France star Gabby Williams caught the eye of WNBA fans as they called for the power forward to return to the league after an impressive display in the women's basketball final at the Paris Olympics .
The American-born ace was the standout performer for Les Blues as they agonizingly missed out on gold as they fell to defeat against the United States. The 27-year-old put in a virtuoso display as she tallied up 19 points, seven rebounds, three assists and three steals in a closely fought 67-66 thriller.
Proceedings had been level at half-time but Team USA seized the advantage in the third and fourth quarters to earn the top prize for the eighth consecutive time. However, the efforts of Williams, who was reduced to tears as France settled for silver by a single point, did not go unnoticed among fans and her peers.
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Following on from the gold medal game, one fan was hoping to see the former Chicago Sky and Seattle Storm star return to the WNBA, saying: "Okay can someone explain why isn’t Gabby Williams in the WNBA?," while another said: "Gabby Williams was fantastic. Get her back to the WNBA!"
However, one seemingly disgruntled enthusiast said: Do people wondering why Gabby Williams isn't in the WNBA or (even funnier) wondering why the WNBA didn't pick her up (note, she was 4th overall 1st round pick for WNBA in 2018, UConn star, played for the Sky and Storm) NOT THINK ABOUT GOOGLING BEFORE TYPING?
Previously, Williams has admitted her frustrations at the WNBA prioritization rule when fielding questions about a return, saying: I still think the prioritization thing is ridiculous. I’m sorry, I’ll say it. Like literally, I’m only here because I got concussed. Something has to give. France needs to have shorter seasons, or the WNBA needs to (allow players) to make money and do both. And no, this doesn’t give me any hope that I can do both."
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Meanwhile, Seattle General Manager Talisa Rhea has admitted to being open to bringing her back to the WNBA in the future, saying "We'll definitely have conversations with Gabby when we can. As we saw this year, things can happen, so I don't know if it's definitive. We love having Gabby here. She was great while she was here, so hopefully we can continue those conversations."
For now, it was clear that Williams had earned the respect of her opponents including A'ja Wilson, who spoke in glowing terms about her showing in the Olympics final. She said: "Gabby hit some great shots down the end, tough shots.
"We understood what we had in our locker room and leaning on each other and talking to one another and believing that we believed in each other and that's the greatest thing about it."
The Team USA superstar added: "We were just resilient in what we needed to do,” Wilson said. “We kept going, bucket for bucket. That’s great basketball and that is what people want to see. Our defense kind of settled in and we got stops and we started feeling it together."
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