Checking in with former UConn standout Kia Nurse.
Former UConn standout on her offseason plans, review of the WNBA bubble and vast potential of Aaliyah Edwards
It’s been nearly two months since UConn alum and New York Liberty guard Kia Nurse departed the WNBA bubble in Bradenton, Fla., on the heels of a grueling and disappointing summer.
The bubble experience was both physically and emotionally draining for players, as teams played every other day while staying on the forefront of activism around Black Lives Matter, voting and other social justices issues. Nurse’s season basketball-wise didn’t go as she’d hoped, either. She suffered a serious ankle sprain in the first game of the season, something she would deal with the rest of her time in the bubble, and dealt with the worst shooting slump of her professional career.
New York, which additionally lost No. 1 draft pick Sabrina Ionescu for all but three games after her own ankle sprain, sputtered to a 2-20 finish.
Now at home in Ontario, Canada, Nurse is able to reset her body and her mind. After winning two championships and being named the 2020 MVP in Australia’s WNBL, Nurse announced in March that she wouldn’t be returning to the club in the offseason and would pursue other opportunities. She’s relishing spending time with her family after so many months surrounded by only WNBA personnel. She’s rehabbing her ankle and getting some workouts in, while also keeping busy as a basketball analyst for TSN, Canada’s Sports Leader, which has allowed her to see the game from a different lens and build her basketball IQ.
“The bubble was the bubble,” Nurse told The Courant. “It wasn’t my favorite season. On the court, I wasn’t happy at all about my performance. This is where the offseason comes in. You come in, you get healthy. I figure out how to get my body back to where I need to be and then I add things to my game and make improvements for the next year.
“It’s been fun for me to get back to my family. I have a little nephew now, so watching him grow up, little things like that, has been fun.”
When the WNBA will resume play and what the season will look like is unclear. Though the 2020 season was a resounding success, with zero COVID-19 cases, the hope is that teams can return to their home floors in front of fans. The Liberty’s anxiously anticipated debut in Barclays Center was delayed with the league’s move to a bubble.
Nurse is eager to get playing in Brooklyn, as well as to see what more the league and individual WNBA teams can do to fight racial injustices. The WNBA dedicated the 2020 season to Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency room technician who was killed by Louisville police in March, and the Say Her Name campaign, which brings awareness to female victims of police violence.
“I was grateful that we were able to have the platform and have the season so that we could bring awareness to Breonna Taylor’s case and the Say Her Name campaign,” Nurse said. “I think there’s a lot of work that still needs to be done, and that’s been evident throughout our season. But I’m proud to be a part of the league and be one of the members amongst a number of amazing and incredible women who use their voices and who use their platforms to instill change and create justice in this world.”
Basketball’s current hiatus won’t last too along, at least at the college level: The NCAA season start date is Nov. 25. Nurse will undoubtedly be keeping an eye on her Huskies, with whom she won two national titles in 2015 and 2016, and is excited to see how Aaliyah Edwards, a teammate on the senior Canadian national team, fares her freshman year.
“I think she has a great
potential and the sky’s the limit for her,” Nurse said. “She’s got such a great athleticism and an understanding for the game, and she works hard. Honestly, I think she can achieve anything she wants to, so it’ll be really exciting to see.”
Nurse first met Edwards, who also played for Nurse’s AAU team, at a national team camp and has since been impressed by her effort, competitiveness and energy. Edwards’ size and athleticism, Nurse added, also make her a mismatch problem for opposing players, and she’s a force on the offensive glass.
UConn coach Geno Auriemma has already said that Edwards is going to have to play a good amount for a freshmen-heavy Huskies team — something Nurse knows a thing or two about. She averaged 25 minutes per game as a freshman and was inserted into the starting lineup after the Huskies’ Nov. 2014 loss to Stanford.
“You can do the things that you know you can control and that are easy,” said Nurse, whose defense and competitive fire were among her strengths at UConn. “That’s your effort, your relentlessness, your competitive spirit, your defense. That’ll always keep you on the court at UConn. And if you are out there, you’re giving 110 percent and you’re doing your best — I think that’s what’s going to be great with [Edwards] is that you know she’s going to give you the effort every time she’s out there. That’ll give her a ton of opportunity to be able to play.”