Will the Dallas Wings regret not taking Olivia Miles first overall?
Yahoo Sports Daily hosts Caroline Fenton and Jason Fitz discuss Olivia Miles recent comments about being selected 2nd overall in the WNBA draft. Will the Dallas Wings regret skipping her with the 1st overall pick? Watch the full episode of Yahoo Sports Daily on YouTube or YahooSports.TV .
Video Transcript
Olivia Miles is a competitor, and it- when you're a competitor, you want to be the best at everything.
You wanna be number one at everything.
So I don't think that that was Olivia Miles throwing shade.
I don't think that that was Olivia Miles, you know, trying to pump her chest or anything.
I think that was just Olivia Miles being a competitor.
I think that we all can kind of relate to that, and I kind of appreciate that mindset, that chip on your shoulder, that sometimes you just have to manufacture your own bulletin board material.
Michael Jordan did it.
Tom Brady did it.
Nick Saban did it.
I'm not saying Olivia Miles is Michael Jordan, but the greats do that kind of thing.
They find motivation and maybe even manufacture motivation wherever they can find it.
So no issue with Olivia Miles saying that.
But look, we have this kind of revisionist history conversation all the time.
It's not just with Olivia Miles going number one overall.
We have this conversation all the time.
Let's remember, Josh Allen didn't go number one overall in his draft.
Patrick Mahomes didn't go number one overall in his draft.
So this happens a lot.
But I've had the conversation before with Let's just use Patrick Mahomes as the example.
If Patrick Mahomes was not drafted to a team with Andy Reid, where he got to sit the bench behind Alex Smith, would he have become Patrick Mahomes?
Maybe, but also maybe not.
We won't know the answer to that question because that is what happened.
I can say the same thing about Olivia Miles.
If Olivia Miles was drafted by Dallas, a team that hasn't made the postseason in four years, they will this year.
They're kind of, you know, they're breaking that drought.
If Olivia Miles was drafted to Dallas that just fired their coach with a brand-new head coach and a team that was trying to kind of redefine and rediscover its identity, would she still be having the season that she's having now with Minnesota?
That is not me diminishing Olivia Miles' greatness.
That is not me questioning her sheer and utter talent.
But Cheryl Reeve is one of the best and most well-respected head coaches in all of the WNBA.
You can't tell me that that doesn't matter in Olivia Miles' story.
You know, the Minnesota has so much talent around Olivia Miles.
Dallas has a lot of talent too, but, you know, Minnesota was this championship contending team without a true point guard, so Olivia Miles was able to step in that role so seamlessly.
Whereas Dallas has a pretty good point guard.
Ever heard of her?
Her name's Paige Bueckers, that Dallas just took number one overall the year prior.
So, a- and, and Dallas just doesn't have the same kind of skins on the wall and winning DNA, winning formula that Minnesota has.
Remember, I just said Dallas has been missing out on the postseason the last couple of years.
Minnesota was in the WNBA finals two years ago and probably could have gotten back there if Napheesa Collier didn't get hurt during the postseason.
So we can say all day long, if you just wanna look at it surface level, Olivia Miles having a Rookie of the Year MVP caliber type of season where Azzi Fudd is now watching from the bench because she's been banged up and dealing with knee soreness.
If you just wanna look at that on the surface, then yeah, you could say Olivia Miles should have gone number one overall.
But let's have some critical thinking in here, people.
Like, let's pull the layers back a little bit and maybe explain why is it that Olivia Miles is having such a great season.
It's because she's great.
It's because she's talented.
It's because she has sheer and raw talent.
But also, look at the pieces around her.
Young players, a lot of times, are largely, or at least in some sort of portion, a, a result of the ecosystem around them
