Princeton’s Bella Alarie didn’t have to wait long to hear her name, as she was called with the fifth overall pick by the Dallas Wings in Friday night’s WNBA Draft.
“It’s been my lifelong dream to play in the WNBA, so it was a really special moment,” Alarie told WNBA media. “I’m glad I got to share it with my family.”
Earlier in the week, Dallas President, CEO and General Manager Greg Bibb discussed his interest in Alarie with Ivy Hoops Online and sealed the deal with the team’s second pick of the first round.
Bella becomes the second member of the family chosen in the first round, following her father, Mark, who went to the Denver Nuggets with the 18th pick in the 1986 NBA Draft. She also joins former teammate Leslie Robinson as the only other Tiger to be drafted in the WNBA and equals the highest spot ever by an Ivy League hoopster with Harvard’s Allison Feaster (1998; Los Angeles Sparks).
After the New York Liberty used the first pick to take National Player of the Year Sabrina Ionescu, the Wings chose Ionescu’s All-America teammate Satou Sabally with its first selection. Many experts thought Dallas would use the fifth spot to chose a point guard, but the Wings valued Alarie’s versatility and blocked the Minnesota Lynx from considering the Bethesda, Md. native with the No. 6 pick.
The Wings did get their point guard after all, taking Alarie’s 2017 & 2019 USA Basketball teammate Tyasha Harris of South Carolina at No. 7. Big “D” closed out its big night with German center Luisa Geiselsoder with the ninth selection of the second round (No. 21 overall).
While Geiselsoder will continue to play internationally, the three time Ivy League Player of the Year and her fellow first rounders will join 2019 Rookie of the Year runner-up Arike Ogunbuwale to improve upon last year’s 10-24 sixth place Western Conference finish and get the Wings back to the playoffs following a one year absence.
“We’re really young, perhaps painfully young,” Bibb explained to the Dallas Morning News. “But I think we have now aggregated a tremendous amount of young talent on this roster, and we have an opportunity to grow this team.”
“I’m excited to play with Satou and Ty, whom I’ve been on few USA teams, and Arike is obviously an amazing player,” Alarie said. “I’m just excited to get to know everyone, get adjusted to the team and start practicing.”