CHELSEA GRAY DRIBBLES across half court at Indiana's Gainbridge Fieldhouse and angles toward Fever rookie Caitlin Clark . The Las Vegas Aces point guard prepares to spring her trap. Gray fakes to her right and dribbles behind her back to her left, creating separation from Clark on the wing.
Clark scrambles to recover, but Jackie Young sets a screen and then curls around A'ja Wilson toward the hoop. Gray waits a beat, then another. Clark gets tangled with Wilson.
Young streaks open. Gray pivots to her right and, with her back to the basket, delivers a behind-the-back, no-look bounce pass from logo to lane. Young finishes through contact and heads to the free throw line.
Gray punches the air in celebration. It's midway through the third quarter of a September showdown between two of the WNBA's hottest teams. It's also quintessential Chelsea Gray -- the kind of pass that years ago prompted Candace Parker to dub her "Point Gawd.
" But plays like this one from the six-time All-Star have been sparse this season. Gray missed the first 12 games of the 2024 WNBA season with a foot injury suffered in the 2023 WNBA Finals. In her first 12 games back, her assists dwindled and her turnovers mounted.
She averaged 7.3 points and shot 39% from the field. Gray's early-season struggles were so severe that some WNBA fans questioned her inclusion on the U.
S. Olympic roster. Others, they argued, (namely Caitlin Clark) should have gone to Paris in Gray's place.
"With all due respect, f--- them," Gr.