Frequent proclamations about the depth of talent in the WNBA can seem cliché. Yet, the opening days of the women’s 5×5 basketball competition at the 2024 Olympic Games has been a quick reminder of the truth: These gals are good.
The best, of course, are A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart. Together, they concocted a Top-Tier Stew, combining for 46 points—the first time an American pair has scored more than 20 points each since 2004—to lead Team USA to a 56th-straight win. Behind 24 points, 13 rebounds and four blocks from Wilson and 22 points, eight rebounds and three blocks from Stewart, Team USA cruised to a 102-76 win over Japan.
Two of their stateside teammates also enjoyed a star turn during the first round of group play games. What might the play of Wilson’s Las Vegas Aces teammate Megan Gustafson and Stewart’s New York Liberty teammate Nyara Sabally mean for the Aces’ and Liberty’s WNBA Finals aspirations?
Megan Gustafson got the job done
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Megan Gustafson, the least-heralded Olympian from Aces, assumed the spotlight on the first day of the women’s basketball competition.
A naturalized player for Spain, the 6-foot-4 Gustafson scored 29 points and grabbed eight boards in Spain’s 90-89 comeback overtime win over China on Sunday. It was the kind of efficient offensive performance that made her the near-consensus national player of the year for the Iowa Hawkeyes in 2019. It also was an effort that displayed her continued development into the kind of player suited not just for the collegiate game, but one fit for stylistic preferences of international ball. Gustafson also is fresh off a stellar season for the London Lions, the 2023-24 EuroCup Women champions. In 12 EuroCup games for the Lions, she averaged almost 14 points per game, shooting better than 65 percent from the field and almost 47 percent from 3 on 2.5 attempts per game.
A second-round pick in the 2019 WNBA Draft due concerns about how her game would translate to the W, Gustafson is on her fourth team in five seasons, having yet to consistently establish herself as the high-efficiency scorer she needs to be to become a valuable piece for a contending team. Yet, she’s shown enough on the international stage—including for the Spanish on Sunday—to suggest that she has what it takes to become that player. And if it happens for the Aces over the second half of this season, watch out!
Nyara Sabally shines before injury scare
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Like Gustafson, Nyara Sabally made her mark with an efficient offensive effort, going 6-for-7 from the field and 4-for-5 from the line to finish with 16 points. The Olympic debutantes from Germany earned a wire-to-wire win over Belgium, 83-69. Unfortunately, an all-too-familiar issue clouds her promising performance. She left the game early with what appeared to be a lower body injury, as she had to be helped off the court and to the tunnel by medical personnel.
Germany’s Nyara Sabally is headed back to the locker room with the medical team. Because she couldn’t be walked behind Belgium’s bench, they had to basically do a three quarters lap of the arena to get her to the tunnel. pic.twitter.com/plJIRJs9VZ
— Chantel Jennings (@ChantelJennings) July 29, 2024
It’s injuries that, thus far, have prevented the younger Sabally from finding her stride in the WNBA. Although she suffered two ACL tears before her 20th birthday, the Liberty still selected her with the No. 5 overall pick in the 2022 WNBA Draft out of Oregon, appreciating her refined, versatile offensive skillset at 6-foot-5. Last season, she saw limited time for a star-studded Liberty squad intent upon jelling into a super team. This season, with New York needing off-the-bench contributors, especially in the frontcourt, it seemed she might establish herself as a second-unit offensive option. Yet, even before this latest Olympic scare, injuries intervened, as she has played in only 11 of the Liberty’s 25 games.
Hopefully, Sabally’s Olympic opportunity will not be cut short by another ill-timed injury, allowing her not only to help Germany advance out of Group C but also to return to the Liberty healthy. The Sabally who turned in almost 25 minutes of elite offensive basketball on Monday would give the league-leading Liberty another edge heading into the final stretch of the WNBA season.
