Young Kiwi hoops phenom shoots for the stars in US
HOW do you know you’re making it in the glitzy world of US basketball? Perhaps it’s capturing the imagination of fans; perhaps it’s setting records and excelling on the court; perhaps it’s finding messages on your phone from global rock stars and hoops heroes.
Well, for young Kiwi phenom Charlisse Leger-Walker, it’s all three after she spearheaded her Washington State Cougars to the college’s first Pac-12 conference tournament, topping off her player of the tournament performances by capturing fans’ hearts by dedicating the win to her late Nana Mere.
That was last Monday and the past week has been something of a whirlwind for the 21-year-old Waikato star, who first played for the Tall Ferns as a 16-year-old and now has a decision to make over whether she goes in the draft for the ultralucrative WNBA.
In an interview with Stuff’s Marc Hinton today, she admits the big show has ‘‘always been the big dream of mine’’ but will make the call once her college season is done. In the meantime, she’s lapping up the attention of WSC’s tournament win in Vegas – and it’s the sort of attention that has involved being messaged by both Canadian pop singer Shania Twain and Golden State Warriors NBA star Klay Thompson.
Both messaged Leger-Walker and her team-mates in the wake of the Cougars’ victory, Twain because the team had adopted her ‘‘Man! I Feel like a Woman!’’
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tune as their unofficial anthem, and Thompson because, well, he was pretty proud of his alma mater.
‘‘He’d been following me on Instagram for a while, and he posted on his story [after WSU’s victory over UCLA], and I just replied saying thank you for your support,’’ Leger-Walker told Stuff of her interaction with Thompson. ‘‘He just replied saying, ‘you’re the best, congrats, way to hoop’.
And I was like, my gosh, I’m famous.’’
And Shania?
‘‘We’re a big big karaoke team, and one of our players, Ula Motuga, it was her karaoke song. She started singing it before a game in the locker-room one time, and we all joined in and then it became a tradition that everyone sang it before we played a game. They actually played it during our game against UCLA the week before the tournament, and we all started singing on court. Now it’s become a celebratory song for us.’’
In a wide-ranging interview, LegerWalker also talked through the more painful side to her season: Two trips home – the first to see her ailing grandmother before she died, and the second to attend the funeral.
Nana Mere was former Tall Fern mum Leanne Walker’s mother. ‘‘In my heart I’ve been playing for her all season,’’ said Charlisse. ‘‘I was thinking about her before the final, and it’s what motivated me throughout the tournament.’’