How Sabrina Ionescu and Ruthy Hebard Invented Basketball

A WNBA Draft Preview/love letter to the pick-and-roll.

There’s a serious chance that Sabrina and Ruthy could reunite the WNBA.

Sabrina Ionescu has already spent the last two years as the odds-on favorite to go number one overall in Friday’s WNBA Draft (4 PM PST, ESPN).

If she had declared for the draft last year, she would have ended up as a member of the Las Vegas Aces. But, as we know, Ionescu opted to return for a historic senior season at Oregon.

Instead of rolling dice in Vegas, Ionescu now looks to join the New York Liberty, who share the sleek Barclays Center with the KD and Kyrie’s Nets.

First of all, what another genius move by the GOAT.

Not only did she give herself and the Oregon Ducks a chance to win the national title—something so imminent that only a global pandemic could put a stop to it—but she also managed to upgrade her post-grad living situation by a million.

No offense the great state of Nevada, but you’re telling me that a twentysomething college grad (and one with a Masters in Advertising and Brand Responsibility) wouldn’t rather move to Brooklyn?

Like I said, genius.

But beyond avoiding the temptation of the slots and suburbs of the greater Las Vegas Metropolitan Area, the decision to come back for another year may pay even greater dividends in the form of getting to take her greatest creative partner along with her.

Ruthy Hebard, one half of the famed Sabrina-Ruthy-pick-and-roll, is also projected to be a top-fifteen pick on Friday. And if you ask me, or Sabrina, or literally anyone that’s ever watched Hebard play basketball, she has actually been criminally undervalued by online mock drafts and “experts” alike.

But on Wednesday, the NY Liberty decided to drop a bombshell into the sports-hungry news cycle when they traded 2012 WNBA MVP Tina Charles to the Washington Mystics as a part of a larger trade that ended up giving NY the Nos. 9, 12, and 15 overall picks to go along with their top overall selection.

As of this trade, ESPN’s Mock Draft has been updated to move Hebard from the 11th pick, up to New York’s 9th, fulfilling a dream of all basketball purists and fans of the pick-and-roll everywhere by reuniting her with Sabrina.

The two legends came into the University of Oregon together in 2016, raised the program into preeminence, and now there’s a chance they could keep the magic going, and Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass?

Their unfinished business could still be finished yet.

This kind of convergence of the draft fortunes is unprecedented. It’d be like if Zion and RJ Barrett somehow ended up on the same team. Or even more historic, a Luke reunion between Ridnour and Jackson. But even the “experts” can’t help but get excited about the prospect of a professional powerhouse duo like Sabrina and Ruthy.

Satou Sabally, the German Swiss-army-knife/third prong to the Oregon Big Three, is also projected to go second overall to the Dallas Stars, who also have the the 5th and 7th picks.

Is there an outside chance that Dallas shocks the world by snagging Ruthy at either of those spots, usurping New York’s attempts to grab a double dose of Eugene?

It seems less likely, but maybe all this last-minute Ruthy publicity could finally wake up all of the teams with higher picks as to how much they had initially overlooked Oregon’s second all-time leading scorer.

I won’t pretend to be a total expert on the WNBA Draft, but I absolutely will pretend to be an expert on the perfection of The Sabrina/Ruthy combo.

Any team with picks 3-8 has a chance to add Ruthy to their roster, and also prevent her and Sabrina from dominating the entire league. But I can’t say I’m not excited at the idea that those teams will all keep overlooking Hebard, and opening it up for the crossover event of the century.

The Big Two in The Big Apple.

No matter how it all shakes out on Friday, one thing is clear:

The Ducks are taking over.

And anybody that passes on Ruthy will come to regret it.

Go Ducks.