Now it’s time to introduce one of the most accomplished point guards in WNBA history, Courtney Vandersloot. Courtney was born on February 8, 1989, in Kent, Washington where she grew into an elite high school basketball player at Kentwood High School. She would establish herself as a force to be reckoned with by earning numerous accolades, including a state championship and a Washington State Player of the Year award.
After high school, Vandersloot decided to attend Gonzaga University. As the orchestrator of the Gonzaga Bulldogs from 2007 to 2011, she engineered a high-powered offense that ended up making the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament during her senior year. Vandersloot made history at Gonzaga by becoming the first player, male or female, in NCAA Division I history to record 2,000 points and 1,000 assists in a career. She was a three-time West Coast Conference Player of the Year and a three-time All-American. In 2011, she won the prestigious Nancy Lieberman Award, given to the nation’s top point guard, and was even a finalist for the Naismith Award.
Courtney Vandersloot’s decorated game and resume in college got her selected third overall by the Chicago Sky in the 2011 WNBA Draft. Throughout the course of her WNBA career, she has been renowned for her court vision, passing ability, and leadership. Not many point guards can read and control the game like Vandersloot. She has led the league in assists multiple times, she even set the WNBA single-season record for assists per game in 2019 with 9.1. She has consistently been at the top of the league in distributing the ball, surpassing the 2,000 career assists milestone in 2020, making her one of the top assist leaders in WNBA history and along with that milestone, she’s the all-time WNBA playoff assists leader. Vandersloot’s career reached its pinnacle in 2021, when she helped lead the Chicago Sky to their first-ever WNBA Championship. Her playoff performances, including a historic triple-double in the semifinals, were instrumental to the team’s success. She earned All-WNBA honors and was named to the WNBA All-Star team several times throughout her career. This 5x all-star is now a backcourt running mate with the great Sabrina Ionescu on the New York Liberty. They recently went to a 5 game series with the Minnesota Lynx eventually earning the 2024 Championship Title. Vandersloot will be effective in this Unrivaled League due to her elite poise, vision, and distributing. She can run an offense to the best of its ability by creating open looks for others and since there’s only 3 defenders on the court at one time she can see the floor and facilitate easier.
