Which EDD games do you suggest for a beginner like me?
I’m planning to watch 2018 final games because EDDs in them and I’m little bit obsessed with the masked bird (sue with mask, to me, is like: time to kill some people)
The Bird Mask is so Powerful!!!
Oh EDD... she's like if Lauren Jackson were more deadly with an even shorter career. If all of Lauren's talent was condensed into half as many seasons, that would be Elena.
In 2008, Elena famously ran away from UConn after 2 days on campus. She was much happier playing close to home at the University of Delaware.
In 2013, Phoenix drafted BG and Chicago drafted EDD. And a year later, they met in the finals. Phoenix was deadly that year. But it's still worth it to watch Elena getting through the playoffs to the finals.
Quarterfinal: Dream vs. Sky
Semifinal: Sky vs. Fever
game 1, game 2
Final: Mercury vs. Sky
Elena came back from that brutal finals loss with a lot of fire. A few weeks into the 2015 season, everyone already knew she'd be the 2015 MVP. She was killing teams in record-breaking style... like in this game where she drops 45 on Atlanta. But her incredible 2015 season ended in a quarterfinals loss to Indiana.
In 2016, Elena achieves her lifelong dream of joining the US national team. And what better way to celebrate that than an exhibition at her alma mater University of Delaware? And of course, watching Elena win her gold medal is essential.
Back in Chicago, she makes it to the semifinals but loses to LA.
Elena wants a ring and Chicago can't get her one. In 2017, she leaves for Washington DC to play with Coach Thibault, Kristi Toliver, and Emma Meesseman. A whole new team, a whole new flavor, and Elena doing what she does best. They have a dramatic road to the semifinals... but Minnesota sweeps them because Sylvia Fowles is having that kind of year.
round 1: Mystics vs. Wings
round 2: Mystics vs. Liberty
Semifinals: Mystics vs. Lynx
game 1, game 2, game 3
2018... the hunt for a ring continues. Elena is incredible as always in the regular season. But it's all about the playoffs...
round 2: Mystics vs. Sparks
Semifinals: Mystics vs. Dream
game 1, game 2, game 3, game 4, game 5
Finals: Mystics vs. Storm
game 1, game 2, game 3
After that brutal sweep, it's time to put aside her finals woes, put on the USA jersey, and win FIBA world championship gold.
Quarterfinal, Semifinal, Final
Now EDD's been swept twice in the finals. Her back is injured. She has a choice to make: play in 2019 and recover later, or recover in 2019 and play later. She knows the Mystics are a championship team. She knows she can get the franchise their first championship. If she waits, the roster will change and the chemistry will be gone. So she plays. She dominates. Her 2018 tormenters Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart are sitting out the season with injuries of their own. EDD keeps her injury status quiet, steps onto the court, and makes an MVP statement.
Top EDD games from the 2019 regular season:
Mystics @ Aces
Mystics @ Dream
Mystics @ Sky
Mystics @ Fever
Mercury @ Mystics
Mystics @ Storm
Fever @ Mystics
Mystics @ Wings
Mystics @ Liberty
Sky @ Mystics
2019 Playoffs:
Semifinals: Aces vs. Mystics
game 1, game 2, game 3, game 4
Finals: Sun vs. Mystics
game 1, game 2, game 3, game 4, game 5
Also, I highly recommend this podcast about Elena's journey
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Sues always been like that though. So much of her game is the intangibles - people just can't be bothered to see that while she might not be bumping up the stats her game is still vital. I remember last year in the finals she had the storm shooting like 75% on her passes - but that's not looked at much. Not to mention things like win shares etc. Theres a reason shes one of the best PGs in the game. Its not just her stats
The most annoying basketball fans are the stat-obsessed fans.
Some of the most important things in basketball don't show up on the stat sheet. Court leadership, floor vision, and communication are the big ones. But also effecting shots, winning 50/50 possessions, saving possessions from going out of bounds, screening, blocking out, clean outlet passing. There's a lot of ways to be great on the court and stats only tell 10% of the story.
But if we want to talk stats, Sue's stats are elite and intimidating for a point guard. She has the best assist/turnover ratio. Her scoring is incredibly consistent. She's averaged 12-16 pts/game for 18 seasons. She averaged 15 points her rookie season and 15 points in 2020. She's an offensive threat, but she's not just chucking shit up there. She shot 50% in 2020 which is insane. On a WNBA team, she's always the third scoring option on the roster. On the national team, she's more like the 7th scoring option. Her role is very different on an all-star team like that.
Sue was the national team's floor coach. Her knowledge of international basketball is probably only matched by DT. But Sue's entire career at the 1 gives her that point guard perspective on it. DT plays a very different role as a 1/2/3/4 or whatever her position is she made up for herself lol.
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I’m listening to the 30 for 30 podcast episode on Sue and Diana’s time at Spartak and… holy shit… how do more people not know about this? It’s just the craziest story I’ve heard. Also, just chills when Diana was talking about playing that euroleague finals game after the murder
That 30 for 30 is what got me digging into 2006-2011. Everything they share in that episode seems incredible and unreal. But that's only the 10% that they're comfortable with sharing.
Diana and Lauren's relationship lived and died with Spartak, or vice versa. Lauren signed a three year contract with a Korean team for the 2006-07 season. Then, a few months later, she announced she'd be playing a month in Spartak after the Korean season ended. Then Shabtai bought her out of the Korean contract and signed her to Spartak for two more years.
So Lauren was there with them from the start.
2009 was one of the most competitive seasons in WNBA history. Every team was championship-ready. Every star was in their prime. And at the top of that fierce competition was Diana Taurasi. She earned a DUI, league MVP, WNBA championship, and finals MVP. Her relationship with Lauren was getting impossible. Her scoring twin Cappie Pondexter didn't want to carry on the Phoenix dynasty they built together. Everything was falling apart. After winning the championship and serving her jail sentence, Diana arrived in Moscow alone. Shabtai was paying Sue and Lauren to stay home and recover from injuries. They were going to join Diana in Moscow in December.
But even through all that, she was still Diana. She still brought that positive bright energy to her Spartak teammates. This was how Spartak welcomed her the second she was in town. This was about three weeks before Shabtai's assassination.
Shabtai was planning to buy the Phoenix Mercury out from under Robert Sarver. That would've changed the landscape of women's basketball forever. We'd be watching the WNBA play in the winter with million dollar contracts, national TV deals, and charter jets.
It still freaks me out that Shabtai was on the way to pick them up for a concert. He was like 20 minutes away from where they were. If traffic wasn't so bad in Moscow that day, Diana might've been in the car with him.
After Shabtai's funeral, Sue returned to the states. She couldn't make a commitment to the dying Spartak club surrounded by violence. Lauren stayed for a few weeks before signing with an Australian team. The three of them had lived together in that Moscow house for years. Now, Diana was alone. Her father figure had just been assassinated in the car she rode in every day. She saw the crime scene and everything. Her first long-term relationship was over. And her ride-or-die best friend got spooked by how literal the "or die" part was.
And somehow Diana led the team through that shit storm. Eventually, she was able to convince Sue to return to Moscow, and they finished that traumatic season together. They won Euroleague and then lost the Russian league championships to UMMC. Russian league games restrict the number of foreign players on the court. Spartak had the best foreign players but UMMC always had the better Russians. They gave out silver medals to the Russian league runner-ups which was a bit cruel. Diana had a few words for the Russian league commissioner @3:00
The Russian league were making their rules about foreign players even stricter for the 2010-11 season. They used to allow six non-Russians on rosters. They changed it to only allow 2 non-Russians. Lauren Jackson had already committed to return to Spartak the next season. Even if Lauren and Dee could somehow mend things, it wouldn't matter. Lauren, Dee, and Sue could no longer play together at Spartak.
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