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

this is the draft board from 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 might guess that it 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 catchings right champion finals mvp 10-time all-star well no she was unable to play in 2001 and went on to win rookie of the year the following season in 2002. okay well then it had to be penny taylor right three-time champion three-time all-star no all of these are great guesses but they're all wrong the 2001 wnba rookie of the year was the number four overall selection by the portland fire jackie stiles this small town girl from rural kansas dazzled the ncaa tournament and wnba in the same calendar year and is probably the greatest basketball player you've never heard of jackie 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 total students but this little town rallied around their local sports stars and no stars shined brighter in the mid 90s than jackie styles she was such an attraction that she had people lined up around the block to come watch her play in her high school games what are you here for to watch jackie's house oh she's the best player in the state of kansas she's the best ball player in the united states we had some clapping people about nine o'clock lined up with their tents and chairs and having a good time okay well that last guy was her dad and also the school's athletic director but he's not lying people were lined up camping outside to make sure they had a seat in this small gym to watch jackie play basketball and for good reason jackie was getting buckets averaging 46.4 points per game with 8 rebounds and 7 assists that's almost a 40 point triple double in high school she once scored 71 points in a single game which is a kansas high school state record that stands to this day during her junior year she once scored 61 points in 17 minutes of the opening game of the season that's an average of almost four points a minute during that 17 minute stretch do you understand how crazy that is teams only average about two or three possessions a minute so to average four points a minute you literally have to be taking almost every shot and not missing at one point during her sophomore season jackie suffered a broken bone in her dominant wrist switched to shooting with her left hand and still averaged 20 points a game so you can see why the good folks of claflin were lined up around the block to get a glimpse of this dominant high school athlete but why was jackie so good well if you ask her or her coaches they will tell you it was because of an insane work ethic listen to this clip of young jackie talking about her daily workout it seems like i spend you know every bit of my spare time in the gym you know i during the season i make a thousand shots probably twice a week you know if i don't make a thousand shots i have a 45 minute workout that i do um every day you know like before a game i have a workout and then the day of the game i come in the morning i shoot i make 115 shots so it's pretty much each and every day you know i'm in the gym working out that is a 16 year old girl describing a workout routine that rivals the most intense regiment of a pro athlete this fueled her legendary high school career but if we're being honest this is nothing too special the pages of basketball history are filled with stories of talented athletes who were able to dominate in their small town gym the real test would be if jackie could translate this success at the next level when it came time to pick a college jackie was obviously heavily recruited by d1 programs and came close to committing to uconn but she ultimately decided to go to southwest missouri state a smaller program only six hours from her hometown they went to the final four in 1992 and had apparently been scouting jackie since she was in the fifth grade this scouting work paid off as jackie had fans packing the gym in missouri just like she did in claflin in the early 90s 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 around 8 000 fans a night including six sellout crowds packing the 11 000 seat jqh arena during her career at missouri state jackie averaged over 20 points per game every season totaling 3 393 points over the course of her collegiate career to set an ncaa scoring record which stood for 17 years only recently being broken by kelsey plum this offensive volume was bolstered by averaging 30.3 points during her senior season and it was during this senior season that the national basketball world would get a taste of what made jackie a legend among fans in the midwest during the 2001 season the lady bears won the mississippi valley conference championship and punched their ticket to the ncaa tournament in the west regional bracket 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 seeded duke blue devils on 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 a game elena beard was tasked with defending jackie styles in this game and was trying her best but jackie was more experienced and too much for the freshman to handle jackie took over in the second half of the game scoring a total of 41 points to power the lady bears to a convincing eight-point win successfully pulling off the upset of the top seed and advancing to the elite eight their opponent in the elite eight were the washington huskies who were fresh off of pulling an upset of their own over the number two seed oklahoma sooners the match-up of cinderella hopefuls was destined to launch one of them into the final four the huskies were outclassed in the beginning with sms comfortably holding 15 plus point leads throughout the first half jackie was having a good shooting night but was also getting into early foul trouble that was limiting her minutes with jackie on the bench washington managed to make a run and get the game close in the second half despite limited minutes and eventually fouling out of the game jackie managed to put up 32 points and help the lady bears pull away to get a dominant 104-87 win over washington to advance to the final four for the first time in nearly a decade in the final four they matched up with purdue a dominant squad that won it all just two years prior and had reloaded this season with one of the top recruiting classes in the nation jackie started off hot scoring seven points in the first three and a half minutes of action but perdue quickly locked in on her defensively to limit her production she finished the game with 22 points but ultimately it wasn't enough to overcome the powerhouse of purdue the game was never really close and sms suffered a heartbreaking 81-64 loss and just like that their magical ride to the final four was over and so was the collegiate career of jackie stiles who was able to shine brightest on the biggest stage and go out as one of the most prolific scorers in ncaa history despite coming up short of a national championship the spotlight helped raise jackie's profile as she became a national phenomenon during the tournament that year she won the wade trophy and the broderick cup two awards highlighting the top collegiate women's athletes for the season just as she became a must-see attraction in her little high school gym in clathlan jackie was must see tv during march madness and was poised to become a star in the wnba the portland fire were just coming off of a 10-22 season in their expansion year and were looking to make a big leap in year two like the rest of the nation they saw the spark that jackie provided to missouri state and wanted her to provide that jolt of energy to the team and fans in portland so they used their number four overall draft pick to select jackie making her dream of becoming a pro athlete a reality jackie's rookie year for the portland fire was outstanding leading the team in scoring with 15 points a game making 53 pointers on the season at a rate of 43.1 percent from beyond the arc to put jackie's rookie year into perspective this plot compares points per game and true shooting percentage of some outstanding rookie seasons throughout wnba history right here is the 2002 rookie season of three-time wnba champion swin cash all the way up here averaging 17 points a game during her 2004 rookie year is all-time wnba points leader diana taurasi right here is another 2002 rookie four-time wnba champion and all-time assist leader sue bird and not too far away from her averaging 15 points on 53 true shooting is jackie styles during her 2001 rookie of the year campaign so i guess the question is what happened why are the other women on this plot multi-time wnba champions and legends and yet i'm calling jackie stiles a player you've never heard of well unfortunately after her rookie year jackie suffered numerous injuries ultimately requiring 13 surgeries over the next few years she was limited in her playing time in 2002 appearing in only 21 games for portland averaging about 18 minutes a night despite her limited playing time the fire had the best season of their short history going 16-16 and just missing a playoff spot in the stacked western conference despite this trend towards success the team ultimately folded after the 2002 season jackie was picked up by the la sparks but unable to ever suit up for them due to rehab from her surgeries and that was essentially the end of her pro basketball career despite the abrupt and disappointing end to her pro career jackie's doing just fine these days she's a professional trainer helping athletes take their game to the next level and she runs basketball camps for young girls to help them discover the work ethic and love for the game that fueled her own success jackie may not have had the long pro career and years of wnba accomplishments like some of her peers but her performance in college still stands as one of the best we have ever seen her rookie of the year season suggests she was on a trajectory to become an impactful wnba player making her career without the injuries a very intriguing if scenario and all of this together makes her a legend in her own right and one of the best basketball players we've ever seen i was so happy that i got for the most part one healthy year in the league and um it just showed that you know i i could play at that level and i told my second grade teacher i wanted to play professional basketball when i grew up so to be able to live out that dream you know even though it was a short lived experience you know it was just very gratifying to be able to say hey i did play in the wnba you

Channel: BenevolentHoops

Views: 363,580

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Id: rsxPWT9SXwM

Length: 12min 20sec (740 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 28 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/snap_wilson]

One of the most memorable College WBB performances I ever watched was Jackie Stiles and her SW Missouri State team knocking out Alana Beard and the first seed Duke Blue Devils in the 2001 NCAA tournament. The Blue Devils strategy was to knock the shit of her on every drive to the hoop, but she kept making them. 41 pts on 15 for 22 from the floor.

The full game is available (in potato quality) here.

https://youtu.be/law2AVckG2k

[u/Kingofmountain25304]

Damn that’s a sad story.

[u/landshark6]

That was incredible. Thank you for sharing.

[u/JordanJCaron]

Thank you so much for sharing this and thanks to the content creator!

[u/GoldLead3r]

Thank you for sharing that was really interesting.

[u/deborah_jai]

Born and raised in Springfield, we still worship Jackie here. Alas, what made her great also ended her. Rest is important kids.