[BostonCard]

Let's be clear that succeeding in the WNBA is *hard* for anyone, given that there are only 13 teams, each with 12 players (156 total players) and that most players, even very good ones will not get a sniff of the league.  There is no shame in being the 160th best women's basketball player in the world even though that means you are probably on the outside looking in on a WNBA career. While you hope that being the former top rated player coming out of high school increases those likelihoods, it is still really hard.  I think the analysis by Bill Bradley is probably right; the only thing I would add is that you can't will yourself to being an effective shooter.  The undercurrent in this thread and in other posts is that she didn't work on developing her shot and that it was a lack of effort that limited her.  That is certainly possible (and maybe there is some anecdotal evidence that she didn't), but work and effort are necessary but not sufficient to ensure success.  Sometimes no amount of trying is going to overcome limitations.  Case in point, Shaquille O'Neill was very cognizant of the fact that his poor free throw shooting was hurting his overall game. And yet, despite practicing extensively (and, apparently, being able to hit free throws consistently in practice) he never was even a fair free throw shooter.  For whatever reason, Jones never developed a consistent three point shot... she is still a better basketball player than 99.9999% of women out there, but to really succeed in the WNBA, she probably needed another digit.

BC

[BostonCard]

Let's be clear that succeeding in the WNBA is *hard* for anyone, given that there are only 13 teams, each with 12 players (156 total players) and that most players, even very good ones will not get a sniff of the league.  There is no shame in being the 160th best women's basketball player in the world even though that means you are probably on the outside looking in on a WNBA career. While you hope that being the former top rated player coming out of high school increases those likelihoods, it is still really hard.  I think the analysis by Bill Bradley is probably right; the only thing I would add is that you can't will yourself to being an effective shooter.  The undercurrent in this thread and in other posts is that she didn't work on developing her shot and that it was a lack of effort that limited her.  That is certainly possible (and maybe there is some anecdotal evidence that she didn't), but work and effort are necessary but not sufficient to ensure success.  Sometimes no amount of trying is going to overcome limitations.  Case in point, Shaquille O'Neill was very cognizant of the fact that his poor free throw shooting was hurting his overall game. And yet, despite practicing extensively (and, apparently, being able to hit free throws consistently in practice) he never was even a fair free throw shooter.  For whatever reason, Jones never developed a consistent three point shot... she is still a better basketball player than 99.9999% of women out there, but to really succeed in the WNBA, she probably needed another digit.

BC