand it will get higher over time.

Plum: “It felt like quicksand, virtually. Like, when is there going to be mild on the finish of the tunnel? I keep in mind pondering, ‘Possibly I am not lower out for this.’ I want somebody would have come and given me a giant hug. That is simply what I wanted: empowerment, encouragement, love.

“Coming from faculty to the professionals, and other people do not know the way good the WNBA is. Heck, I did not know the way good the WNBA is then. It felt like barely having the ability to catch your breath, after which earlier than you even received an opportunity, you had been going again below water. However I might not be the participant I’m now — the way in which I play, how tenacious I’m, my motor — with out that. It type of made me who I’m.”

ESPN’s Kevin Pelton and Alexa Philippou contributed to this report.