Three event-filled years have gone by. Two Pac-12 championships, one trip to the NCAA finals that ended in heartbreak and one chance at redemption that never came. But Sabally’s not looking back. Instead, she’s ready for her future—the WNBA and the glory it promises.

In 2017, when Sabally had committed to Oregon, ESPN had the tall German ranked as just the 36th-best player in her recruiting class. 

“I just thought, OK, I’m not a top-ranked player. I’ll play like one and I’ll get up there,” the junior says about her mindset at the time.

Now, just three short years later, Sabally is widely projected to go No. 2 in the 2020 WNBA Draft.

Oregon coach Kelly Graves once described her as “maybe the most interesting player I’ve ever coached.” And it’s clear to see why. The 6-4 German may occupy the forward position, but she boasts the athleticism and ball skills often found in a guard. Sabally averaged 15 points per game this season while shooting 39 percent from beyond the arc. She knocks down threes with ease, she relishes smacking her opponents’ shots away and she twists and turns her way to the basket with the poised body control of a cat.

But Graves also knows her as a woman who is incredibly curious and self-aware. He remembers how, during a team trip to the Muhammad Ali Museum early on in her freshman year, he couldn’t get her to leave. She stood there long after everyone else had left, reading every plaque, asking questions, hungry to learn every crumb of information about the legendary athlete and civil rights activist. 

Sabally arrived in Eugene, OR, as a lanky kid from Berlin and struggled to keep up with stars like Ionescu and Ruthy Hebard in practice that first year. But she kept pushing, kept firing shot after shot, putting in hours of work in the gym and staying up all night to complete her schoolwork. 

When you ask her about her time in Oregon, her toothy smile grows wide. Her love for the sport radiates through the computer screen as she reflects on all of the everlasting memories she made with her teammates.

Despite being named Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, she was convinced her shooting wasn’t good enough. So she improved, shooting 51.3 perecent from the field during her sophomore year and averaged a career-high 16.9 points per game. By the time her junior year rolled around, she had become one of the leading voices on the team. But she also knew that she could do more on the court to help Ionescu and the rest of her teammates. She became hungrier defensively, crashing the boards every time and she averaged 6.9 rebounds per game this season. In her three-year college career, she’s made 180 three-pointers, good for ninth in school history. 

“I think she’s kind of worked on one facet of her game and improved in that area with each and every year,” Graves says. “She went from basically a spot-up shooter as a freshman to a little bit more of a driver in her second year and now, [she’s] much more of a driver that could create for others. She was better on the block, better on the rebounds. So she continued to evolve as a player as well.”

Born to a Gambian father and a German mother, Sabally grew up in Berlin in a home with six other siblings running around. Basketball is not the most popular sport in Germany—soccer is what courses through the people’s veins, it’s the sport played on playgrounds, fields and streets across the country. 

But Sabally never gave up on her hoop dreams, and she says her family’s continuous support pushed her to keep going. She has even represented Germany on the international level, leading them to first place in the FIBA U20 European Division B Championship three summers ago and helped them qualify for FIBA EuroBasket Women 2021.

“My little brothers are actually playing soccer, and I told them to go to basketball,” she laughs. “But soccer’s fine, too.”

She left everything and everyone she knew home when she traveled to Oregon alone to start her freshman year three years ago. She knows how to lead and how to make her voice heard. And on an Oregon team with loads of talent and incredible aspirations, she stood out.

“I think she was one of those players that was looked up to by everybody, by the young kids, by the older kids,” Graves says. “She wasn’t afraid to step up and challenge other players when that needed to be the case. She’s the whole package in terms of being a great teammate, being a great citizen and being a great basketball player.”

In February, when Sabally announced that she would be forgoing her senior season to enter the WNBA, she was nervous but also felt incredibly calm. She knew people might question her decision, but she felt confident. The memories of dropping 25 points in a win over Team USA in November and a career-high 33 points against Washington State at the start of the year were fresh in her mind. She yearned to help her family financially, to show the world who Satou Sabally is.

“You dream about it the whole time,” Sabally says. “Why wait?”

In just one day’s time, the 22-year-old’s dream of playing in the WNBA will be one step closer. As for the next time she’ll be able to take the court, nobody knows. But when the time comes, she’ll be ready.

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Bela Kirpalani is a contributor at SLAM. Follow her on Twitter @belakirpalani.

The post Satou Sabally Is The Most League-Ready in 2020 WNBA Draft appeared first on SLAM.

Miller runs Ballher Athletic Apparel, a clothing brand for female athletes, out of Alliance, OH. Created in 2006, Ballher—pronounced “baller,” with the letter “H” meant to highlight the female athlete—provides girls high school sports teams and AAU girls basketball teams across Ohio with custom jerseys, t-shirts and more. With an emphasis on supporting female athletes at a young age, Miller wants to ensure that they feel valued and respected as players.

In 2006, Miller was working as the girls’ basketball head coach at Marlington (OH) High, and he noticed that many of his players would not have their own gear—they’d often wear oversized hand-me-downs from an older brother or relative. A lightbulb went off in the coach’s mind.

“Girls need something that they can identify that’s all their own,” he said. “So I started looking around—AND1 was popular, that was a guy’s logo. And then you had LeBron’s logo, another guy. All these brands are mostly silhouettes of men and so I was like, Why can’t there be a girl’s version, a girl’s brand that speaks to them on their own level?”

That year, Ballher was born. While the mission began as a way to get more girls to play basketball and to feel confident on the court, Miller and his team now also supply gear for girls’ volleyball, softball and soccer programs.

This past summer, Ballher got an assist from Tamika Catchings, former Indiana Fever forward, WNBA champion and current general manager for the Fever. In June, Catchings signed a three-year endorsement deal with Ballher. Since then, she wore custom shorts from the company during her stint on American Ninja Warrior, joined Miller to surprise a local Ohio girls’ basketball team with new uniforms and formed a partnership between her Catch the Stars Foundation and Ballher.

“Being a young female athlete myself once upon a time, not really having products that were designed and made specially for me,” the newly inducted Hall of Famer said. “I think that his mission is just really cool and one that’s become dear to my heart.”

Catchings and Miller met in 2008 at one of the former Marlington coach’s basketball skills camps. In the years that followed, the two started to work together through Catchings’ youth fitness-focused foundation, and Ballher has created t-shirts for her camps and other events. Once Catchings’ player-endorsement deal with Nike ended, Miller and Ballher saw the opportunity for the two to work together once more.

“What Ballher’s been able to do is they’ve found their niche in an area that hasn’t been as solidified in the past,” Catchings said. “I think [Miller has] done a great job with his products, his design and his creativity of being able to serve a demographic on the local level.”

While athletic apparel behemoths like Nike and adidas have global recognition and a war chest of resources, Ballher hopes to tap into its local roots by building connections with the teams it outfits and designing custom apparel that fits their history and personality.

With the coronavirus pandemic shuttering businesses across the country for an extended period of time, Ballher has been forced to pause production. Last month, a local girls basketball team outfitted in Ballher apparel was warming up for their semifinal game when, minutes before tipoff, the event was shut down and everyone was sent home. Along with school closures, all of the AAU teams that Ballher equips have stopped playing.

In the interim, Miller has started a challenge on social media to raise money for local food banks in Ohio. The campaign, #MakeMyShotChallenge, encourages kids and adults across the country to record themselves making a basketball trickshot and then post it on social media with the hashtag, tagging a few friends. If the tagged friends don’t respond with their own video of the same trick shot within 24 hours, they must donate money. Ballher has a link on its website to donate, and 100 percent of the proceeds raised will be donated to a local food pantry.

Across the world, almost every sports league has been suspended until it is safe to resume play. But many, including Miller, worry about what this means for the future of women’s sports—especially in the US, where the WNBA, in particular, was making strides and growing in stature.

“I feel like the men are going to rebound no matter what,” Miller said. “I feel like the media is always ready to just jump in that circle because it’s what they’re familiar with and it’s what they know. And so I think it’s really up to people on social media to keep it going because without that, [the media is] always going to chase the dollar.”

“So many companies are losing so much money that they’re going to be very quick to jump into old habits. It’s going to take a very conscious effort to pick up the ball where it was dropped and continue that for women’s sports.”

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Bela Kirpalani is a contributor at SLAM. Follow her on Twitter @belakirpalani.

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Then, on March 25, 2019, everything changed. During a playoff game in Israel, Vivians came off a screen ready to catch the ball, felt a pop in her right knee and went down in a heap. She had torn her ACL.

Now, 11 months after her first major injury, the 6-1 guard is back on the court again for Maccabi Bnot Ashdod.

“I feel like the worst part of being hurt was me being overseas at the time,” Vivians says. “I didn’t have my family to go to, I had to sit [in Israel] for like a week and a half.”

The Mississippi native eventually was able to fly back to Indiana to have surgery, and she credits her family for their support in her recovery. Her father, uncle and grandmother stayed with her for a week after her surgery, making sure she was staying upbeat and cooking homemade food.

“I probably gained 10 pounds in a week,” Vivians jokes. “Just having them around was good and it kept my mind off a lot of things, it just kept me occupied.”

While out injured, she could be found sitting on the sidelines at almost every Fever home game, supporting her teammates and counting the days until she was back out there. Instead of feeling sorry for herself, she tried to soak up as much knowledge as she could—studying other teams and players—and readying her mind for when she got the opportunity to play again. Sitting at home, she watched clips of herself playing in college and the WNBA to motivate herself and remind herself of the level she wanted to get back to.

Even before the WNBA, Vivians made sure people knew her name. She became Mississippi’s all-time leading scorer with 5,745 points at Scott Central (MS) Attendance Center. Then in college, Vivians established herself as an elite defender of multiple positions with the speed and height to blow by opponents and pull up for quick shots almost anywhere on the floor.

She led Mississippi State to back-to-back appearances in the NCAA National Championship game in 2017 and 2018, and ended her college career as a four-time All-American and MSU’s second all-time leading scorer.

After being selected by Indiana with the eighth pick in the 2018 WNBA Draft, Vivians went on to have a strong rookie season, averaging almost 9 points per game on 40 percent shooting. Her 65 three-pointers were the third-most by a WNBA rookie since Tamika Catchings’ 76 in 2002. She also became the No. 2 rookie rebounder in Fever history with 107.

The more you talk to her, one thing becomes clear: Victoria Vivians is not afraid of anything.

Deciding to return to Israel, the country where, 6,736 miles away from her family, she once wondered if her career was over as she cradled her knee, was a difficult but necessary choice for the star guard. Knowing that she needed to play and get back to full fitness ahead of the upcoming WNBA season, she re-signed with Maccabi Bnot Ashdod and made her first appearance earlier this month.

In her first three games back from injury, she barely showed any rust. On February 3, she scored 16 points and grabbed 4 boards in 19 minutes in a 97-65 win. Three days later, she had to play 31 minutes to help her team secure another win in which she scored 17 points with 9 rebounds. And in the last regular season game on February 13, she was good for 14 points and 6 rebounds. She hopes to help Ashdod go far in the playoffs, which began last week.

“When I got back out there playing, I got back in the groove and it just came back naturally,” she says. “But I did struggle when it came to fitness.”

While she continues to work toward getting back in game shape, her stellar shooting seems like it never left.

“I still can shoot the ball, it still goes in!” she laughs.

Come May, Vivians will be reunited with former Mississippi State teammate Teaira McCowan, who was drafted by the Fever in 2019 with the third overall pick. The pair played together for three years in college, becoming MSU’s best-ever players.

“I’m very excited because I know how [McCowan] plays, and I know how to play with her and she knows how to play with me,” VIvians says. “Now I get to play with her again and hopefully, we play a long time together.”

Getting injured is every athlete’s biggest fear, and Vivians still remembers the panic that coursed through her body when she first got hurt. But she has made it to the other side, and believes that maintaining a positive mindset was the key to getting back out there without missing much of a beat.

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“If I wouldn’t have been positive throughout this whole thing, I probably would have been a nervous wreck or stopped playing,” she says. “I feel like just being positive throughout the whole process is what kept me sane.”

Having gone through her first major injury, Vivians is looking toward the 2020 WNBA season with a fresh perspective and renewed purpose. But she still thinks about that fateful moment every time she steps back on to the court.

“In every game I play, I’ll still be thinking about it,” she says. “But the only thing I can say is put my head down, play my hardest, give it my all because I’m doing what I love.”

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Bela Kirpalani is a contributor at SLAM. Follow her on Twitter @belakirpalani.

Photos via Getty Images

The post RETURN OF THE QUEEN: Victoria Vivians Is Ready For WNBA Comeback 👑 appeared first on SLAM.

Two-time WNBA champion Devereaux Peters wants to introduce you to the lives of WNBA players off the court with her production company, More Than 94. From talking about Seimone Augustus’ offseason activities to showcasing Rebekkah Brunson and her wife’s waffle truck business, Peters hopes to shine a light on players’ personalities and narratives.

“I wanted to kind of try to fill that gap with different stories about the players because I feel like we have all these dynamic women who do all these things, have all these businesses, are involved in their community in many different ways,” Peters says. “And you don’t get to see any of it.”

Female athletes account for 40 percent of all sports participants, yet women’s sports receive only 4 percent of media coverage, according to the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport at the University of Minnesota. In recent years, WNBA players and coaches in particular have been outspoken about the need for more consistent coverage in the national media. Some, like Diana Taurasi, have gone even further, placing blame squarely upon the league for not promoting its players and failing to effectively market its teams.

Peters herself played in the league for six seasons after being drafted third overall by the Minnesota Lynx in 2012. But the two-time WNBA champion dealt with her fair share of injuries over the years—she tore her ACL twice in college, broke her hand during her rookie season with the Lynx and underwent a total of 10 surgeries throughout her playing career. After retiring from professional basketball before the start of the 2019 season, the then-29-year-old decided to shift gears and do her part to increase coverage of the WNBA.

For many professional athletes, retirement can be a struggle—the sudden shift can lead players to feel lost and unsure of their next steps. Peters, however, knew exactly what she wanted to do. She had always known, in fact. 

She had been a film and television major at the University of Notre Dame and for the past four years, she filmed her own YouTube series called “Down and Dirty,” where she dished on life in the league, playing overseas and the persisting problems with coverage of women’s sports. When her time in the WNBA came to an end, she realized that she wanted to highlight others’ stories. Through More Than 94, she interviews current players like Nneka Ogwumike and Imani McGee-Stafford about their lives on and off the court.

“The players were really receptive to it, and I think the people that watch really enjoy that because they get to see a side that they don’t usually get to see and some honesty that they don’t normally get,” Peters says.

Peters also brings her perspective as a former player, allowing her to ask questions and have conversations that most reporters are not privy to.

Peters’ younger brother, Delacy, has watched her consistently advocate for women’s sports. Now the two work together on More Than 94, as Delacy serves as a production assistant for the “Check Up” interview series and even came up with the name of the company.

“Personally, just being around Devereaux and getting to know her teammates and friends, a lot of women in the league are doing a lot more than just [being] an athlete,” Delacy says. “So I think it’s imperative that we get to know these women on and off the court just as much.”

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“He’s really the creative mind that I need when I go blank and I can’t think straight,” Devereaux says of her brother. “I probably wouldn’t have made it this far without him to be completely honest.”

Since its inception in August, More Than 94 has put out 12 videos and currently has 530 subscribers on YouTube. In addition to growing the brand, Peters hopes that more people will resonate with the stories and, as a result, become fans of the sport.

“I want people to be able to see themselves in these athletes and to identify with them to the point where they want to watch or follow the stories or support the things that they’re putting out there,” Peters says.

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Bela Kirpalani is an intern at SLAM. Follow her on Twitter @belakirpalani.

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This time last year, the Mystics had just gotten swept in the 2018 Finals by the Seattle Storm.

“[Seattle] just handled us in so many ways,” Delle Donne says. “So it was kind of like a challenge. How do we get to that level next season? How do we find a way to improve so we can compete at that sort of level? And it motivated us to all kind of go get better in the offseason, work on [our] individual selves and come back hungry.”

After the loss, the phrase, “run it back,” was born. Since then, it has become so much more. Printed on t-shirts, plastered onto locker room walls and consistently running through everyone’s minds, “run it back” was adopted as a mantra that carried the team through the season and into the playoffs.

At the beginning of training camp in May, Mystics head coach Mike Thibault refused to let the players forget. He even replayed a video of the Storm celebrating the title on the floor of the Entertainment & Sports Arena.

“We were lowkey kind of hurt, but it pissed us off in a good way,” guard Ariel Atkins says. “To see somebody celebrating on your home court in front of your fans like this is a tough way to go out.”

And it worked. This season, the team showed out, winning a league-record 13 games by a margin of at least 20 points and averaging a league-leading 83.9 points per game. The Mystics have also focused more on team play, finishing the regular season with the league’s best assist record—just one year after posting the second-worst record. With unstoppable players at every position, even the Mystics’ bench is a force to be reckoned with. Players like Emma Meesseman, Tianna Hawkins and Ariel Atkins have stepped up considerably this season, seeing increased time on the floor and making the most of it.

“Everybody has stepped their game up, so it’s hard to just pick one person,” Delle Donne says. “Aerial Powers stepped up big time for us, especially with Kristi [Toliver] being out. She’s had to come in and play some huge minutes. And then obviously having Emma back has been huge. She’s one of the most efficient offensive players that this game has.”

Younger players have also had an impact on the court. In her first year in the league, Atkins was named to the All-Rookie Team and the All-Defensive Second Team. Now in her second year, the 5-8 guard is in the starting lineup and credits her teammates and coaches for helping her continue to grow as a player.

“I’m playing with Elena Delle Donne, Kristi Toliver, Natasha Cloud, LaToya Sanders, Tianna Hawkins,” Atkins says. “I got people in the gym that push me every day. I’m coached by Mike Thibault and Marianne Stanley. I’m pushed every day and I don’t have a choice but to get better by walking in this gym every day if I want to be better.”

That support follows the team off the court as well, and is critical to the family culture the Mystics have built this season. When Natasha Cloud decided to speak out against gun violence in the U.S., her teammates supported her every step of the way.

“If I can change one person, if I can change the life of one child, that means everything to me. And that makes a difference,” Cloud says. “It was everything to have my team in this organization back me and support me and understand where I was coming from.”

The team’s chemistry and connection is stronger than ever, in part due to the response to last year’s Finals loss. Instead of crumbling, team leaders like Delle Donne have spoken up and motivated the team to work harder and make smarter plays. But the players make sure that everyone’s voice is heard, not just the veterans.

“Even for somebody like me to be like, Hey, don’t forget to set that back screen, and for them to just take it and be like, ‘OK,'” Atkins says. “They don’t think that they know everything. So for me coming in, knowing that I’m going to be a lifelong learner, you can never finish learning this game.”

Despite all of the success in the regular season, the team has not lost sight of the goal—to bring a basketball championship to D.C. for the first time in 41 years.

“That’s what you dream of from the time that you’re little is not only getting to the WNBA, but winning a WNBA championship,” Cloud says. “I think for me personally, too, I want to win a championship for myself and for this team and this organization. But I really want to win one for Elena.”

After defeating the Las Vegas Aces 3-1 in the 2019 WNBA semifinals, the Mystics are in prime position to win the first championship in franchise history.

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Bela Kirpalani is an intern at SLAM. Follow her on Twitter @belakirpalani.

Photo via Getty Images.

Additional reporting by Camille Buxeda.

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