During Monday night’s 2022 WNBA drafts, the Atlanta Dream selected Rhyne Howard with the first overall choice. With the addition of Howard, the league gained 36 new players. The NCAA tournament concluded 8 days ago, and the league’s 26th season will begin with the opening tip on May 6th.
The evening’s major success was learning more about Brittney Griner, a standout player for the Phoenix Mercury and a gold medalist with Team USA who has been imprisoned in Russia from February.
While addressing the media, WNBA Comm. Cathy Engelbert first addressed the issue with Griner, saying that the league was working to get her back home but that everyone “has to be patient.”
The WNBA Winners And Losers Of The Draft
Winners Of The WNBA:
Many draft projections and mock drafts have had Howard as the first overall choice for quite some time. However, when the Washington Mystics had the second selection in the lottery in December, many people expected them to choose Baylor’s NaLyssa Smith.
The Dream successfully traded their No. 3 and No. 14 selections last week to get Howard, who was a two-timer SEC POTY and one of just 9 players to be named to the Associated Press All-America first team three times.
Knowing that a club traded up to bring you to Atlanta, which has had its fair share of turbulence over the previous two years, some of it through no fault of its own, has to feel good.
This year saw the return of the WNBA draught to its traditional in-person format, and it was great to witness all the action unfold in real time and to meet the players’ happy families. I’d want to give a shout out to Grandma Brenda at Spring Studios in Tribeca, where Fashion Week is place.
Losers:
Even if you watched the WNBA draft in real-time, you may not have known the significance of Williams-selection Holliday’s until now. Like most picks in rounds two and three, ESPN didn’t talk about this one when it occurred. Instead of being called out by the presenters, her name and “Pick is in” appeared on a graphic in the show’s bottom third. This was another chance the broadcaster had to promote the league in which it has a financial interest by not doing so.
