Atlanta Dream’s Rhyne Howard already off to historic start in rookie season

ATLANTA — In the quest for its first winning season in four years, the Atlanta Dream have turned to the No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA Draft Rhyne Howard for help. She has delivered so far this season.

Howard became the first rookie to win player of the week honors in her first week in the league in 20 years.

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Howard found out she was the Eastern Conference Player of the Week during the team’s film session in Indiana.

The top pick out of Kentucky told Channel 2′s Alison Mastrangelo that she never dreamed of getting this honor so early in her career.

“I was just trying to go out there and show everyone why I got picked by Atlanta, why I was number overall be the player that I need to be for my team,” she said.

Howard is averaging 20 points a game and became just the 7th player in WNBA history to score more than  100 points in her first five games. 

Head coach Tanisha Wright is not surprised by Howard’s early success

”She’s one of those players on that long list that were good in college or really good in college, All-American and their games really blossomed in professional,” Wright said. “Just on a different level.”

With plenty of basketball left to be played, Howard wants to continue to get better each and every game.

She has the chance to do something that hasn’t been done by an Atlanta Dream player since 2009.

“I want to be rookie of the year continue to etch my name into the history books, but really just being apart of a winning team and a team that contends for championships,” Howard said.

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