Sun’s Alyssa Thomas elevates to legend
There was no sellout crowd at Mohegan Sun to welcome Alyssa Thomas into the starting lineup. No sellout crowd to react with a roar that would have rattled the poker chips outside the arena on the casino floor.
There was a late WNBA tipoff Thursday on ESPN, the clock pressing toward
9:45 p.m., following the Seattle-Minnesota semifinal game. This would limit the number of younger girls and boys back home — the ones who deserved to most be inspired — from seeing what would take place over the next two hours in an empty IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.
COVID-19 may have robbed us of some of the live theater that the Connecticut Sun’s Game 3 semifinal victory over the Las Vegas Aces richly deserved, but it will not rob us of the legend.
Those who have played with Alyssa Thomas, those who have coached her, call her a warrior, a fighter, the toughest competitor they’d ever seen play. And while there has been mounting incremental evidence over the years that these words were true, there was not the moment, the playoff night, that could be told and retold as proof positive.
This was the night. This
was the night when folks who love women’s basketball will say, “You should’ve been there.” Actually, this was the night when all sports fans can say, “We should’ve been there.” This was the night Alyssa Thomas entered with an intricate web of tape wrapped around her right shoulder and left wrapped in athletic glory.
Inside the WNBA isolation zone, the wubble as it’s called, Thomas would not only fight off the pain from a dislocated shoulder to score 23 points, pull in 12 rebounds and hand out four assists. With her team down, 66-65, she would dominate the last three minutes, scoring eight of her points, grabbing two of her game-high three steals, to lift the Sun within one win of the WNBA Finals.
“I thought maybe there would be some plays that the physicality you are used to, the tenacity you are used to, we might get a bit of a shell of that,” Sun coach Curt Miller said. “But AT only knows one way to play. Even if she wanted to be smart, she only knows one way to play.
“She was demanding that we play harder throughout the game. There was a stretch in the third quarter that we weren’t playing with the tenacity and energy we needed. She was challenging people. We feed off that energy.”
Tussling for position Tuesday with league MVP A’ja Wilson five minutes into Game 2 of the best-offive semifinals, Thomas suddenly dropped to the floor. She pounded her feet in agony. Thomas has played with partially torn labrum in both shoulders and now the right one was dislocated. Her teammates would tell Holly Rowe of ESPN that they could hear Thomas screaming from outside the locker room.
This is a shoulder dislocation: The head of the upper arm bone (humerus) pops out of the socket (glenoid). It hurts like hell. On Wednesday, the Sun ruled Thomas out of Game 3. Earlier Thursday, she was upgraded to questionable. Shortly after midnight Friday, the only question was whether the Aces, 18-4 in the regular season and the No. 1 seed in the playoffs, could bounce back after the anvil Thomas dropped on them.
“We play through her,” Jasmine Thomas said. “We feed on her energy.”
“I’ve known AT a long time,” Brionna Jones said. “Watching her come out after her injury, it just makes you want to play even harder.”
After Alyssa Thomas hit a driving layup to put the Sun ahead with 3:03 on the clock, Briann January found her open for a sweet floater in the lane a minute later to again regain the lead. Thomas wasn’t done. With 49 seconds left, she took another pass from January at the top of the 3-point arc. She beat Jackie Young off the drive and shot over Dearica Hamby to give the Sun a five-point lead.
Then the piece de resistance: Thomas picked off a Kayla McBride pass intended for Angel McCoughtry, drove the court and with McCoughtry bouncing off her, scored with 45 seconds left.
Miller was left shaking his head in awe.
“You’re going to have to amputate that arm and shoulder before it’s going to keep her out,” he said.
After the dislocation, the shoulder was popped back in place. On Wednesday, Thomas had an MRI that showed no new injury. Jones, who had 15 points and 10 rebounds, said the team saw her at the early shootaround Thursday. They figured she’d try to play. At pregame warmups, Thomas told her teammates she was feeling good. That’s when they knew she’d be ready to go.
“I’ve never dislocated it like that,” Thomas said. “It was very painful going out and putting it back in. The next day (Wednesday), I was super-sore, as to be expected.
“But I’m used to it. I knew what to expect. That wasn’t going to stop me. I think we have a great opportunity in this series, and I want to be a part of it. Once I heard (after the MRI result) that it was up to me, I knew I’d be out there.”
Miller is the kind of guy who can talk for hours if needed. He also has a good feel for the person on the other side of the conversation. Alyssa Thomas is a woman of much fewer words. So this is the way it went with coach and player, Miller joked of their relationship:
“She said, ‘I’m good.’ I’m like, ‘You’re good?’ And we’re like, ‘Let’s go!’ That’s about the amount of words that were exchanged. That’s all I needed to hear.”
This was a night when WNBA players once again showed their strength in matters off the court. They stood together in their statement to call the grand jury decision not to indict three Louisville police officers in the death of Breonna Taylor “outrageous and offensive.” This was not a surprise. In July, the WNBA dedicated the season to Taylor. Since 2016, WNBA players have led professional sports in the battle against social injustice.
Yet is scant exaggeration and merely a fortunate coincidence that on the same night Alyssa Thomas was there to demonstrate how strong, how tough women athletes are when it matters most to a team. This was a Willis Reed night. This was a Curt Schilling night. This was a Bobby Baun night. And if you don’t know what all three mean, read up, and add Thomas to that list of stories to be told and retold.
“That’s not what it’s about for me,” Thomas said. “It’s about my team, this season, what we’re trying to accomplish.
“I’m just doing me. I’m a tough person. I can handle a lot. I know what I’m capable of.”
Thomas said she has learned to adapt, change her game in places and still, to use her words, cause havoc every game. Miller made reference to “another player” in the Finals last year who was heralded for playing through back spasms and a herniated disk. That would be Washington’s Elena Delle Donne. He said it’s amazing Thomas continues to be so physical with the shoulder problems that have dogged her for years. Her pain threshold is extraordinary.
“We prepared to play without her tonight,” Miller said, “but if there was one player that could come back from that dislocation and her history of injuries with her shoulders it was going to be her.
“She just continues to defy logic at times with her toughness and how much pain she plays through. We hold our breath at times.”
The Sun don’t want to become the Buffalo Bills of the WNBA. Earlier in the century, they had a string of playoff runs and two trips to the Finals. Last year, they came within a quarter of their first title. And now they are one win away from another chance.
“I want a championship in the worst way and the way we’re playing right now, with our defense, this team is special,” Thomas said. “I want to be a part of it. It’s going to take a lot to have me sit out.”
Definitely more than a dislocated shoulder.