NPR’s Michel Martin talks with Jackie Powell from NBC Sports about the top stories from the WNBA draft, including No. 1 draft pick Azzi Fudd’s new team and salary.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Forty-five young women realized their dreams last night when their names were called in this year’s WNBA draft. But who was picked No. 1?
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CATHY ENGELBERT: The Dallas Wings select Azzi Fudd.
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ENGELBERT: University of Connecticut.
MARTIN: That is WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert making the announcement on ESPN. Jackie Powell covered the draft for NBC Sports. And after a long night, she’s here early this morning to tell us more about it. Good morning, Jackie.
JACKIE POWELL: Good morning.
MARTIN: So Azzi Fudd, a guard from the University of Connecticut, from the D.C. area., I just thought I’d mentioned – you’re welcome, everybody – was selected first overall by the Dallas Wings. Tell us about her.
POWELL: So Azzi Fudd is known to be one of the greatest pure shooting prospects in WNBA league history. To give you an understanding of that, in her final college season for the University of Connecticut, she shot 44.7% from three-point range. That is excellent. Fudd is just so skilled at moving off the ball and understanding where to be in the right space and time. She’s a really great cutter. She understands, you know, where to move. Fudd is also a really good defender, which is a skill that she worked on from her freshman year up until her senior year.
MARTIN: Yeah. So just great on both ends of the court. What are some other notable picks?
POWELL: So I would say Olivia Miles at No. 2 to the Minnesota Lynx. So as I mentioned, Azzi Fudd is a generational shooter. Olivia Miles is a generational passer. She’s so creative in how she not only handles the ball but passes it and facilitates to her teammates. I’d say another one is – another couple. You have Awa Fam Thiam. She is a young player from Spain, who went to the Seattle Storm at three. She’s a versatile power forward. And then you have Lauren Betts, who’s the center at UCLA, who went No. 4 to the Washington Mystics.
MARTIN: I can tell you that the people in this area are very excited about seeing what she can do. You know, the regular season starts next month. Did the lengthy negotiations on securing a new collective bargaining agreement affect this year’s draft?
POWELL: Oh, absolutely. And the reason for that is while this draft was going on, we technically are still in WNBA free agency right now. And so what that means is GMs are trying to construct their teams at the same time as drafting new players into the league.
MARTIN: Yeah.
POWELL: And so it was very hard for GMs to figure out who to select.
MARTIN: You know what’s also hard is that these players finish their college season and then almost roll right into their professional season. That has to be tough.
POWELL: Oh, it’s very difficult. Sometimes it leads to injury because there is not a lot of break in between that transition.
MARTIN: That’s Jackie Powell, who covers women’s basketball for NBC Sports. Jackie, thank you.
POWELL: Thank you.
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