Who gets the primetime spot Sunday on Night 1 of the NBA HORSE tournament, the shooting contest airing on ESPN to help fill the sports vacuum in the time of the coronavirus pandemic?
It’s the most interesting quarterfinal matchup in the bracket, set for 8:30 p.m. ET: Hall of Fame-bound NBA point guard Chris Paul against WNBA sharpshooter Allie Quigley.
Getty ImagesIf Paul needs no introduction, Quigley certainly deserves one, and the 33-year-old All-Star guard for the Chicago Sky isn’t shying away from the spotlight.
“I can go with the famous Larry Bird quote,” Quigley told the Chicago Sun-Times this week. “Which one of you guys is coming in second?”
Here are five things to know about Quigley:
Quigley is the all-time best shooter in an NBA or WNBA 3-point contest.
She holds the record with 29 points, her score from a nuclear final round in 2018, when she secured her second consecutive title. She made 20 of 25 shots overall.
Her shooting numbers are outrageous.
Quigley is a career 39.9 percent shooter from WNBA 3-point range. But her percentages the past three years are off the charts: 43.0, 42.0 and 44.2. On more than five attempts per game.
Quigley was an All-Star in each of those three seasons, averaging 16.4, 15.4 and 13.8 points per game, respectively.
She is Chicago through and through.
Quigley grew up in Joliet, Ill., a suburb to the city’s southwest. She attended DePaul in the city, and was a second-round draft pick coming out of school in 2008.
After bouncing around the WNBA and international leagues for several years, Quigley landed with her hometown Sky in 2013 and elevated her game, winning the league’s Sixth Woman of the Year award in 2014 and 2015.
She is married to Sky teammate Courtney Vandersloot.
Known as the Vanderquigs, they began dating in 2013 and were married in December 2018.
The couple comprise the Sky’s starting backcourt. “You can’t feel that they’re married on the court,” teammate Jantel Lavender told Sports Illustrated. “It speaks volumes about how relationships can actually work in this league, if you marry the right person, and how your teammates can benefit from [your relationship] as well.”
She is a Hungarian citizen.
In 2012, Quigley obtained citizenship from Hungary — where she had played professionally during the American offseason — and joined its national team, taking that year off from the WNBA.
