In a Sunday afternoon match-up to start the month, 32-year-old Alyssa Thomas scored 8 points, snatched 8 rebounds, and dished out 8 assists to beat the Seattle Storm. It certainly wasn’t the recently-crowned Olympic gold medalist’s strongest performance of the season, going 3 for 8 from the floor and scoring below her season average. But that’s what makes Thomas such a force to be reckoned with. Even when the ball isn’t finding the bottom of the net, she leaves it all out on the court for her team and finds every single other way to impact the game. This is because Thomas knows what it’s like to have to watch from the sidelines.
The Setbacks
In just her second season after being a first-round draft pick in the 2014 draft, Thomas tore the labrum in her right shoulder. Since then, Thomas has dealt with a series of severe injuries in both shoulders, and she tore her achilles in January of 2021. It was heart wrenching at first, as the five-time WNBA All-Star opened up to the Players Tribune that for the first few weeks after her Achilles injury, “I didn’t really leave my room at all.” While many of even the most elite athletes may have thrown in the towel after being dealt that hand, Thomas eventually found strength and hope in those around her to keep pushing forward. “Being on the bench and watching them go out and play last year was the extra push I needed to keep getting stronger,” Thomas said.
The Recovery Process
The physical grind of recovery was initially disorienting, because “something as basic as running was an unfamiliar feeling to me, because I hadn’t ran in so long” and things that might seem simple to an outsider like “transitioning from wearing this walking boot to a shoe [were] really hard.” But when Thomas was starting to get close to playing again, “I began doing everything I could on the court and lifting like crazy. I started coming to the gym early before the games and working out before other teams got there, getting myself ready,” she said.
“I never could have gotten back to this point without them.”
Having a Support System
In the Players Tribune article, Thomas shared that even though “with Achilles injuries, so many people think it’s the end…seeing people like Stewie and Kelsey go through it and then come back stronger and kill it on the court was reassuring for me.” And it wasn’t just the once in a generation legends of the game like Breanna Stewart and Kelsey Plum that Thomas turned to for support, but every single one of her teammates. “But seriously, shout out to them because I owe this group everything. I never could have gotten back to this point without them,” Thomas said.
In addition to leaning on her teammates, Thomas learned from the Connecticut Sun coaching staff, too. “Being next to the coaches and hearing the things that they were saying, I was able to see the game in a different light — little things that when you’re playing you don’t see on the court. And seeing how they were killing it out there made me want to be a part of it even more,” she said. It can be hard to see the game from a coach’s perspective as a player, but this opportunity provided that for Thomas. And it’s safe to say that experience paid off, as Thomas went on to be a 2024 Olympic Gold Medalist as well as earning All-Star honors in 2022, 2023, and 2024 and being named to the All-WNBA second team in 2022 and the All-WNBA first team in 2023.
What’s Ahead
Thomas and the Sun currently sit in second place in league standings with a record of 24-9 only behind the star-studded New York Liberty, and have already clinched a playoff spot. The Sun also features leading scorer DeWanna Bonner, wife to Thomas. Together, Thomas and Bonner are taking the game by storm, and always looking to elevate to the next level. And because the Sun are not too far away from the 27-6 Liberty, there is enough time left in the regular season for them to set their sights on stealing the coveted first place spot. And if you know Thomas – known to the women’s basketball world as “the Engine” – you know she’s more than hungry for the next big challenge.
