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Message: [QUOTE="psconn, post: 2587081, member: 293"] [COLOR=#0059b3]But it isn't. Look at a clip of Bird passing... touch passes, over the head, behind the back, between the legs, no looks - that's not Gabby at all. How about great UConn post passers like McClaren and Dolson? How about Alyssa Thomas in the W? You want to really stretch the point, how about great passing guards like Sue Bird and Ticha Penicheiro?[/COLOR] [COLOR=#006600]Any time a ball is passed to a moving player, it must be directed to a point that the receiving player does not yet occupy at the time the pass was thrown. Its just physics and everyone has to do this to complete a pass to a moving target. What makes some players more successful is the vision and timing (developed over countless hours of practice) to execute the pass with precision in a crowd. Gabby is pretty good at that, but (I haven't studied the stats yet) I'd guess that all the women I mentioned are better (Gabby leads the team in assists, but also turnovers by a wide margin). Why bring Larry Bird into the conversation? [/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]I would guess that Azura aspires to be as good as Candace Parker or Jonquel Jones someday. Maybe she gets there, maybe not. She has a long way to go. What's the point of announcers comparing her to Kevin Durant? How ridiculous.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]The best Gabby comparison I have come up with is probably CT Sun All-Star Alyssa Thomas. Similarities: rebounding, pushing the ball up court, attacking the rim, making steals, guarding bigger players on D, weak outside shooting game, team leading assist and turnover counts (highest APG in the W among posts and 5th overall, but highest TO/G in the league... even so her A/T ratio is better than Gabby's). Gabby leads the team in steals - Alyssa was tied for the team lead. Their games are amazingly similar. [2017 stats for Alyssa; this season for Gabby] I get the general point the OP was making (Gabby completes some really good small-window passes and the one being discussed is a really good example) and I hope this post is not viewed as an attack on the OP or Gabby. I saw the OP's subsequent post and (despite to OP title) I know that he/she was not saying that Gabby is as good as Bird. It is not just this one post, it is the frequent references by announcers, reporters and posters to NBA players when looking for analogies for WBB players. I just want to point out that there are more appropriate comparisons for WCBB players IN THE WOMEN'S GAME and these great players deserve not to be overlooked when making comparisons. I do understand that folks outside of the women's game may not have the knowledge to relate to past WBB players as well as they can to iconic men's players, but the games are so different that making comparisons like that opens us up to the reality of the physical disparity between the two games. An NBA fan viewing WBB with these comparisons in mind is going to really be disappointed and may not stick around long enough to appreciate the competitive level at which the women's game is played. It invites the kind of mindless twitter comments I read disparaging WBB for not being as good as MBB (the W "like watching a bunch of kids in church league" compared to NBA). Head bang[/COLOR] [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach