Naz To Atlanta Dream at #15
I foresee a decade long career as a backup post coming in and doing dirty work each and every night
Congrats Naz!!!
so what does that mean in terms of a contract? is it like men pro sports with a cap, pre-determined amounts, etc? is she a lock to make a team as a 2nd rd choice?
WNBA players do not get paid nearly what you would think. A second-rounder makes around 63k a year. The #1 pick makes 72k a year. Nothing is guaranteed, and they only get paid if they are on the roster. That is why women basketball players go overseas to play in the off-season or move on to other careers.
The Highest-paid woman, Dana Taurasi, makes 228k a year. Britney Griner made 227k in the US and got paid a million a year in Russia. For comparison, Lebron James made $18,826.59 every minute he was on the floor this year. So before the first media timeout in his first game, he made what Naz is going to make all season.
April 11th, 2022 at 10:01 PM ^
I don’t follow basketball at all, so this is an ignorant question and not a snarky one. How does the WNBA do financially? By those salaries I’m assuming not very well. You would assume someone like Tuarasi or Sue Bird (even I know those two names) would be making at least $500,000 a season.
April 11th, 2022 at 10:14 PM ^
Breanna Stewart signed the Super Max this year and that is $228k
April 11th, 2022 at 10:44 PM ^
the WNBA is subsidized by the NBA, it loses millions of dollars.
April 12th, 2022 at 12:00 AM ^
The wnba finances are the sole reason for my username. Not that the NBA doesn't have it to spend or some other sanctimonious "you should use this elsewhere!" reasons, but simply it's a horrible financial drain on most involved
Once, the deciding game of the finals was moved due to a conflict with a (Celine Dion?) concert. It happened again but the second time the conflict was with Disney on Ice...
April 12th, 2022 at 12:06 AM ^
Found this from years ago. Finals in 2003 were moved from The Palace to Joe Louis (it was a Celine Dion concert)...
"Back to the WNBA - that "deciding" third game met a scheduling conflict with a Celine Dion concert. Yeah. Legit sport league. Imagine game 7 of the World Series moving because Ricky Martin was playing at Pac Bell
... shitty thing is, this happened AGAIN. Same team (Detroit Shock) in 2006. Instead of moving it to the hockey arena, they moved the
final game to EASTERN MICHIGAN'S FIELDHOUSE and the scheduling
conflict was DISNEY ON ICE. I'm not making this shit up"
It's odd to me that you view the games being moved as a sign the league isn't legit. Rather, why not view it as a problem that the league isn't *treated* as though it's legit?
The fact that you can't imagine Game 7 of the World Series being moved should tell you that it shouldn't happen to the WNBA. That's not the league's fault. It's the venue's for messing up the schedule AND bumping a league championship game.
It's nice that you're looking out for the pocketbooks of billionaires, though. I'm sure they'll remember your hard work when they write their wills.
April 12th, 2022 at 12:11 PM ^
Well, the above examples are from 15+ years ago so I'm not sure they're really useful for anything in 2022
However, that isn't a treatment issue. It's a dollars and cents issue. The WNBA isn't popular so it gets bumped for more popular things
The fact that you can't imagine Game 7 of the World Series being moved should tell you that it shouldn't happen to the WNBA.
That's just not true at all. They're sources of entertainment and the leagues are businesses along with the arenas hosting and the TV networks broadcasting. The WNBA will command more respect when people start being interested in watching the WNBA...which hasn't happened in 20+ years so it's probably not going to happen. It is what it is and the players should be thankful the NBA is willing to subsidize an unprofitable domestic league
Because it's a men's league for a women's league people keep trying to jam it into a sexism box, but it's no more unfair to the WNBA than it is to men's volleyball leagues or professional cricket leagues. They're just not popular here
First off - my sentence IS true. The reality is that you shouldn't double book your venue during a championship series. Frankly, you shouldn't double book your venue period. That makes it a treatment issue, because they had options before that happened, and they chose not to honor their obligations.
I didn't say anything about sexism in my post. You may have inferred it, but you'll note I didn't mention it. There was a reason I didn't make it about sexism: because double-booking like that is unprofessional.
The guy that complains about all the 'sanctimonious reasons' NBA owners could spend their money is complaining about the way NBA owners spend their money. You readily admit that they have it to spend, but then tell us it's a horrible financial drain.
Is it your money that some billionaires are spending? Why does it even matter? Let alone why so much that you based your username on it and go to great lengths to tell us how horrible it is?
So you don't like the WNBA. Big deal - don't watch it. I don't really care for cricket, but guess what? I don't watch it!!! You know what that gets me? It gets me piece of mind that I don't have to watch something I don't like... WIN!!!
I don't know which woman bballer hurt you, but I do hope you can come to terms with it and stop being so ridiculously sanctimonious about it all...
You don't like cricket? With its gorgeous googlies and wicked sticky wickets! How DARE you?!
April 12th, 2022 at 10:53 PM ^
A quick google search suggests that the WNBA as a whole loses about $10 million per year. During the 2016/17 season, it was reported that the Pistons lost $45 million. Apparently sports teams losing money isn’t limited to the WNBA.
Great for her. Hope she develops a medium range shot. If she can catch facing up and do something with it, she's that much more dangerous! Good luck!
Go Naz!
I’m on vacation and a little drunk from free drinks at the hotel, but the WNBA draft (with no sound anyway) was like a fashion show for tall African American women and it was awesome. The mother’s Sunday hats and the super fem athletes and masq women athletes all dressed to the nines was fantastic. Very proud of all of them regardless of style.
The women's twitter account shared a picture of her at the draft. I literally didn't know who it was having only seen her in a basketball uniform.
League fit. @nazhillmon #GoBlue #WNBA pic.twitter.com/OzjFqjmwvQ
— Michigan Women’s Basketball (@umichwbball) April 11, 2022
Congrats Naz!!!
Good luck in the league 👍🏀
Congrats to Naz. It would have been nice if she were picked in the first round but I'm sure she will outperform the expectations - she will be a superstar if she does half for the Atlanta Dream that she did for the University of Michigan. She did look good tonight. She wore a long black gown and had a nice interview with Holly Rowe.
Congratulations to Naz. Highest Michigan pick ever, and first Michigan pick in 17 years.
Don't know a whole lot about the WNBA admittedly but I did see they are sort of amidst a rebuild and have taken some young pieces in this draft. Hopefully it's a good fit and she thrives in whatever role they give her. She seems like an outstanding get considering the numbers she put up here for the position she was taken at in the draft.
April 11th, 2022 at 10:26 PM ^
Congrats Naz! ATL is a great town.
April 11th, 2022 at 11:24 PM ^
The WNBA offers only 144 roster spots (12 teams, 12 players per roster), so even drafted players may not have a chance to make a WNBA roster and with WNBA salaries being as low as they are, many players have been signing to play for teams overseas after the WNBA season ends in order to supplement their income.
Brittney Griner's situation and Putin's invasion of Ukraine make it unlikely that the Russian women's league will be an option for WNBA players in the near term.
The WNBA might not have sufficient resources to start a development league like the NBA's G League unless they could find some benevolent sponsors who’d be willing to finance reserve squads of eight players for each WNBA team, offering say $30,000 - $35,000 per reserve player ($360,000 - $420,000 per team per season) and letting the reserve squads play games in the same arena before the regular teams play. They might consider letting two players on the regular roster who ordinarily don’t get much playing time play up to half of the reserve squad’s game.
For those of us with daughters and granddaughters, especially for those of us who graduated from college before Title IX went into effect in 1972, it's nice that there's a WNBA around 50 years later, but it seems sad to me my granddaughter might have to be spending hours a day at a driving range or working on her backhand or practicing free kicks and throw-ins if she'd like to pursue a professional career in sports when she might prefer to be working on her dribbling, three-point shooting and free-throw shooting. (I'll be reminding her that, like that NCAA ad says, it's still pretty good to "turn pro in something other than sports.")
April 11th, 2022 at 11:45 PM ^
Welcome to the WNBA, Naz; enjoy your time there and then come back to coach at Michigan.
[And during your long career in the WNBA, use your leadership skills to guide the WNBA players union to: (1) merge with the NBAPA, (2) then bargain jointly with the NBA for parity for WNBA players. It is not an impossibility if the goal is realized incrementally while the audience for women's basketball continues to develop at the high school, college and pro levels.]
April 12th, 2022 at 12:34 AM ^
Can someone explain to me why ESPN was knocking Naz as "undersized" when shes as tall or taller than the other 2 Power Forwards that went ahead of her in the draft? No size comments on those two. I agree I would not want to bet against Naz..
Good luck to the Indiana Fever who picked up both PFs, hope Naz puts 50 up on them.
April 12th, 2022 at 10:55 AM ^
I speculate teams are unsure of how Naz's game translates to the next level, not to mention Michigan's WBB program itself is sort of an unknown to the pros. Bear in mind the WNBA doesn't have the NBA's resources in terms of scouting or roster spots, so I can understand being conservative here.
This is just what I found from a few minutes of Google, but the WNBA seems to have some extreme height disparity. There are enough women 6'4" or taller that every roster can have at least one, but because they're such slim pickings, most aren't setting the frontcourt on fire.
As far as players that would tower over Naz, they exist, but it seems the WNBA is kind of analogous to the 1990s NBA when a good percentage of the world's 7-footers were on contract, yet even a championship contender had to make do with an aging Bill Cartwright and could reliably beat a Patrick Ewing anyway.
Naz is definitely going to struggle against some of them, especially on defense, but I'll bet she has the finishing ability to score around a giant statue. She can't stretch the floor, of course, but she can be Charles Barkley.
Barkley is a good comparison, definitely see a lot of similarities in their game
Gratz, Naz!
Time to show some managerial folks they were wrong not to select you!
Go Blue!
Go Atlanta!
April 12th, 2022 at 11:12 AM ^
Welcome to the ATL, Naz!
I had drinks with a few WNBA players at a hotel bar a decade ago--a friend and I started chatting with one of them and a few others came to join us and stayed for an hour or so. I asked how the WNBA was and they all pretty much said they were broke and they tried to keep up some side gigs to make ends meet. Didn't sound like they were complaining, just acknowledging a truth.
Also knew someone that had a cup of coffee in the MLS around the same time...he left on his own to start his career and felt that if you were an average guy on the team, it was tough to scrape by (obviously the high-end guys do okay).
Ignore the ESPN take that she is too short. The Athletic did her justice. Paywalled so I'll quote it in short.
"In a league as notoriously difficult to remain in as the WNBA, it isn’t very often that second-round draft picks make rosters. But Michigan’s Naz Hillmon, who was picked at No. 15 by Atlanta, has a shot."
"When asked about falling to the No. 15 spot, Hillmon said, “Being disappointed in this moment is neglectful to the people who didn’t get picked up by a team at all tonight.” But ultimately by falling, she ended up going to a team that actually has the cap space to keep and develop her."
Her new GM also called her "the steal of the draft".
If you looked at mock drafts before the season, you often found Naz in the top 3-4 picks. So what changed?
https://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/player/_/id/4398915/naz-hillmon
Still great numbers this season, but down - reflective of double- and even triple-teams. Assists were back up, supporting the narrative.
So I can definitely agree with the narrative that she might be the steal of the draft in the sense that if you "adjust" to a player doing Naz things with constant double-teams, a WNBA roster has enough talent to destroy you elsewhere.
I don't watch any WNBA games, so I can't state this with any personal insight, but my sense from watching college games is that Naz can probably stick in the league, and even start. Which would make the pick a steal without question. That could be a Michigan-fan assessment, though.
It's hard to judge the gap between college and WNBA - you look at cases like Katelynn Flaherty and Tori Jankoska, who where about the best the Big Ten had to offer a few years ago. Jankoska was drafted in the first round, Flaherty got an invite to a camp undrafted. Neither ever played a game in the WNBA. So few teams, probably a very different game. So all I can do is wish Naz good fortune here.