NFL
In the excellent Hollywood film Project Hail Mary, humanity faces an urgent issue. For seemingly no reason, the Sun begins to dim, leaving scientists scrambling to save Earth. In the smaller WNBA world, the causes of the Connecticut Sun’s collapse are easier to determine. The Mohegan Tribe, through no moral fault, could not generate the finances or build enough northeastern enthusiasm for professional basketball. And yet, on Thursday night, it almost took a similar Hail Mary for the struggling Sky to best a determined opponent. Who would secure victory and allow Chicago to salvage a vital triumph?
No, not a middle school science teacher turned vindicated genius. Rather, a journeywoman hooper transformed into a lightning bolt’s swish.
Carrington Carries Earth
Team NBS Media already spoiled the ending of this great tale! No, not the movie, although DiJonai Carrington’s most devastating moment did take place in a pseudo-television studio.
During the 2020-2021 college basketball season, the NCAA allowed the real, i.e., women’s basketball tournament to proceed in several sequestered bubbles in San Antonio. Carrington’s ferociously talented Baylor Bears roared to the Elite Eight, where they faced UConn. In the final seconds of an epic contest, Carrington drove to the hoop with her Bears down one. She lost control of the ball, and despite poor free-throw management by UConn, Baylor never got another shot off. Stop the clock! Or perhaps it should have stopped, anyway.
Carrington drew considerable contact on her drive; however, the officials did not call a foul. The basketball world hurled frustrated barbs through the social media echo chamber, but to no avail. Once the referees left the court, the Bears departed, furious, in perhaps the last great game of Baylor’s dynasty. Nuts and Bolts! What a lousy year for planet Earth. Thankfully, life isn’t a movie. Carrington’s future, although unknowable at that time, would cycle to a beautiful 2026 moment.
Timed Out
Carrington played just 17 minutes in her Sky debut after missing the first portion of the season due to a foot injury. Hers and the Sky’s patience proved fruitful. Carrington brought passion off the bench in a chippy contest that, thankfully, never crescendoed into ugliness. True, most of the credit for Thursday’s triumph belongs to the Sky’s better-celebrated stars. Kamilla Cardoso recorded 26 impressive points, including ten crucial free throws. And Courtney Vandersloot paced her minutes perfectly, ensuring that her expert ball-handling would finish off the clock.
Yet, fans must not overlook the clinching moment. Chicago’s baffling ineptitude in clutch games haunted, like a specter, over a modest yet vigorous home crowd. Connecticut managed its deficit with reasonable skill. One could perhaps remember Carrington’s tremendous disappointment in San Antonio when, despite multiple momentum shifts, the game still seemed hers to win.
As the Wintrust clock ticked under a minute, she had a role to play, and not a supporting one. Her emphatically hurled three timed out the Sun’s last chance at a comeback. Tired of hearing about “team culture?” Blame an, ahem, certain NBA franchise for wearing that word out. Clichés, however, rise from some degree of truth. Despite their (now) 10-18 record. Chicago plays with an unequaled emboldening energy. The setting Sun? With the franchise’s future home, Houston, sleeping an unbelievable distance away, Connecticut had little reason to fight to the last horn.
Moon Rises
During Project Hail Mary’s memorable opening scene, a bumbling Dr. Grace patiently explains the movie’s plot to his classroom. As the Sun and Sky shook hands after Connecticut mercifully waived the chase-and-hope game, there was one player who no longer needed astronomy lessons. One who had already let the sadistic Sun fade to its natural conclusion, Hail Mary be shunned.
Carrington needed but a single heave to reinforce that the sport that Jordan built can be played just as easily under the blessed night Sky. A happy evening fell in the Windy City thanks to a new hero’s unshakable spirit built from a whistle that finally did arrive: Thursday’s end-game signal.
