Basketball: Nyara Sabally plays for New York Liberty and follows her sister into the WNBA

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Nyara Sabally (right) wearing the New York Liberty jersey during the draft

Photo:

Adam Hunger / dpa

Nyara Sabally had one wish: to return to a metropolis.

»I am a Berlin child.

I have to go back to a big city," said one of the best German basketball players before the draft of the professional league WNBA - that is the distribution of the best young players among the twelve teams.

Her wish came true.

In the coming season, Sabally will play in New York, the American metropolis par excellence, with the local team New York Liberty.

Nyara Sabally is 22 years old, she is the sister of Satou Sabally, who is already established in the WNBA - and under certain circumstances there could even have been a family reunification.

Just like Moritz and Franz Wagner in the NBA at the Orlando Magic.

Satou Sabally plays for the Wings in the big city of Dallas.

But in the draft there is a set order of when which team a player can pick and New York in fifth place chose Nyara Sabally.

The Wings only took their turn as number seven.

The games against each other »but will also be a lot of fun«, said the younger sister immediately after the decision: »I can hardly wait.

It's a big deal for my family.

It has been my dream for as long as I can remember.«

Sabally with two serious injuries

The wing and center player had impressed in the past two years with the Oregon Ducks college team in Eugene (population 180,000).

She led her team statistically this season in scoring, rebounds and blocks and was traded accordingly, the forecasts saw her in fourth place at the earliest.

The Atlanta Dream picked 21-year-old Rhyne Howard first on Monday, while the Wings picked Veronica Burton.

Nyara Sabally was already considered extremely talented when she was a youth player in Germany. Experts even rated her better than her sister.

Companions and teammates like Luisa Geiselsöder had raved about Sabally's abilities in SPIEGEL a year ago, "Her versatility is incredible," Geiselsöder said.

But the history of Liberty access also includes a bitter series of injuries that robbed Sabally of almost three years of game practice.

She had to cope with two cruciate ligament tears, but when she was able to play again, the pandemic slowed her down.

Now the 1.95 meter tall Sabally has played regularly in college for two years and will start the WNBA season in a month.

The first game against her sister is on May 15 in New York.

Satou Sabally, 23, was second in the 2020 draft and was selected earlier than any other German player.

She's one of the best players in Dallas, but she couldn't avoid losing in the first round of the playoffs last season either.

At the time, she was only able to take part in the draft virtually due to Corona, her younger sister was now there live in New York.

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