Greatest Basketball Player You've Never Heard Of.....

This is the draft board for the 2001 wnba draft, the name of the 2001 wnba rookie of the year is on this board on your screen right now, do you know who it was? You could guess she was Lauren Jackson, I mean she's a hall of famer. three-time MVP, two-time champion, but no, she had a great rookie year, but she finished second in rookie of the year voting in 2001. Okay, okay, well, it had to be Tamika Catching, right champion, final MVP , 10-time All-Star, well, no. he couldn't play in 2001 and won rookie of the year the following season in 2002.

Okay, so it had to be Penny Taylor, three-time champion, three-time All-Star, no, these are all big guesses, but they're all there. wrong the 2001 wnba rookie of the year was the number four overall pick by the portland firefighters jackie stiles this girl from a small town in rural kansas dazzled in the ncaa and wnba tournament in the same calendar year and she is probably the best

basketball

player

that ever lived i have

never

heard

of jackie she is from a small town called claflin kansas which at the time had a population of only 700 people the high school she played for claflin high school only had 97 students in total, but this small town rallied around its local sports stars and No star shone brighter in the mid-90s than Jackie Styles.

She was such an attraction that she had people lining up around the block to see her play in her high school games. Why are you here to see Jackie's house? Oh, she's the best baseball

player

in the state of Kansas, she's the best baseball player in the United States, we had some people applauding around nine o'clock, lining up with their tents and chairs and having a good time, well, the The last guy was his dad and also the school's athletic director, but don't lie, people were camping outside to make sure they had a seat in this little gym to watch Jackie play

basketball

and for good reason, Jackie was getting buckets with an average of 46.4 points per game with 8 rebounds and 7 assists, that is, almost a 40-point triple. double in high school, once scored 71 points in a single game, which is a Kansas high school state record that stands to this day during his junior year, once scored 61 points in 17 minutes of first game of the season, which is an average of almost four points per minute during that 17-minute stretch, do you understand how crazy that is?

Teams only average about two or three possessions per minute, so to average four points per minute you literally have to take almost every shot and not miss at any point during it. Jackie's sophomore season suffered a fracture in his dominant wrist, switched to shooting left-handed and still averaged 20 points per game, so you can see why the good folks at Claflin lined up around the block to take a look at this dominant high school. athlete, but why was Jackie so good? If you ask her or her coaches, they'll tell you it was because of an insane work ethic.

Listen to this clip of young Jackie talking about her daily workout. She looks like she passed it. You know every part of my free time in the gym, you know, during the season I do a thousand shots, probably twice a week, you know, if I don't do a thousand shots, I have a 45-minute workout that I do every day, you know, like before a match. I work out and then on game day I come in the morning and shoot 115 shots, so it's pretty much every day, you know I'm in the gym working out. That's a 16-year-old girl describing an exercise routine. which rivals the most intense regiment of a professional athlete, this fueled his legendary high school career, but if we are honest, this is nothing special, the pages of basketball history are filled with stories of talented athletes who were able to dominate in his small town.

Gym, the real test would be whether Jackie could translate this success to the next level when it came time to choose a college. Obviously, Jackie was heavily recruited by D1 programs and was on the verge of committing to Uconn, but she ultimately decided to go to southwest Missouri. smallest show just six hours from her hometown they made it to the final four in 1992 and had apparently been scouting Jackie since she was in fifth grade. This scouting work paid off as Jackie had fans filling the gym in Missouri just as he did at Claflin in In the early 1990s, attendance at Missouri State games hovered around 5,000 fans a night, while Jackie was there from 1997 to 2001, the Lady Bears drew an average of about 8,000 fans a night, including six crowds that filled the 11,000-seat jqh stadium during her career.

At Missouri State, Jackie averaged over 20 points per game each season, totaling 3,393 points over the course of her college career to set an NCAA scoring record that stood for 17 years and was recently surpassed by Kelsey Plum. . This offensive volume was reinforced with an average of 30.3 points. during his senior season and it was during this senior season that the national basketball world got a taste of what made jackie a legend among midwestern fans during the 2001 season, the bears won the mississippi valley conference championship and they punched their ticket to the ncaa tournament in the west regional group they made quick work of toledo in the first round and won a close second round game against rutgers to set up a showdown against the number one blue dukes in this duke team was future two-time wnba defensive player of the year Elena Beard, who at the time was a freshman averaging 17 points and four steals per game, Elena Beard was tasked with guarding Jackie Styles in this game and she was trying her best, but Jackie was more experienced and it was too much for the freshman to handle.

Jackie took control in the second half of the game and scored a total of 41 points to propel the Bears to a convincing eight-point victory, successfully pulling off the first-place upset and advancing to the elite eight that were their opponents in the elite eight. The Washington Huskies who had just pulled off their own upset over second seed Oklahoma before the showdown of the Cinderella hopefuls was destined to throw one of them into the final four. The Huskies were outclassed early with SMS comfortably holding leads of over 15 points during the first half. Jackie was having a good night shooting, but she was also getting into early foul trouble that limited her minutes with Jackie on the bench.

Washington managed to run and close out the game in the second half despite the limitations. minutes and ultimately fouled out of the game, Jackie managed to score 32 points and help the Bears pull away to a dominant 104-87 victory over Washington to advance to the final four for the first time in nearly a decade in the final four. They faced Purdue, a dominant team that had won it all just two years earlier and had loaded up this season with one of the best recruiting classes in the country. Jackie got off to a good start scoring seven points in the first three and a half minutes of action, but he struggled. quickly focused on her defensively to limit her production, she finished the game with 22 points, but in the end it was not enough to overcome purdue's power, the game was

never

really close and sms suffered a heartbreaking 81-64 loss and That was how their magical journey to the final four was over and so was the college career of Jackie Stiles, who was able to shine brighter on the biggest stage and emerge as one of the most prolific scorers in NBA history despite of not achieving a national championship. helped raise Jackie's profile when she became a national phenomenon during that year's tournament, winning the Wade Trophy and the Broderick Cup, two awards that highlight the season's best female collegiate athletes, just as she became a must-see attraction in his high school's small gym. in clathlan jackie had to watch tv during march madness and was ready to become a star in the wnba. the portland fire had just finished a 10-22 season in their expansion year and were looking to make a big jump in year two as the The rest of the nation saw the spark that Jackie provided to the state of Missouri and wanted her to provide that jolt of energy to the team and the fans in Portland, so they used their number four overall draft pick to select Jackie, fulfilling her dream of becoming a professional athlete. a reality jackie's rookie year for the portland fire was outstanding leading the team in scoring with 15 points per game scoring 53 points on the season at a 43.1 percent rate from beyond the arc to put jackie's rookie year For perspective, this graph compares points per game and true shooting percentage from some standout rookie seasons throughout WNBA history.

Here's the three-time WNBA Swin Cash Champion's 2002 rookie season to here. averaging 17 points per game during her rookie year of 2004 she is the wnba's all-time points leader diana taurasi here is another rookie from 2002, a four-time wnba champion and all-time assists leader , Sue Bird, and not far behind her, averaging 15 points and 53 true shots, is Jackie Styles during her 2001 Rookie of the Year campaign, so I guess the question. is what happened, why are the other women in this storyline multiple wnba champions and legends and yet i call jackie stiles a player you've never

heard

of? Unfortunately, after his rookie year, Jackie suffered numerous injuries that ultimately required 13 surgeries during the next few years, his playing time was limited in 2002, appearing in only 21 games for Portland averaging approximately 18 minutes per night. .

Despite her limited playing time, the Fire had the best season in their short history going 16-16 and just missing out on a playoff berth. In the crowded Western Conference, despite this trend toward success, the team eventually folded after the 2002 season. Jackie was picked up by the La Sparks, but was never able to suit up for them due to rehabbing from her surgeries and that was essentially the end of his professional basketball. career Despite the abrupt and disappointing end to her professional career, Jackie is doing well these days. She is a professional coach who helps athletes take their game to the next level and runs basketball camps for girls to help them discover work ethic and love for the game.

That fueled her own success. Jackie may not have had a long professional career or years of accomplishments in the wnba like some of her peers, but her performance in college is still one of the best we've seen. Her rookie of the year season suggests she was on a trajectory to become an impactful wnba player, making her injury-free career a very intriguing scenario and all of this together makes her a legend in her own right and one of the best basketball players we have seen. I was so happy that I was able to get mostly a healthy year in the league and that showed that you know I can play at that level and I told my second grade teacher that I wanted to play professional basketball when I grew up so I could experience that.

Dream, you know, even though it was a short-lived experience, you know, it was very rewarding to be able to say hello, I played in the wnba.