I donāt know if you knew it, but in any case I just remembered that Marineās very first match in the WNBA was against the Chicago Sky... and she scored 10 points in 16 minutes.
First time that she and Gabby really met š
yesss, i knew this and i love it ngl š„¹ i love it so much iām actually going to yap about it a bit!! (iām a bit of a hopeless romantic and i love examples of an āinvisible stringā in relationships š„°)
marine first entered the 2017 wnba draft, but went undrafted. she was signed to the liberty in 2019 thanks to having a great 2018-2019 euroleague season with tango bourges basket! i absolutely recommend watching this highlight reel:
she averaged 15.1 ppg, which made her the 8th best in the league and the only non-american player in the top 10. she was also 9th best for assists, averaging 4.7 apg!
however, 2019 was a eurobasket year, so she didnāt get to join the liberty until july. luckily, she was playing in eurobasket with her future liberty teammate bria hartley. (note: bria hartley tearing her ACL in 2020 is part of the reason why gabby gets to play on the french national team for the first time in 2021)
france lost to spain in the eurobasket final on july 7th, 2019 in belgrade, serbia (fun fact: marta xargay was the top scorer in the final š). 5 days later, marine was in chicago for her very first wnba game!
at this point, gabby is about halfway through her second wnba season with chicago. this is the year where sheās being a backup point guard and also plugging all the holes in the roster when needed. (we know now that she felt really lost in this period of her career, but at the time she seemed like she was just vibing)
new york was returning four or five players from eurobasket, so they were definitely finding their footing through the start of the game. marine and gabby came off the bench at the same time towards the end of the first quarter:
then marine promptly makes her first wnba bucket!! (she and gabby cross paths in transition afterwards)
gabby also has a HUGEEE moment in this game, she does this crazy buzzer-beater alley-oop off of an inbound to end the first half??? (itās been 6 years and i still think about this play š)
hereās another angle just for fun:
we also got a very nice photo of the moment. thank you chicago sky media for occasionally slaying
marine gets more playing time in the second half and even though the liberty loses, she has a great wnba debut! she scores 10 points in only 16 minutes on the court (as anon pointed out) and she has 3 assists:
(gabby has a solid game as wellā5 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists in 18 minutes)
after the game, marine takes a "french connection" picture with sky assistant coach yoann cabioc'h and head coach james wade! (for context, yoann is french and james is married to edwige lawson, a former french basketball star)
not super important, but a wholesome tidbit: yoann posts this picture on instagram and twitter with really sweet captions š„¹
Great win tonight against the NY Liberty! āļøš But above all, congratulations to you Marine for your debut in the WNBA. A great career awaits you there!!!
later, yoann would become the assistant coach for ldlc asvel fƩminin while gabby and marine are playing there :)
i think that covers everything i could've possibly said about this game, LOL. and look how far they've come since then š„¹ i love them sm!
romaincrisis
gummygunk
jacobvanloon
kaledo-art
dededos
janainaart
discoholicmusic
