Mael Gilles | Taste the WNBA

“It’s a blessing. A gift from heaven. A native of Montreal North, Maël Gilles had the chance to attend a training camp for the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) in the spring. An experience she won’t forget.

William Theriault
The Press

Reminiscing about her experience in the most prestigious women’s basketball league in the world, during a video call with The PressMaël Gilles can’t help but smile.

Around mid-April, the 24-year-old got the chance of a lifetime. After five college seasons in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), she was invited to join the Phoenix Mercury, one of 12 WNBA teams, for a two-week training camp. She had not been selected in the draft, a few days earlier.

In the end, Maël Gilles failed to carve out a position for the season. But she has extremely positive memories of her stay with the professionals.

“It was an unforgettable experience. Every day, I stayed humble. It just wasn’t enough to stay, but I didn’t think what was going to happen in two weeks. I’m happy to have been like that. I stayed in the present moment. »

“It’s just a shame there aren’t more teams, because girls like her could play in the league,” said Charli Turner Thorne, who coached the Montrealer last season at Arizona State University. “Every year, the numbers are full. There is definitely room for expansion, but you just have to find the finances to do it. »

Rub shoulders with stars

Diana Taurasi, Skylar Diggins-Smith, Tina Charles… in the Mercury locker room, Maël Gilles interacted with several WNBA stars.

“You realize it’s people like you,” she said, chuckling. But it was impressive to see how they acted, talked to each other and behaved like pros. […] They always arrived an hour early, did their body treatments together and got ready for all the workouts. »

On April 28, the Montrealer even had the opportunity to play a pre-season game against the Seattle Storm. She scored seven points, distributed two assists, blocked a shot and intercepted a fly ball in 12 minutes of play.

“My first basket was a three-point shot on a pass from Skylar Diggins. I shouted “yeah!”, she says. The shot before, I had missed. They really wanted me to shoot her.

“Just seeing my last name on the back of the jersey…I was like ‘wow’! It’s a bit like college, but on a grand scale. »

Continue to work

Although she was part of several provincial and even national teams during her adolescence, Maël Gilles had a rather difficult journey.

“Even during the Canadian championships, she worked until 3 or 4 in the morning. She was overstudying to be able to graduate, recalls Martin Fortier, her former coach with the Nomades at Cégep Montmorency. She is able to take ring rebounds, she has exceptional drive and good leadership. It was perfect, coaching her. It was obvious that she was going to play pro one day. »

“When I think of my family – all the times they saw me getting up extremely early in the morning to go to training – I have no words to describe all the times they believed in me” , adds the Quebec athlete.

Maël Gilles has not yet signed a professional contract for the next season. However, she has already had discussions with clubs in Belgium, Spain, France and Turkey: she will therefore certainly play her first pro campaign on the other side of the Atlantic.

“My goal is to play in the WNBA, but I don’t mind playing overseas a few years. »