‘I wanted to play with the greats’: Courtney Vandersloot chases her second WNBA title with top-seeded Liberty

ARLINGTON, Texas – Even before joining New York in 2023, Courtney Vandersloot had accomplished a lot in her WNBA career - member of the WNBA All-Rookie Team in 2011 after Chicago drafted her third overall, four-time all-star, selected to the All-WNBA first or second team five times and helping lead the Sky to their first title in 2021.

The chance to play in the Big Apple alongside current greats like Sabrina Ionescu, an Oregon product, and Breanna Stewart, who has won two titles with Seattle, was too good to pass up.

“Yeah, that’s why I came here, I wanted to play with the greats. What we put together with this team are some future hall of famers and I think that’s just great to be a part of,” Vandersloot, 35, said.

“We’re all cut from the same cloth with the way we approach the game and everything. That was really important to me, being able to play with like-minded players. I never take these moments for granted because (of getting to play alongside) two of the greats and more (great players).”

This season is the former Gonzaga star’s 14th in the WNBA, and in the regular season she averaged 6.4 points, 4.8 assists, and 2.6 rebounds per game. Earlier this season, the Liberty became the first team in WNBA history to win 30 games in consecutive seasons. New York, however, has a much bigger prize in mind: winning its first league title .

New York enters the playoffs with the league’s top seed and will host the Atlanta Dream for a three-game series beginning Sunday at 10 a.m.

“Yeah, it’s been nice,” Vandersloot said. “This is our second year together. We worked out some wrinkles early last year and felt like we figured out our identity. It’s been a good year.”

She said she hasn’t been back to Spokane since her number was raised to the rafters at the McCarthey Athletic Center in January 2023, but knowing her jersey sits in some good company is an honor the three-time West Coast Conference Player of the Year, three-time WCC Tournament MVP, and two-time NCAA assist leader continues to cherish.

“That moment was so surreal for me. I really credit my time at Gonzaga to where I am today,” Vandersloot said. “If I had picked a different school, I don’t know how it ends up. A lot of what I’m doing now is because I spent time at Gonzaga, so it was very important for me. It’s such an honor. There’s some greats up there and to be amongst them, the first female to be followed by many more, it was a really cool moment.”

One of the other numbers retired by the Zags is John Stockton, an all-time great in Spokane and in the NBA and someone with whom she developed a friendship during her time as a Bulldog.

“Yeah, he was great,” she said. “He was a fan. That’s what I loved most about him, he was there supporting us, high -fiving us, rooting us on my entire time there. I think that was cool of him. We really started a good buzz. It was nice to see him and his support.”

In addition to getting to play alongside two of the league’s top players in Ionescu and Stewart, something else that intrigued Vandersloot about coming to the Liberty was the chance to play for one of the league’s top coaches in Sandy Brondello. She was an WNBA All-Star as a player and came to New York in 2022 after a successful tenure in Phoenix, leading the Mercury to the 2014 title.

“Sandy’s biggest strength is not getting too high or too low. She creates this environment where she expects a lot but understands this is a really hard league to win in,” Vandersloot said . “When we don’t play well, lose or drop a game that we shouldn’t have, we come in and we go back to the drawing board and that’s it. We’re not going to push a panic button. I love that about her, that she always keeps the environment positive because it’s tough sometimes. It turns into a grind and Sandy’s great, even about the bad times.”

Brondello has coached and played alongside numerous great players during her long and storied tenure in the game, but if there is one thing she came to appreciate about Vandersloot almost immediately, it’s her incredible consistency. “(She) … wants to play in the right way and it doesn’t show up on the stat sheet, but this is someone you can rely on 150%,” Brondello said. “I know every game what she’s going to do and that’s nice as a coach, it doesn’t go (up or down) from one game to the other. She’s always going to give me great effort and she’ll do what’s best for the team.”

And for the humble ex-Zag, answering the bell is something that has always been part of her core both as a player and an individual.

“I’m going to give you 110% every night. I know every night is not going to look the same,” Vandersloot said. “I’m going to have nights where I’m shooting the ball much better than others and nights I’m turning it over too many times, but never going to have to question my effort, being prepared, professionalism. All those things, I’m going to show up like that every night. The other thing is the statistics, the intangibles, that works itself out over time.”

Still, she knows that were it not for her time at Gonzaga, she might not have reached such incredible heights in the professional ranks. She considers herself blessed to be part of the rich tradition in such a great basketball hotbed.

“It’s a basketball city. They love their hoops there,” Vandersloot said. “They’ve had some greats come out of Spokane, like Adam Morrison. It’s great to see what Lexie (Hull) is doing over there for the Fever.

“That was one of the reasons I wanted to play at Gonzaga, because I knew the city loved the sport. Hoopfest is one of a kind. That’s one of the best weekends and the way the city pours into their athletes, it’s great to be a part of.”

Stephen Hunt is a freelance writer based in Frisco, Texas.