Charli Collier‘s path to becoming the presumptive No. 1 pick in this week’s WNBA draft began in the driveway of her family’s home in the Houston suburb of Crosby, with tape marking the spots where her feet would go.
“I knew basketball, so you weren’t just gonna go shoot the basketball any kind of way,” said her mother, Ponda, who had played at Southwestern University and later coached Collier’s first team. “She was learning at 5 how to shoot.”
Her late father, Elliott, also knew basketball. He never made his high school team but kept grinding, eventually walking on at Montana State, where his brother played, and ending up a starter. With young Charli, the 6-foot-8 Elliott made sure she had to figure out how to get around him.
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