GHSA AAA State Champion
Three-time GHSA AAA Player of the Year
Gatorade Georgia Player of the Year
NCAA Tournament Champion
First-Team All-ACC & All-Freshman Team Member
Final Four and NCAA Regional All-Tournament Team Member
#4 Overall Draft Pick in WNBA Draft
WNBA Rookie of the Year
And now…
Olympic Gold Medalist!
On Friday, July 24, while much of America was still sleeping and counting sheep, Allisha Gray was counting her point total in the first of what would become eight wins to propel her to Olympic greatness, or as her clever social media handles claim, “Graytness.” (@graytness_15)
The 2020 Summer Olympic Games were postponed a year due to the ongoing COVID-19 conflict. The Games, which began following Opening Ceremonies in Tokyo, Japan on July 23, are operating on a polar opposite clock to those on Allisha’s home-front in Washington County, Georgia.
The 13-hour time difference between Tokyo and Sandersville made it a tad more difficult for Gray’s most passionate fans to view her work live, but the lack of sleep from at times waking up around 2:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. to watch the Olympic journey paid off on Wednesday morning when Allisha took home top prize in her team event and won a Gold Medal. The adrenaline rush of witnessing history would make up for the lost hours of sleep.
The word “history” is not an overstatement, as Allisha Gray joins only the most elite company in claiming an Olympic Gold Medal. In fact, she and her three teammates are the only women to ever take home this particular gold medal.
Standing alongside Kelsey Plum, Stefanie Dolson, and Jackie Young as their awards were draped around their necks on the Olympic podium while the United States National Anthem played, Gray became champion of the Inaugural 3×3 Women’s Basketball event.
Basketball played in the half-court with only four players per team, and three on the court at one time, was one of the newest additions to the Summer Olympic Games. Three-on-three basketball has gained momentum in popularity over recent years with the founding of multiple start-up leagues, the most notable being “Big3,” which was founded by celebrity Ice Cube.
Olympic 3×3 games were composed of one 10 minute period. The first team to score 21 points or lead the game following the period was declared winner. Made baskets inside the traditional “three-point” line count as 1 point and shots beyond the arch count for 2 points.
The American team, whose members have accolade lists so long that you would be able to fly to Tokyo and back before reaching the conclusion, went 8-1 in their 9 played games. They defeated the #1 ranked Women’s 3×3 team, France, in their Olympic opener and never looked back. Wins over China, Italy, Romania, Mongolia, and the Russian Olympic Committee propelled the United States into the Semifinals Round. A loss to host county, Japan, in the final game before the “playoff rounds” that did not have any implications on seeding was the only blimpish on the Red, White, and Blue’s record.
A second win over France in the “Final Four” and a another record-setting victory over the Russian Olympic Committee by a score of 18-15 in the Gold Medal Game immortalized Allisha Gray and the American women.
Note: the country of Russia is banned from the 2020 Olympic games, due to a doping scandal in 2015, and Russian athletes are competing under a separate banner that is not represented by the country, its flag, or its national anthem. The Russian Olympic Committee’s 3×3 Men’s Basketball Team fell to Latvia by a score of 21-18 in a game that followed their Women’s Team loss to also settle for a Silver Medal.
Kelsey Plum, the NCAA Division 1 all-time leading scorer, Stefanie Dolson, a multi-time NCAA Champion, and Jackie Young, a late addition to the team following the removal of Katie Lou Samuelson after a positive COVID-19 test, proved to be the perfect compliments to Allisha Gray en route to a dominant run.
Gray, Plum, and Dolson shared time as the team’s leading scorer. Gray and Dolson each led in rebounding.
Although, it was the offensive and defensive intangibles of Allisha that too often proved to be the “X-factor” versus the rest of the world. Her 6’0” frame and long wingspan combined with her natural athleticism that has been groomed by the best coaches at each level of basketball allow Gray to guard multiple positions and players of varying sizes. She possesses the length to contest shots by taller competitors and speed to defend the small and quicker athletes.
All of this information only tells you half of the story, though. As offensively, Gray’s silky smooth shooting motion allows her to be one of the best shot makers in the game today. Allisha’s effectiveness from outside the three-point line forces defenders to closely guard her. But, don’t get too close because her speed and ball handling ability can easily beat even the best on-ball defense to get a more preferable shot in the paint, where she has the ability to often finish through contact.
Allisha Gray’s God-given talent has taken her a LONG way, all the way to the other side of the world to be exact, but the instruction she has received along the way has been instrumental.
She was coached to a collegiate championship at South Carolina by Dawn Staley, a basketball Hall of Fame member, who is a Gold Medal winner herself and also in Tokyo to coach the traditional 5-on-5 Women’s National Team that is the favorite to win Gold. Her coach for the 3×3 Olympic Games was Kara Lawson, the current Duke University Head Coach, who, too, was a Gold Medal recipient in her playing days.
Multiple wrinkles made to the more standard game of basketball prove that 3×3 coaching is different than 5-on-5, though. Olympic rules state that no in-game coaching is allowed. Coaches may only instruct their plays prior to the games start.
But, when speaking of Allisha’s coaches, maybe the most instrumental in her career would be her parents, Dr. Allen and Annie Gray, both superior athletes in their primes and longtime, well-known members of the Washington County community.
While still in the shock of the crowning achievement of her basketball career, a television camera for the USA Network, which is a member of the NBC/Peacock television family that pays billions of dollars to broadcast the Olympics, was shoved into Allisha’s face. She was asked to describe the moment.
Gray steadied herself, looked directly into the camera, and with a smile as bright as the gold medal she would soon wear delivered a quote that would stir emotions in any parent or child.
“This is for my parents. They have sacrificed so much for me. Your daughter is an Olympic Gold Medalist!”
The newest prize joins a trophy case at the Gray household that is sure to fill at least one full room. A family with thoroughbred blood has sparked careers in athletics for her older brother Mario and younger brother A.J., who is a former standout on the basketball hardwood and won the GHSA AAA Player of the Year award on the football gridiron before playing in college for Georgia Tech. Her younger sister, Ashley, has helped lead the Washington County Lady Hawks basketball team to back-to-back Elite Eight round appearances in the GHSA AA State Tournament in her ongoing high school career.
Allisha Gray, with more medals, trophies, and plaques than most could dream to acquire over a lifetime is still only 26-years-young and maintains an appetite that is hungry for more accomplishments. On tap next will be the resumption of her fourth WNBA season with the team that was proved correct in drafting her following her Junior year of college in 2017 when she won the Rookie of the Year award as a member of the Dallas Wings.
After signing a new contract with the team to keep her in their uniform for the next three years prior to this season, Allisha began this campaign tied as the second longest tenured member of the squad. The Wings, along with the remainder of the league, are currently in the midst of an extended mid-season pause, awaiting the conclusion on the Olympic Games, where many high profile players are participating.
From her successful college days at the University of North Carolina before her transfer to an uber-successful stay at the University of South Carolina and from her now fruitful professional career in Dallas to history-making moments in Japan, one fact remains, and that is Washington County will always be home.
“It’s surreal, it’s great. I get to put on for Sandersville and for Washington County. Shout out to them,” exclaimed an elated and animated Gray during her post-game television interview, not allowing an opportunity to pass where she did not share the spotlight with the community that raised her.
Back home, Gray is know by many monikers: Allisha, Champ, and for those that know her best, by her nickname, Lish.
Although, as stated by herself on her social media while surely still sporting her newest article of jewelry following a sentimental medal ceremony, she now prefers a new name.
“From here on out, I’d like to be addressed as Gold Medal Lish.”
See what she did there? She’s got buckets and jokes!
So, while her hometown celebrated for the remainder of the day on its native daughter’s greatest accomplishment to date, what did “Gold Medal Lish” do on the other side of the world?
Well, according to her Instagram, she tucked her Gold Medal into bed so they can grab some deserved rest before coming home to a hero’s welcome.
