WNBA FINALS: STORM VS. ACES

October 6, 2020

Kayla McBride

Las Vegas Aces

Game 3: Postgame

Seattle Storm 92, Las Vegas Aces 59

Q. I thought the turning point in this game was the second quarter. Stewart goes out with a third foul. What happened in those few minutes there? What do you feel like you could have done differently?

KAYLA McBRIDE: First off, I want to say congratulations to Seattle. They're a great team. They have a lot of experience winning together. Sue was on a mission, Sue was Sue. They're a great team. I want to say congratulations to them first and foremost.

Secondly, it's been our turnovers, the whole series. She went out with that third foul, we turned the ball over four times in a row. You can't do that against a good team. We're still continuing to learn. Now we know.

I'm so incredibly proud of this team because no one, without Plum and Liz, thought that we would be in the Finals, nobody. Not one person picked us to be in the Finals.

So now looking back on everything, we just lost to the better team. It is what it is.

Q. It was the first Finals experience for so many players on this team. What do you feel like you're going to take from it? What can this team take from it moving forward?

KAYLA McBRIDE: Life continues. Obviously, a lot of us go different ways. Some of us go overseas, some do things in the States. This feeling, it doesn't go away. The feeling of walking off the court, the confetti, the other team's colors, it doesn't go away. Keeping that in the back of your mind, letting that fuel your grind for whatever to come back, fuel our grind.

Hopefully we're back playing in front of our fans. It's a whole different ballgame if we have two home games, you know what I'm saying?

You look forward to it. You look forward to the normalcy of the world coming back. Being here and being in this bubble, what we stood for is so much bigger than just basketball. You take your bumps and your bruises. We were in the Finals. It fuels you to want to even take that next step. I'm looking forward to it.

This was probably the hardest season I've had overseas or in America, period. So, I've just been really proud of the adversity, the amount of love we have for each other in that locker room. It's incredible top to bottom. It's just been a blessing to be able to be here, play pro basketball.

Some people have been going through this pandemic, social injustice. To be out there on that court each and every night, it's a beautiful thing. It's a blessing. You never want to take those moments for granted. You just want to keep getting better.

Q. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert started the speech by, Say her name. And said their names tonight. What do you think about the fact that you all had to go through the season playing but championing social justice as well?

KAYLA McBRIDE: For us, the battles that are being fought outside of this bubble are way bigger than anything we can fight here. We're using our platform to fight for those that can't fight for themselves, for the Breonna Taylors of the world, for those families going through it each and every day silently and out loud. We're trying to do that through basketball the best we can. Especially being a predominantly black league, I think we feel it even more so.

I think the battle that we're fighting is minuscule compared to the battle going on outside this bubble. But using our voices, I've been so proud of the 144 women of this league, how we've used our voices individually and collectively to continue to say her name, to remind everybody to vote, remind everyone of the things actually going on outside this bubble while being in the bubble. You know what I'm saying?

That's what it was about coming here and competing at the highest level, using this platform to continue that fight. Like I said, I'm just so proud to be one of the 144 in this league and continue that fight.

Q. What would you say is the biggest thing you're going to take away from this season? What do you want to say to all the fans that supported you even without being able to be there?

KAYLA McBRIDE: I mean, I kind of answered this a little bit before. I just think you take this feeling and you let it fuel you to continue to get better. Like I said, no one thought we were going to be here. Our expectations within our locker room were way different than anyone else's. We weren't even supposed to be here. I never felt like that.

Like I say, I'm just so proud of how we continued to fight through all the adversity. This bubble hasn't been easy. There's been days we had to pick each other up. There's been days where you just don't have it because you know you are in this bubble and you miss your family, X, Y and Z.

What fuels me always has been the fans, knowing the messages we would receive after the games, before the games, just the love. You have that feeling of hearing your name called when you're in the starting lineup, hearing the fans go crazy. People that are at the scorer's table, season ticketholders, Vegas turns out for us and we know that.

If you've been there... I'm trying to explain to Angel, when you play at Mandalay, in front of our fans at the House, it's just different. MGM does things differently. Our fans do things differently.

I think all of us miss playing there, especially those who have already played there before. It's just a different vibe.

I want to say thank you guys so much for supporting us all the way back in Vegas, thousands of miles away, watching us on the big screens, all the messages, all the love.

Shout out to Jimmy Lamb and Jarred, two of my guys. Gamed 2K with me every day to keep my mind sane in this bubble. I want to throw a special shout out to them. Hopefully it gets to them.

I love Vegas with all my heart. I love this organization. This is my seventh year within this organization, between San Antonio and here. A lot of emotions right now because you feel like you let the fans down. The journey is still going on. You wake up tomorrow and you find another way to get even 1%, just a little bit better.

I just want to say thank you guys. We miss you. We wish we were back home playing in front of y'all.

Q. What are your plans once you get outside of the wubble?

KAYLA McBRIDE: Spend some time with my family first, my godson. I'm heading overseas, back to Istanbul. I think we need to decompress. I think we all do. It's not easy to go out like this after you've been through so much together. I need time to decompress, be with my family, siblings. Just being around people other than my teammates. I love them to death, but [expletive], I miss my mom. Take that little bit of break but get right back to the grind overseas and continue to get better.

Q. Can you talk about the W Diaries series you did for the W Youtube channel?

KAYLA McBRIDE: It was cool. They reached out to me right after we beat Connecticut. It was cool to give them an inside look into maybe a day-to-day being in the Finals, day-to-day of being in the bubble, just the self-reflection that you can give. It's way more personable.

You guys see us out on the court between those lines. I'm a completely different person out there than I am behind closed doors. It's cool to give the fans of W and Vegas an inside look of everything that we go through on a regular basis, just the emotions and things we go through throughout the Finals and through the Playoffs.