A game of H-O-R-S-E that reverberated
As Allie Quigley, shooting guard for the Chicago Sky, was defeating Chris Paul in the quarterfinals of the ESPN H-O-R-S-E challenge, she didn’t think of it as a victory for women in the continuing battle to achieve equality in sports.
But afterwards, when she checked social media, she quickly realized what had happened.
“Now that it’s done, we’re finished shooting and the competition is over,” Quigley told me on a podcast published Wednesday. “That is something that’s been huge. And that’s a lot of the positive feedback I’ve gotten was related to that. Especially getting videos of young girls watching, jumping up and down in their living room, just glued to the television. Just so excited that a girl beat Chris Paul. So that’s definitely hasn’t been lost on me. And it’s really cool that that kind of positive feedback isn’t coming from this.”
Quigley is no stranger to shooting competitions, and the two-time winner of the WNBA Three-Point Contest treated this battle no differently. She spent much of the time leading up to the event determining where her home court advantages might lie, and even had to give up a major advantage her game holds — the wind resistance in the Chicago suburbs (right, remember, Windy City? Not a joke) meant that long threes that began on target could end up, basically, anywhere.
“I was thinking a combination of difficult shots, fun shots for everyone watching and then just some basic ones that you’re going to make just to keep some pressure on him to make shots,” Quigley said. “So, of course I wanted to get a little bit farther out, I think I shot maybe one three and one right in front of the three point line, but it’s a little bit different outside with just the wind and just that perception factor… the wind picks up even for one second, all of the sudden you’re air-balling.”
Listen to Quigley break down her win, and discuss life in the time of a pandemic with her celebrity camerawoman and wife, Courtney Vandersloot. And on Thursday night at 9 PM EST on ESPN, check out Quigley against Zach LaVine of the Chicago Bulls in the semifinals of the H-O-R-S-E Challenge.
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