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Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe have segued from their careers as professional athletes into the podcasting world to discuss the state of women’s sports in the United States.
On Thursday’s episode of A Touch More, the two dove into the Unrivaled’s 1-on-1 tournament, which has a $200,000 prize for the winner.
Bird drew attention to the performance of Skylar Diggins-Smith. She pointed out how the 5-foot-9 Seattle Storm guard approached her matchup against the 6-foot-3 Dearica Hamby.
“It’s like size vs strategy,” Bird said. “With strategy, the person who definitely thought about it was Skylar Diggins-Smith. She was clearly like, ‘I’m playing against a player who has size and maybe even some strength on me, so what can I do to limit her ability to back me down and take me to the rim?’ It was to foul. I loved her strategy. I thought she was super smart. It won her the game.”
Diggins-Smith, who is in the middle of a two-year, $422,685 contract with the Seattle Storm, committed three fouls on Hamby en route to an 11-3 win. However, she crashed out in the next round, losing 12-8 to Arike Ogunbowale.
Ogunbowale is the favorite to win the tournament heading into her semifinal against Aaliyah Edwards.
Sue Bird is surprised at the chaos of the 1-on-1 tournament so far
Sue Bird went on to talk about Breanna Stewart’s shocking loss to Aaliyah Edwards in the first round. Stewart was the top seed and the favorite to win the tournament. However, she was blown out 12-0.
Bird called the shutout “surprising” but pointed out that because of injuries to players that resulted in a decent number backing out of the 1-on-1 tournament, the matchup between Stewart and Edwards came a bit prematurely.
She also questioned whether the league should have named backups to step in in such a scenario.
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Edited by Zachary Howell
