Making the WNBA is already difficult enough, as is with at most 144 roster spots. Even high-end draft picks can struggle to stick and find their way, a byproduct of the league’s competitiveness and an overall lack of developmental tracks inside the league itself.

That made Rebekah Gardner’s breakout as a rookie for the Chicago Sky all the more impressive. You’ve heard about the 32-year-old rookie if you’ve tuned into a Sky game for even a fleeting moment, and rightfully so. As the Sky seeks to repeat as WNBA champions, they’d be the first team to do so since the Lisa Leslie-led Los Angeles Sparks; Gardner has factored in heavily.

Gardner deserves heaps of praise for her play, but I also feel sometimes lost in the sauce of this season, and her story is her incredible overseas play. Yes, Gardner is a rookie in the league, but she’s been killing it in professional basketball since she graduated from UCLA in 2012.

She started her professional career in Israel, playing her first four seasons as a pro in the Israeli League before winning the Israeli League Most Valuable Player for the 2015-16 season. 

Stints in the Turkish League, a return to Israel, and then in Romania led to Gardner playing for Spanish Club Spar Girona this past season. Gardner recently re-signed with the Spanish club for the coming season.

Girona made a deep run in the EuroLeague playoffs, dropping a close third game in a best of three series during the quarter-finals to EuroLeague MVP and now Sky teammate Kahleah Copper’s Perfumerias Avenida squad. Copper and Gardner had also played together in Turkey during Orman’s 2018/19 season.

(For more on Gardner’s overseas play and career, this podcast is tremendous.)

Most of Gardner’s teammates in Chicago have played against her numerous times overseas over the years. Whenever asked about Gardner being a rookie during the year, they’ve alluded to her being a rookie here but a force in professional basketball for nearly a decade.

Gardner transitioned seamlessly to the Sky this season, which is incredibly impressive considering her role change. She was the second leading scorer, rebounder, and playmaker for Girona this past season; She operated as a turnkey that brought a little bit of everything at a high level alongside leading scorer (and former Mystics player) Kennedy Burke.

Few move off the ball quite like Gardner, and her cutting ability and vision were present repeatedly for Girona.

She thrived in transition, feasting with her quickness, continually pushing the defense, and keeping them on their toes even without the ball. Although her shooting stroke from outside is one of the few inconsistent areas of her game, she’s a savvy pick-and-roll operator, flowing from off-ball actions into ball screens.

Throughout the series with Avenida, she was brought off a baseline cut into ball screens in the slot. Early in this same game, she was hit with an under on her screen to force a pull-up two. Note here how Gardner rejects the screen to deny an under.

Gardner hasn’t even called for the screen yet, but as soon as she recognizes her defender trying to sniff out whether or not it’s coming, she hits her with a vicious rip-through move and gets downhill to the rack with her lightning-quick first step.

She reads the floor and maps defenders out exceptionally well; quick reads and reactivity are a staple of her game.

Gardner receives the screen from Burke, who rolls after making contact. This is essentially ICE coverage the way it plays out (forcing the ball-handler into the baseline). Gardner hits a hesi and scans, noting Burke on the roll but also seeing Avenida’s Five roaming over to tag the roll from Burke as Karlie Samuelson keeps her in front. She reads all that in one downbeat and then smoothly pulls into a shot and drains it.

That kind of quick reading ability, both in and out of screens, with or without the ball, and on both ends of the court, is a standout skill few in basketball can replicate, especially when considering how incredible her movement skills are.

She’s remarkably quick and shifty. She takes immaculate paths to the ball on either end, cutting the margins of time and expanding her margin for error.

In a smaller role for the Sky, Gardner has brought the same skill-set and energy. That seems minute, but it’s much easier said than done to accept and thrive in a smaller role when you’re accustomed to a larger one. We’ve seen multiple players across all levels of the sport struggle to make that role change, not an indictment of them but rather a highlight of Gardner.

Gardner plays in a way that screams out anything but “ROOKIE!”

This is absolutely not an excuse, it was my own gaff, but I didn’t vote Gardner for All-Rookie on my official ballot. 

All-Rookie voting came after All-Defense teams, which I did vote her onto, and while I understood some of the cases for those who made it over her, I find her incredibly deserving. When I was thinking through All-Rookie after I’d gotten through All-Defense, she legitimately didn’t come to mind because I can count on my hand the number of times I’ve thought of her as a first-year player.

(Again, my own fault, and I need to be more aware as a voter; not a mistake I’ll make again, and she 100% deserved to be on that team, and I’m glad she made it.)

Just watch this. I’ve watched this over and over so many times since it happened, and I just… MAN.

For my money, there was not a better screen navigator this season in the W than Rebekah Gardner, a significant reason why I voted her to my All-Defensive team. She mirrors effortlessly. 

She’s adept at gear changing, shifting between speeds to accelerate and decelerate exactly as much as she needs to keep in front of the ball-handler. The perfect technique is how she dips her shoulders to get around screens while using her wingspan and length to keep near constant contact with her assignment. 

In this game against the Liberty, and throughout the season series, the Sky toyed with different ways to defend Sabrina Ionescu, cycling through coverages. As the game closed, James Wade went largely to Gardner to defend her one-on-one, shading Ionescu’s left (where she prefers to step for her off the dribble jumpers). To fight through a set of staggered screens, give up the drive due to her shading, and still get the block without fouling is pretty insane. 

Gardner excels most with her screen navigation, but she’s fantastic at the point of attack, often playing with greater functional strength on larger opposition than her frame would suggest. She’s a staunch nail defender and makes consistently plus plays rotating low. Her hands are so freakin quick, and she thrives in the gray area of aggression and fouling, making events happen at a high level without over-fouling.

Her defense is frankly breathtaking, and I have a wild amount of clips of her defense saved on my laptop from this season. 

While this series against the Connecticut Sun hasn’t been her most ideal matchup due to the Sun’s overwhelming size, she’s provided vital bench minutes in the past two games. As the lanes have opened more than they did in Game One, Gardner has diced the Sun with backdoor and 45 cuts to take advantage of the attention provided to Chicago’s ball-handlers. She darts in for unexpected offensive rebounds. She makes quality high-velocity passes on the move that is key to the offensive flow but won’t show up in the box score.

Rebekah Gardner has been about as perfect a role-player for a Championship level team as one can imagine. The Sky is a better, deeper team because of her play. Watching her flourish this season has been awesome and getting a deeper understanding of how she got here and the play she’s put up throughout her professional career only fosters a further appreciation of her game.

WNBA reporter Mark Schindler writes a column on WNBA.com throughout the season and can be reached on Twitter at @MG_Schindler. The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the WNBA or its clubs.