Phoenix Mercury’s Sami Whitcomb carves lengthy career out of not settling for no

Video by Eliav Gabay

Article By Jeff Metcalfe

Sami Whitcomb could have given up playing basketball long ago.

Instead she committed to a hoops version of the grueling Camino de Santiago pilgrimage from France to Spain, determined to prove herself at a level that others didn’t always see.

“I wasn’t afraid of the no, but the no isn’t going to stop me,” Whitcomb says. “It’s not going to be prohibitive for me. It’s going to be a lesson. That’s been really important for me along the way, understanding it’s a no now but it won’t be for long because I’m willing to work. So long as you have that mentality, you’re not afraid to look in the mirror.”

What Whitcomb sees now in her reflection is a two-time WNBA champion going into her ninth season in the premier league in the world and first with the Phoenix Mercury. The Mercury signed her as a free agent on Feb. 2 when Whitcomb was well on her way to winning everything to be had in the Australian WNBL including a team title and Most Valuable Player.

Whitcomb’s signing coincided with the Mercury trading for Alyssa Thomas and Satou Sabally, a revamping that included departures of Brittney Griner, Natasha Cloud and Sophie Cunningham plus Diana Taurasi’s retirement.

A WNBA career 36.1 percent 3-point shooter, Whitcomb is a critical addition on a team emphasizing 3-pointers under second-year coach Nate Tibbetts. WNBA career 3-point leader Taurasi and Cunningham made 45 percent of the Mercury’s treys in 2024.

Whitcomb played for Seattle the last two seasons and six of her eight in the WNBA.

“I was less worried about who was signing on the team and more worried about do you think my game suits what you guys are trying to do,” she says. “Because this was so position-less here and they were so high on 3-point shooting, I felt it would be a good fit no matter what.”

Whitcomb played her way into options in her first stint with Seattle (2017-20). She went to New York in a sign-and-trade for two seasons then back to Seattle and now to Phoenix as a sought after unrestricted free agent.

“Sami’s been a humongous add for us,” Mercury general manager Nick U’Ren says. “Everything we heard about her leading up to her signing and everything we’ve seen, she’s the ultimate pro. She sets the tone from a work ethic perspective, treats everybody properly and obviously she’s seen what winning takes at the highest level. There’s a reason she’s still a pro and has had such a long career. It’s the work she puts in off the floor and her ability to impact the game. We’re thrilled to have her.”

Life changing turn to Australia

Excitement was tepid for Whitcomb coming out of Washington in 2010 off an All Pac-10 senior season. She was not selected in a WNBA draft headed by Tina Charles but nondescript in totality.

Chicago signed Whitcomb for training camp and unsurprisingly it did not go well.

“I knew I wasn’t good enough,” she says. “I was sad because of course you don’t want to get cut, but I have all these things I get to go work on and I get to do that playing overseas. How cool.”

Germany was her first stop, for two seasons until her league-leading team went bankrupt before the 2013 finals. A month vacation in Greece seemed like a way to regroup until an offer came to play in the Australian State Basketball League.

“That was the moment that changed my life,” says Whitcomb although not because it was an immediate path to the more prestigious WNBL.

Without the WNBA on her resume, Whitcomb couldn’t get onto a WNBL team until 2015 even though she was a three-time SBL Most Valuable Player. Again, the why was more important to Whitcomb than the no.

“I just changed everything,” she says. “I changed how fit I was (losing 30 pounds), how strong I was, how fast I was. I worked on my shooting even more. I was basically like I don’t give a (blank) if I’m not a WNBA player, I’m going to be better than the WNBA player you’re signing.

“I was going to be as ready as possible for that moment so whenever it was, I was just going to kill it.”

Whitcomb was so prepared that she made All-WNBL first team in her first three seasons (2016-18), springboarding her into the WNBA in 2017 when she was turning 29. A naturalized Australian since 2018, she played for the bronze medal-winning Opals at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Turning 37 in July, the improbability of her career still going strong isn’t lost on the one who put in the work to make it happen and created opportunity out of perceived failure.

I know lots of people that have worked just as hard as I have and done all the things that I have and haven’t had these fortunate strokes of luck I have had because a lot of it is luck too.

“I always say if you don’t focus on the end, whatever that goal is, you sort of create your own luck and you’ll have a career like this because of that.”

Mercury killer in 2018 WNBA Semifinals

It’s not like Whitcomb owes anything to the Mercury, but part of the reason she’s here is her success against Phoenix.

She is 7-1 in the last two seasons alone and 17-10 overall. In 2023, she averaged 13 points and four 3-pointers in four games vs. the Mercury.

More problematic for the Mercury was Whitcomb’s role in the deciding Game 5 of the 2018 WNBA playoff semifinals. The Sue Bird game, if you will, but Whitcomb also played a critical role in Seattle’s 94-84 win.

The Mercury led 57-49 more than halfway through the third quarter when Whitcomb, who did not play in the first two games of the series, replaced Jewell Loyd. She immediately hit a 3-pointer and played the rest of the way with three assists in the fourth quarter, two to Bird for 3-pointers. Bird scored 14 of her 22 points in the fourth.

The Storm then swept Washington in the WNBA Finals while the Mercury missed out on a golden chance for their fourth league title.

“That’s one of the most memorable games I’ve ever played,” Whitcomb says. “My job is literally just make the right pass, don’t (blank) this up. To be the person that’s passing it to Sue as she’s hitting shot after shot. To be on the floor when we won that game was incredible.”

Whitcomb replaces Taurasi, whom she idolized while growing up in southern California, as the Mercury’s oldest player. Like Taurasi, she is married with two young children. Her Australian wife Kate Malpass and sons Nash and Reef will be in Arizona for six weeks to help Sami maintain balance in the crush of a 44-game schedule.

“That has been hard for me because I am so critical of myself,” she admits. “I love being in the gym, but I can overdo it. For me, having kids, having a greater purpose away from basketball, that balance has been really amazing for me.”

“I’m a lot more present in basketball and a lot of gratitude that comes with that. Now I’m playing because I want my sons to know they can dream as big as they want to dream if they’re willing to work hard. I want them to see that.”