Australian basketball players Izzy Borlase and Nyadiew Puoch grew up in Australia, both training at the Basketball Australia Centre of Excellence for several years before playing together at the last two Under-19 World Cups.
Now, the 19-year old compatriots will be playing for the same team in the US, after they were both selected by the Atlanta Dream, straight from the WNBL. Power forward Puoch was selected 12th, while Borlase, a point guard, was selected 20th overall.
After hearing news of Borlase’s selection, Puoch reportedly told ESPN journalist Kane Pitman – “Are you serious, oh my god, that’s amazing!”
Overnight, Borlase told ABC Radio she was feeling relief about being selected.
“I think it’s slowly starting to sink in,” she said. “It’s been quite a long lead up. You talk about it for months ahead, but now that it’s actually happened and it’s out of the way, it’s a lot of emotions of relief and gratitude.”
“[It’s] just a waiting game because you’ve got no idea what the teams are thinking. So yeah, it was a lot of anticipation.”
Puoch and Borlase will join the Atlanta Dream, which has secured other international talents, including Italian guard Matilde Villa.
Atlanta Dream’s general manager, Dan Padover said: “We took a look at this draft and where we were picking, and we wanted to take the best possible talent for the future.”
“We thought we did that with these three picks.”
Atlanta Dream’s head coach, Tanisha Wright said she is “super excited to be able to add these young talented players.”
“We like what we’ve seen them do at such a young age and we expect them to grow their game into the future,” she said. “We are excited to be able to infuse this young talent into our group.”
Puoch has already played two seasons in Australia’s WNBL, reaching successive finals with the Southside Flyers, and winning this year’s title. She signed with the Southside Flyers to play in the 2022-23 regular season and was nominated for WNBL’s Sixth Woman of the Year and Breakout Player of the Year.
The Tasmanian born athlete is one of seven children, raised by her South Sudanese mother in Melbourne.
Borlase, an Adelaide native, moved to Canberra when she was in Year 11 to train at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), crediting her training with Basketball Australia as a major step in her basketball pathway.
Borlase told ABC Radio she plans to remain in Adelaide for the remainder of the year, “trying to just improve so I’m ready for when my time comes in a year’s time to actually head over to the WNBA.”
Victorian native Jaz Shelley rounds out this year’s Australian draft contingent, after she was selected with the 29th pick by the Phoenix Mercury.
“I’m just excited for the opportunity,” Shelley said. “I couldn’t be happier about being picked by Phoenix. I feel like that’s a great fit for me. They have such a talented team and an amazing organisation, too.”
“Having my name called has always been a dream, but to share this with my second family here in Nebraska is really a special moment I will remember forever.”
Shelley, who also moved to Canberra to train at AIS, began playing for college basketball in 2019. In 2021, she moved to Nebraska Cornhuskers women’s basketball team. Joining the three-time WNBA champions Phoenix Mercury, her teammates will include fellow Australians Rebecca Allen and Amy Atwell, as well as superstars Brittney Griner and Diana Taurasi.
The latest WNBA draft of players marks the largest group of Australian players in more than twenty years.
Basketball Australia recently announced they had engaged capital raising advisor, EagleHawk Capital to seek third party capital investment into the league.
CEO of Basketball Australia, Matt Scriven said the new vision is a critical piece of work developed by stakeholders to ensure a successful future for WNBL in Australia.
“We have seen what other women’s sports have done in recent years and we strongly believe that WNBL is a fantastic product with great potential that will garner significant interest from investors both domestically and globally,” he said.