#118: Who the f*** is Justine Pissott?
Justine Pissott turned heads Saturday night, setting rookie records in a blowout win over the Mercury. But who the f*** is she?
It's a question that I've received in some form or fashion four different times since Saturday night. Truthfully, I was hoping that there would have been an encore performance similar to Jay-Z's Extra Innings show Sunday night for Pissott, but alas, there wasn't.
But if you missed it, Pissott put together one of the more unexpected and historic debut performances in WNBA history.
No, that's not being hyperbolic.
In the Las Vegas Aces' Saturday's 106-58 rout over the Mercury, the rookie out of Vanderbilt played 10 minutes in the fourth quarter, scoring 17 points and hitting five three-pointers.
The five 3s and the 17 points in a quarter were the most in WNBA history for a debuting rookie.
So who the fuck is Justine Pissott, and where did this come from?
"I mean, I just met her, so what I will say is we watched a lot of tape on her at Vanderbilt," Becky Hammon said in the press conference after the game. "So we're really excited to have her with our group. But that's quite a debut for a rookie coming and getting 17 in 10 minutes."
If you didn't know much about Pissott before Saturday, it's understandable. Aubrey Galvan and Mikayla Blakes commanded most of the attention for Vandy last year in a historic SEC season, but Pissott was a lethal three-point shooter.
She shot 42.2 percent from beyond the arc in her senior season, so it makes sense why Hammon is a fan.
"Obviously, you guys know I love shooters, and she could shoot that thing, so that's why we went out and got her," Hammon said.
That makes sense why the Aces drafted her in the second round of the WNBA Draft.
Wait, hold up. They didn't?
To answer my own fake hypothetical question, they didn't.
The Indiana Fever did, and the Aces went out and claimed her after the Fever let her go from her developmental deal.
It didn't happen for her in Indiana, and while the Vegas rotation is a hard one to crack, Pissott showed what she was capable of Saturday night.
"Yeah, I would definitely say I was nervous for sure. But everyone kept telling me just shoot the ball when you go in, play with confidence," Pissott explained. "And then Coach Becky was just like, 'Yeah, go in there and do what you do.' And I feel like when she told me that, I kind of just like, 'OK,' and I just breathed. And then I just played my game and did what I had to do."
The last player that the media expected to chat with post-game was Pissott when the game started. That's probably doubly so for Pissott, too.
But what put the icing on the cake was that sitting beside her on the podium was A'ja Wilson.
Yes, that A'ja Wilson.
"I think the biggest thing when it came to Justine is that I wanted her to feel comfortable. I know it's a lot coming into a new system and a new team, let alone the Aces," Wilson said. "So my biggest thing, I just told her, 'Go do you,' and we'll follow behind her. And so we kind of gave her a little bath in the locker room because this was a big deal."
Las Vegas Aces
"Cold one. Real cold one," Wilson added about the bath.
What added to the lore, if you will, is that Pissott got the call to join the Aces as the corresponding move to the team cutting Chennedy Carter on the midseason deadline date when teams had to convert non-guaranteed contracts to guaranteed.
"We aren't going to comment on players who aren't here anymore," Hammon said when asked by reporters why the team cut Carter.
It sent a shockwave through the league for Aces fans and the Carter fanbase, but if Pissott can get acclimated to the Aces' style of play and earn minutes, she could offer some of the scoring punch that Carter did off of the bench.
She's still learning the Las Vegas way and the schemes, but it's not too different from what she did at Vandy.
"I kind of did what I did here at Vanderbilt," Pissott said. "Just do what I needed to do, just space the floor in the corners, the high post, flare on screens, pop on screens, and just shoot the ball."
And just because she just arrived doesn't mean that Pissott isn't one of Wilson's "rookies."
See, historically, Wilson gets her rookies backpacks. It's been a tradition for her and the team going back years.
So, when she was asked if Pissott had one yet, Pissott said "I got it!"
"Justine has a water bottle. She had a lunch pot," Wilson said. "It's fairly quickly when I get my rookies. I gotta show them like, come on now, you gotta be cute."
Wilson and Hammon have Pissott ready. Pissott has the experience from college to be ready.
She's a shooter.
She's a spacer.
She's a rookie.
She's a hooper.
That's who the fuck Justine Pissott is.
Until Next Time
We'll see you here on Friday.
I love you awesome nerds.
Free Palestine.
