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Imagine finding out you’re a WNBA All-Star not from your coach, your team, or even the league commissioner, but from a total stranger. That’s exactly what happened to Washington Mystics rookie Sonia Citron, in what might be one of the most bizarre All-Star announcements ever.
Citron has been lighting up the court in her debut season, earning her a well-deserved spot on an All-Star roster. But when the big moment came, it didn’t arrive with a call from WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert as expected. Instead, it came in the form of a random direct message from a player she’d never even spoken to.
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Citron recently appeared on Between The Lines with Lisa Leslie, where Leslie asked how she got the news.
“You know how usually Cathy [Engelbert] calls you and she lets you know? That was not the case for me,” said Citron.
It’s a twist that’s hard to believe. She explained that before her game against the Minnesota Lynx last week, she was casually checking her phone when she noticed Gabby Williams, a Seattle Storm forward she had never met, had followed and messaged her out of the blue.
“I was like, oh this is super random because—I’ve never met her, never talked to her.””She’s not just doing this out of nowhere,” Citron thought.
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Inside the message? A screenshot of a voicemail from the commissioner, meant for Citron, but mistakenly left on Williams’ phone. Along with the image, Williams wrote that Cathy had accidentally called her number, thinking it was Citron’s.
Williams was gracious and supportive: “I hope this isn’t how you found out, but congrats.”
Citron said she wasn’t quite sure what the message meant at first, but once she read the transcript of the voicemail, it hit her.
Her reaction? Pure disbelief.”I was like—is this true? What’s going on?”
But she was in the middle of her warm-up and didn’t have time to fully process it. Still, the moment stuck with her. After the game, she confirmed with the Mystics’ general manager that it was all true; she was officially an All-Star.
An unforgettable honor delivered in the most unexpected way. What a wild story for the rookie.
