Liberty, Courtesy of France
Pauline Astier sees the game before it happens, and may be the Liberty’s most important difference maker.
To Pauline Astier, basketball is a very easy game.
Watch her: nothing seems hurried. Nothing looks particularly strenuous. She gets the ball, sees something, goes there. A defender cuts her off; she changes direction. Someone crowds her, and she finds the open player. A little space near the basket? She somehow ends up in it.
She doesn’t appear to be attacking the defense so much as politely discovering where the defense has made a mistake.
And she gets to the rim in a way I love: without all the ceremony. She just goes. Suddenly she’s past the first defender, then she’s under the basket, and then the ball drops through the net.
She’s shooting around 54% from the field this season, which is a mildly ridiculous number for a rookie guard. But even that doesn’t quite explain what I’ve been noticing. The Liberty simply seem different when she’s involved. Faster without looking rushed, more connected, less predictable.
She can score, but doesn’t seem particularly interested in proving it. She can run the offense without making every possession feel like her possession. And defensively, she has the wonderful habit of making the person she’s guarding look slightly less comfortable than they’d prefer. Against Minnesota recently, her pressure on Olivia Miles was specifically noted as part of a Liberty defense that forced 19 turnovers.
That’s why I’ve started thinking of Astier as the Liberty’s most important difference maker. Not necessarily their best player. That’s a different conversation. A difference maker is the person who changes what a team can be.
When the Liberty signed her in April, general manager Jonathan Kolb specifically mentioned her “elite vision” and feel for the game. That’s front-office language, and front offices are supposed to say nice things about players they just signed. But five months later, you can see exactly what he meant.
Astier doesn’t just see the next play. Sometimes she seems to see the play after that. That’s the quality I keep coming back to when I watch her. She waits, knows where she’s going, knows where you’re going. High energy without wasting energy.
Wasn’t the Statue of Liberty a gift from France?
Apropos.
Robert McEvily is a writer and multidisciplinary creative who publishes short fiction, humor, essays, cultural commentary, drawings, photography, and video.
He’s the Creator and Editor of Six Sentences (Est. 2006), and hopes you’ll share your work.
