Dallas Wings forward Satou Sabally living her best ‘Unicorn’ life in breakout WNBA season
Satou #Satou
ARLINGTON — Last November, the Dallas Wings organization gathered at Troy’s at Texas Live in Arlington to officially introduce Latricia Trammell as head coach.
It was a lighthearted event, but after a news conference was held and tacos were eaten, Trammell sat in a booth, immersed in conversation with the franchise’s two pillars: Arike Ogunbowale and Satou Sabally.
At one point, Sabally looked at her new head coach and said, “I want this to be my year.”
“I always knew what Satou could do,” Trammell said. “But when she looked at me and told me that she wanted this to be her season, I believed her.”
Sports Roundup
Sabally doesn’t remember this conversation, she said, because she had it more than once this offseason.
The 6-4 forward has been called a “Unicorn” for the wall-to-wall talent she exhibits on the court. Sabally, who was born in New York and grew up in Gambia and Germany, was the No. 2 pick in the 2020 WNBA draft. She was an All-Star in 2021, but injuries have led to inconsistent play in her three WNBA seasons. She appeared in only 11 regular-season games last year.
To make this her year, Sabally had to make some changes in the offseason. They paid off in the form of team goals: the Wings’ first winning record and home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs, which start Friday in Arlington against the Atlanta Dream.
Then there were statistical achievements — top 10 in the league in points and rebounds and top five in steals — that led to personal accomplishments: a starting spot in the All-Star Game, the Most Improved Player award from the Associated Press and her name on the AP’s All-WNBA Second Team.
“It’s honestly a little bit better,” Sabally said of her 2023 season. “Obviously consistency was a goal, but it’s nice that it’s there. It’s consistency and dominance.”
With the versatile Natasha Howard next to her in the frontcourt and the freedom within the offense to exploit her mismatches, Sabally has lived up to the Unicorn nickname. She’ll take defenders off the dribble, overpower them down low or create something for her teammates — and then play the best defense of her career on the other end.
“That’s why she’s called the Unicorn, right?” Trammell said. “She can defend multiple people. She can play multiple positions. You can expose a lot on the other team with her.”
Sabally reaching this point can be traced to the end of last season, when she decided to not report to Turkey right away to play for powerhouse Fenerbahçe, which won the EuroLeague championship. She stayed in the United States to rest, recover and develop her skills after knee and ankle injuries in 2022.
She swam and did Pilates, according to an ESPN report, and didn’t lift heavy weights. The forward also worked with noted trainer Susan King Borchardt, whose clients have included Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart, and went to her home in Oregon for a 10-day mini “training camp,” ESPN reported.
“I saw her in Turkey in January and I understood she was really intentional this season about getting her body where it needs to be,” Seattle Storm coach Noelle Quinn said.
When she returned to Texas at the end of her overseas season, Sabally was in great form. Despite being in Europe for four months, she felt fresh and her body felt healthy.
Trammell has started her at small forward, Sabally’s position in college at Oregon and where she plays in Europe, after playing power forward for most of her WNBA career.
She started her season with an eyebrow-raising performance on national television, scoring 25 points to go with seven rebounds against the Dream. She had a stretch of seven straight double-doubles in May and June, then her first triple-double in July. Then there was her masterpiece 40-point showcase in Indiana at the beginning of this month.
“There’s been the vibe from the beginning of the year of a sense of urgency to be great,” Wings color commentator and former TCU head Raegan Pebley said. “Her ability to sustain that focus, I think, is the biggest difference.”
Sabally hopes to continue her consistency and dominance into the postseason, in which she hasn’t replicated her success in Europe.
In four playoff games with the Wings, she’s averaged just 8.7 points and two rebounds in 17 minutes off the bench.
But this year is different, with a healthy Sabally and a top-four seed looking to win its first playoff series.
“I didn’t feel like I had to prove myself because I’m a EuroLeague champion,” she said. “But I just wanted to show who I am. I wanted people to see who I am. I wanted people to enjoy the game that I play because I feel like that hasn’t been seen yet.”