![]() Her mother Tisha was an all-America heptathlete at Tennessee, her father Delino played 13 years of professional baseball in the Major Leagues and her brother Delino Jr. She was meant to be a professional athlete. When I saw her overseas and in watching all the film of her in college you look at her footwork and the intensity in which she fights through screens, there was no doubt that she is a good defender and takes pride in it."Īnother source of pride for DeShields is her family and background. "But Diamond (is) unquestionably (one) of our best defenders and (she) embraces that. It's unfortunate that people often have the myth that players who score a lot of points don't go out and play defense. Her defense has been and will continue to be just fine. "Whenever I would express my interest in Diamond, the question people would always raise to me would be, 'Yeah, but what are you going to do about her defense,'" Stocks said. Sky coach Amber Stocks followed DeShields closely in Turkey, and doesn't necessarily agree with DeShields' own perception of her defensive shortcomings of the past. She passed on her senior season at Tennessee and played in Turkey instead. A native of Georgia, she started her college career at North Carolina before transferring to Tennessee. ![]() So I just go out there and just try my best."ĭeShields got a valuable dress rehearsal for expectations in the WNBA last winter when she played professionally overseas. I don't want to be the rookie who has to learn those hard lessons from the vets. "I have athleticism and I have that ability to defend but I think knowing that if you don't defend (in the WNBA) you're going to get exposed, it's kind of lit a fire under me having to guard players like Angel McCoughtry and Diana Taurasi and all those other great guards that I've had to defend. "Historically, I haven't been too well known for my defense," said DeShields. But she says that defense wasn't always her thing. Lately, she has put more effort into her defense. "I want to be talked about with players like Angel someday," said DeShields, who has always been a scorer (she's averaging 12.3 points per game, second-best on the team, and scored a game-high 23 points against Atlanta). Start the chit chat, or make the full-out debates, about DeShields and her defense. 3 overall pick in the 2018 WNBA draft, wants to be in the same conversation as the best players in the league - players such as Atlanta forward Angel McCoughtry, a perennial all-star who scored a career-high 39 points recently and was averaging 18.5 points per game heading into the Sky game.īut McCoughtry was held to just 6 points on 1-of-11 shooting against the Sky, and DeShields guarded McCoughtry for much of the game. "I want to be in that conversation," DeShields, a rookie forward with the Chicago Sky, said Wednesday after the Sky posted a 93-80 win over the Atlanta Dream at Wintrust Arena in the South Loop.ĭeShields, the No.
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