Hailey Van Lith is a hooper. She's a bucket. She can absolutely, positively play basketball.
And yeah, the Chicago Sky rookie has a ton of social media followers.
But five-time WNBA All-Star Angel McCoughtry recently made a podcast appearance and questioned if Van Lith's only in the league because of that following.
"Hailey Van Lith, she's a decent player," McCoughtry said. "Are there players out there who may be better than Hailey Van Lith? I believe so. They're not popular... If Hailey Van Lith had 10,000 followers, would she be in the league? Just her true talent, take away the followers."
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McCoughtry went on to suggest that general managers only knew about Van Lith because they'd heard so much about her via social media.
Seriously?
Yeah, that player who was a top high school recruit, a leading scorer for a powerhouse Louisville program, a national champion at LSU and a program-changer at TCU, they would've never heard about her if she had less followers.
Van Lith was the No. 11 pick in the draft worthily. She has averaged 5.2 points and 1.3 assists in time off the bench so far.
At 5-foot-9, Van Lith may never be a starting lead guard in the WNBA, but she deserves to be there.
Any suggestion of otherwise is just a bad take.
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