Roosevelt Island Native Emily Engstler Picked 4th In WNBA Draft

ROOSEVELT ISLAND, NY — Roosevelt Island: home to about 12,000 residents, a world-class tech university — and now, a professional basketball player.

Emily Engstler, who spent much of her childhood on the island, was selected fourth overall in Monday's WNBA draft, by the Indiana Fever. The 21-year-old had begun her college career at Syracuse University before transferring to Louisville for her senior year, where she helped the team reach the Final Four in this year's NCAA tournament.

Born in Queens, Engstler moved with her family to Roosevelt Island when she was seven or eight years old. There, the view from the balcony of her family's apartment "extended no further than basketball courts right next door," according to a 2018 profile by Syracuse.com.

On those courts, Engstler became a regular at pickup games, where she was typically the sole girl competing against squads of men and boys. By 2017, when she was a highly-recruited senior at St. Francis Prep in Queens, Engstler was still shooting hoops at the same court, ESPN reported.

Lest anyone doubt her fidelity to her home island, Engstler even has a tattoo on her leg depicting Blackwell Park, the site of the basketball courts, with the Queensboro Bridge looming behind it.

"I decided to get a part of the court with the 59th Street bridge in the background on my left calf so I’ll always know my safe place for basketball will always be with me wherever I go," she told a Louisville University publication.

Now, Engstler is the first player from New York City to be picked in the first round of the WNBA draft since 2010, when Tina Charles and Epiphanny Prince were selected first and fourth overall, according to the New York Post.

"It's been a really long journey," she said onstage on draft night.