Guru’s WNBA Report: Sami Whitcomb: Finding Opportunity - and Making the Most of it - in the Land of Liberty

By Andy Lipton

 

NEW YORK - During that last epochal period of New York City basketball - the exciting, albeit short-lived, Linsanity - I remarked to a co-worker that I bet there were 10 other players in the NBA, if given the chance, could also shine.  

He looked at me with some disbelief.  He must have been thinking that if a player was really good, he would get the opportunity.

 

But as in any walk of life, not everybody gets an opportunity to show prowess.  Opportunity does not always knock. 

And yes, even with an opportunity on the basketball court, how your teammates play on the court will impact how you play.  Who you hang with or are thrown together with, can impact what you do.  

 

For many NBA basketball fans, Jeremy Lin seemed to come out of nowhere in February 2012.  He had played Ivy League college ball at Harvard and was not drafted.  

Golden State signed him and he played sparingly for them during the 2010-11 season as well as playing in the D-League. 

The next season the Warriors waived him and then Houston waived him before he signed with the New York Knicks in December 2012.

 

In February 2012,  Knicks Coach Mike D’Antoni was looking for someone to effectively play point guard.  

Coming off the bench in an early February game against the Nets, Lin scored 25 points, had seven assists and opened a lot of eyes.  

In the next 11 games, he averaged 22.4 points and 8.8 assists a game.  In those 11 games and beyond, Lin was a starter until an injury ended his season ln late March.  

 

During the first eight games in which Lin was a starter, the team’s star Carmelo Anthony did not play due to injury except for about six minutes in the first of those eight games..  And during the first four of those games, the other team’s star, Amar’e Stoudemire, also did not play.  

If those two stars had played, who knows what the team chemistry would have been like and if Lin would have flourished. 

 Anthony was known as a scorer who held the ball for long periods of time before shooting.

 

Sami Whitcomb - 11 years after graduating the University of Washington as an All-Pac-10 player, now in her fifth WNBA season and her first with the New York Liberty, during which she has turned 33 years old - has finally become a full-time starter in the WNBA, playing significantly more minutes than in her previous four WNBA seasons and is a vital part of a resurgent charter WNBA franchise that was out of the playoffs the last three seasons.

 

So far, after 21 games, the Liberty’s turnaround has been remarkable.  

They have played most of those games without an injured Natasha Howard and with a starting five that has three players who were not on the Liberty last season, and two players who didn’t start last season (except for the three games that Sabrina Ionescu started before severely injuring her ankle and ending her season). 

 

The 5’ 10” Whitcomb, a guard, is averaging 29 minutes per game, leads the team in rebounds with 5.8 a game (Ionescu is a very close second), is ranked third among the guards in the league in rebounds, and is one the best three-point shooters in the game this season, if not the best, at 43.8%.  

Her overall shooting percentage is an outstanding 48.9%. She is averaging 12 points a game and is the team’s second high scorer. 

She and Ionescu are the main ball-handlers who run the offense for the Liberty.  And Whitcomb has become an important leader for this fairly young Liberty team.

 

Dreams of playing in the WNBA started when Whitcomb was a middle-schooler in Ventura, California, and saw the Los Angeles Sparks play. 

 In high school, she became obsessed with basketball and knew she wanted to make it her professional career, 

 When she played at the University of Washington she was able to watch the Seattle Storm play and see a city that supported that team, and that further enhanced her dreams.

 

She was a three-year starter for the Huskies, leading the team in scoring, rebounding and assists in her senior year, garnering All-Pac-10 honors. 

She was twice a Pac-10 All-Defensive Team honorable mention.  Before she graduated she was the active leader in steals in the Pac-10 Conference.

 

After graduation, Whitcomb had a tryout with the WNBA’s Chicago Sky. 

 And although she did not make the team, the experience was deeply meaningful for her as she learned what she needed to do to be able to play at the highest level in the world. 

She realized she was not ready for the WNBA.  

It was a fast, quick, and physical league.

 She honestly self-evaluated herself knowing she had to learn to make better and quicker decisions on the court, to get off her shot quicker, to be able create her own shot, to be a better ball handler, to be quicker on defense, and to be physically stronger to absorb punishment.  

 

This was a pivotal movement as Whitcomb started on a course to get better.  

Although she didn’t get any offers to play professionally overseas her first year after graduating, she played in local men’s and women’s leagues while working as the video coordinator for the Huskies’ women’s team.

 

She got an opportunity to play professionally in Germany in the 2011-12 season.  She 

Whitcomb next played in Europe for the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons and received an opportunity to play in Australia for the Rockingham Flames of the State Basketball League (SBL) following the 2012-13 season.

 

She tore up the SBL, winning the MVP award three times in four years and being a very big part of two championship teams.

 

In 2016, Whitcomb got the opportunity to play for the Perth Lynx in the Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL) in Australia, the preeminent Australian League.  She helped the Flames reach the championship finals and was on the All-WNBL Team (then called the WNBL All-Star Five).

 

In the following season with the Lynx, Whitcomb was again an All-WNBL player. 

 For the whole season, including the playoffs, she averaged 24.1 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game.

Whitcomb  ranks second in the history of the WNBL for most points scored in the regular season.

 

In February 2017, more than six and a half years after graduating college, the WNBA finally beckoned.  

A few months after switching agents, she got an offer to tryout for the Seattle Storm.  Up until then, except for her tryout with the Chicago Sky in 2010, she had received no offers to tryout for a WNBA team.

 

This whole time Whitcomb was fueled by her love of playing the game of basketball and the idea that if you worked hard, you could continue to improve.

 

Sami Whitcomb made the Seattle Storm and the dream became a reality.  The Storm won the championship two out of the four years she was there.  She was an important backup player who scored 11 points in 22 minutes to help Seattle win a do or die Playoff Game 5 against the Phoenix Mercury in 2018 to advance to the WNBA Finals.  She played the last 14 and a half minutes of that game.

 

In 2019, the Storm lost Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart to injury and Whitcomb started 13 games and averaged 20 minutes a game.  

Her confidence and experience grew which led her to become a big contributor to the Storm’s championship team in 2020 playing an average of 16.5 minutes a game and averaging 8.1 points per game.

 

Her time in Seattle was marked by playing with some of the best players in the world, practicing against them, and being supported by them. 

 Whitcomb learned from teammate Alysha Clark the importance of studying film to learn the players tendencies so she could improve defensively.

 

At the end of 2020, Whitcomb became a restricted free agent and the New York Liberty got her in a sign and trade (the Storm getting the rights to Stephanie Talbot).  

The Liberty was in a rebuilding mode and saw a good fit. 

 For Whitcomb, it was an opportunity that most ballplayers want - the chance to play many minutes, although there were no guarantees of this.  She would have to earn it.  

 

The style of play appealed to Sami, fast paced, with a lot of outside shooting.  She believed she could get better if she played more.  

And there was an opportunity to help build a new culture, be a leader, play in and live near the Barclays Arena in Brooklyn, and practice in a beautiful facility.

 

Whitcomb has arrived in the city that doesn’t sleep.  A city filled with people chasing their dreams, trying to find opportunities, and working hard to better themselves.  

Seems like Whitcomb fits in well.  

And after speaking with her for about 45 minutes, I sense a modesty which seems to belie her talents.  And, I may add, a very intelligent and articulate person.

 

At the age of 32, Whitcomb seized this new opportunity. (She turned 33 in July.)  

She has scored, defended, rebounded, helped run the offense, and is a team leader on a team long on youth.

 She has started every game and has played many more minutes than ever before in her WNBA career.  

Whitcomb is the oldest Liberty player, and arguably, the most experienced player on the team given all the years she has played professionally. She has earned the right to be a team leader.

 

She has been a vocal leader, speaking to the team as a group and to individual players.  

Making sure she speaks out when the energy level is not enough, when the team is not executing the plays or the game plan.  

She feels the players are willing to listen to each other.  

At different points in her career, starting in high school, Whitcomb has been a team captain or co-captain.

 

Whitcomb’s shooting percentages significantly improved last season and have significantly further improved this season.  

Last season her total field goal percentage was 44.3% with 38.1% from the three-point line.  This season they are 48.9% and 43.75%, respectively, putting her into elite status.

 

Whitcomb attributes the improvement this year to a number of factors. 

 Her teammates are getting her the ball in good positions to shoot. 

And the increased playing time allows her to know she doesn’t have to shoot right away, as there will be more opportunities during the course of the game.  

There is an increase in confidence from knowing that if she has some misses, she won’t be taken out of the game just because of that.

 

In recognition of her shooting ability, Whitcomb was one of four players selected to participate in the three-point shooting contest during half-time of this year’s WNBA All-Star Game.

 

The Liberty, who won just two games last season, now stands with a record of 10-11, sixth best in the WNBA.  

It’s quite a turnaround, especially since their center/forward Natasha Howard, a tremendous player, who last played on May 24, has only played two games.  

 

Coming off the Olympic break the Liberty’s season resumes Sunday. Howard will be back.   

There are 11 regular season games left.

 

Whitcomb played with Howard in Seattle, and I expect that Sami’s knowledge of Howard’s game will help create good chemistry between Howard and the rest of the team.

 

The story of this WNBA season is far from over.  But today, looking back, it’s hard not to appreciate what Sami Whitcomb has accomplished.