Australian guard Georgia Amoore has been selected by the Washington Mystics with pick six in the WNBA Draft.
The Ballarat-born point guard joins a growing number of Australians to be drafted in the WNBA first round while becoming the nation’s highest-selected player since Liz Cambage was taken at pick two by the Tulsa Shock in 2011.
The Mystics, with a new coach and general manager, had three of the first six picks on Monday (Tuesday AEST). They chose Sonia Citron at No 3, Kiki Iriafen at No 4 and University of Kentucky guard Amoore with the sixth selection.
Amoore grew up playing a number of sports including Australian rules football before switching her focus solely to basketball at the age of 17.
The 24-year-old started 155 of 157 games over five college seasons in the US, averaging 19.6 points and 6.9 assists for Kentucky this season after transferring from Virginia Tech.
Amoore has turned to her competitive spirit to stand out and become a top-10 selection despite being shorter than many of her opponents on the court at 168cm.
“As long as people call me too short I’ve been working on how to counteract that,” Amoore said.
“I know I have to work in different ways and use my brain a bit more, but with my competitive background, I’ve got that dog in me.”
Amoore was dressed on the WNBA’s orange carpet by NBA star Russell Westbrook, who has a clothing brand called Honor The Gift.
The Australian said Westbrook designed her outfit and was amazing to work with since they first got together on a Zoom session last November.
As expected, the much-hyped Paige Bueckers went to the Dallas Wings as the top pick.
The versatile UConn star is the latest Huskies standout to go No 1, joining former greats Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore and Breanna Stewart.
“Dallas I’m so excited, a new city, a new start,” Bueckers said. “A fresh start, so let’s get it.”
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Seattle quickly followed Dallas’ selection by taking 19-year-old French centre Dominique Malonga with the No 2 pick.
Malonga was part of the silver medal winning French Olympic basketball team. She’s the first French player to be drafted this high since 1997, when Isabelle Fijalkowski went second.
“I was so proud to achieve that goal,” Malonga said.
“It showed that French basketball has evolved as we’ve seen the past few years on the NBA side. We see Wemby [Victor Wembanyama] and Zaccharie [Risacher] show that French basketball is great.”
The expansion Golden State Valkyries took Juste Jocyte of Lithuania with the first draft choice in franchise history.
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