As the Chicago Sky continue their bid for their second straight WNBA title with their semifinal series this week against the Connecticut Sun, Azura stevens recalls last winter’s overseas experience as key to his outstanding 2022 season.
“I think confidence is the most important thing,” Stevens, 26, said after Sky’s regular-season finale against the Phoenix Mercury. “I think just believing in myself as a player. I mean, I think I’ve been capable of this, but it’s kind of like people won’t see how you play unless you go out there and do it.”
This season, Stevens has posted the best overall numbers of his five-year WNBA career, averaging 10.6 points, 3.9 rebounds and 0.8 assists while playing 21.9 minutes in 35 games.
“I think you can play really free abroad,” added Stevens, who competed for Nika in the Russian Premier League and European Championship for several months during the WNBA offseason before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine forced her to return to Russia. home ahead of time. “And she really helped me, just to come back, just not hold back. You know, there’s nothing to lose.
“It really is you yourself that sometimes stops you. So really going into this year, I didn’t want that to be something that would stop me from just (doing) all that I can do.”
But it was more than a successful offseason that put Stevens on the right track for his third full season with Sky. The fiercely private Stevens recently revealed that it was a concerted effort to address her mental health that really made the difference, on and off the pitch.
“I came into this year making sure to take care of myself as much as possible because I don’t want to go back to that place again,” Stevens said. in a recent feature for WNBA.comwhere he discussed the anger and depression he faced after back-to-back seasons were cut short in 2019 in 2020, first due to a lingering foot injury that required surgery, followed by a knee injury out of left field that also required surgery. required.
“I went through a lot last year and got to a place where I didn’t like to be,” he added.
Now, Stevens is looking to help others who might be facing similar difficulties. She is one of the three Sky players, along with Ruthy Hebard Y Rebecca Gardner – who are the face of Chicago Initiative “The Network”which launched in early August and is designed to help athletes prioritize their mental health and “provide full-court support.”
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“It feels good,” Stevens told On Her Turf on Saturday, a day after the WNBA feature was published. “I think I’ve gone back and forth this year on how much I wanted to share and what I wanted to say, but having an organization that really wanted to get behind me was really amazing, as well as Rebecca and Ruthy wanting to be a part of this as well.”
Stevens shared some additional thoughts about his motivation for participating in the initiative, noting, “For too long, gamers have been viewed as one-dimensional superstars whose athletic prowess is celebrated and debated.” she said. “But underneath the trash talk and the 3-pointers, a lot of us struggle with the pressure to be perfect, to perform flawlessly and to do it all with a smile. We get injured and face the mental challenges of getting better. Sharing these stories makes us human and helps people see how we deal with trauma and hopefully helps others deal with the same issues.”
Born in Rhode Island, Stevens grew up in Cary, North Carolina, spending the first two years of her college career at Duke before transferring to UConn. She played one season for the Huskies before entering the 2018 WNBA Draft, where she was selected in the first round, sixth overall, by the Dallas Wings, where she spent two seasons. During her first season in the league, Stevens was named to the 2018 WNBA All Rookie Team thanks to a solid 43 percent shooting (111-of-258) and scored a career-high 26 points in a matchup of July vs. Indiana.
He played just nine games in 2019 and 13 in 2020 while dealing with the aforementioned injuries, and entered the 2021 season with a minutes restriction, which only exacerbated his frustrations. But getting over the hump, physically and mentally, translated into a bigger role in Sky’s 2021 WNBA title race, where Stevens started all 10 games and averaged 9.8 points and 6.9 rebounds.
The twist is evident in Stevens presence on social mediaparticularly on Twitter, where he posts positive affirmations and quotes daily.
“I love posting those quotes,” he told WNBA.com. “I have an app on my phone that sends them to me and helps me keep the right mindset throughout the day. In fact, I send quotes to some of my closest friends every day. It just helps me stay on the right things.
“Some days, you wake up and it’s easy not to feel it that day as an athlete, or even as people in general, but as an athlete, you don’t really have the freedom for a day off, especially if you’re trying to accomplish something.
As Sky attempts to achieve their current goal of back-to-back titles, Stevens said they’re not taking anything for granted ahead of their best-of-five series against Sun. Although Chicago swept Connecticut in their season series, 4-0, none of the victories were landslides, with the Sky winning by single-digit margins in all four.
“At this point, it’s more fair who wants it more,” Stevens said. “You know, we can sit here and talk about schemes all day, but it’s really just who wants it more and we’ll see what happens on Sunday.”
On Her Turf editor Alex Azzi contributed to this report.
