WNBA FINALS: PHOENIX VS. CHICAGO

October 17, 2021

Kahleah Copper

Chicago Sky

Game 4: Postgame

Sky 80, Mercury 74

Q. Kah [Kahleah Copper], you just shared that moment with [Coach] James [Wade]. You guys said you knew you were going to be MVP. To actually be awarded that trophy, what is the feeling that you're experiencing?

KAHLEAH COPPER: I'm just feeling this sense of this reward, of just my process and everything. I'm just so grateful that I have these teammates, that I have the coaching staff that like genuinely believes in me and just gives me the confidence no matter what's going on out there on the floor.

I just appreciate everybody, every single person on our team, every single person on our staff. Everybody, Maggie [Maloney, Operations Assistant], who helps us with literally everything and who does everything for us. It's those people. It's those people. It's Maggie, it's Sean [Selig, Basketball Operations Assistant], Ann [Crosby, Strength and Conditioning Coach / Basketball Operations Director] it's all of them. They don't get enough credit for every single thing that they do, and the little things that are stretching me extra. Like those people really make the difference and they make this thing go, and that's why we got that trophy.

Q. Can you take me through last year in the bubble, you said you focused on yourself and you really got into knowing who Kahleah Copper was. Take me through that timeline between last year and where you're at currently today and what is this moment?

KAHLEAH COPPER: I have this edginess and this grittiness about me that's going to keep me going. I think it was very important for me to be consistent, starting with last year, having a breakout season as you call it. It was about coming in this year and being consistent and actually being better than I was last year.

I think that that was just important for me. I think I never lost the confidence in myself. I just continued to put the work in. It's no secret to it. It's so cliché, but you put the work in and you get rewarded.

Q. Three years ago when James [Wade] started, he said his biggest task was getting you all to believe and that would get you to this point. What did he do to get you to believe, and how do you think that helped get you here?

KAHLEAH COPPER: You know, I think this season was so up and down. We bump heads. It's like a real relationship. In the moment, you're super frustrated. But I think that it was important for us to grow together and bump heads in that process, everybody.

I just thank the coaching staff for continuously pushing us. It was frustrating, but we got through it, and we won a championship.

Q. Just kind of going off of that last question, was there a moment where you doubted this team at all heading into the Playoffs, even though you had three All-Stars, the best shooter in the world in Allie [Quigley]--

KAHLEAH COPPER: The best. First of all, you said it, the best shooter. But you know what, rewind, I'm glad you said that. I knew we were going to win this championship yesterday, when Allie was the only one in the gym shooting. We came in for film, everybody was gone, we knew we didn't have shootaround, Allie was the only person in the gym shooting. At that moment I knew we were going to win the championship.

But I think when the Playoffs started, we gave ourselves a clean slate. We totally forgot about the regular season, didn't care about seeding. We knew we just needed to treat every single game like a single-elimination game, and I was glad we got to play those single-elimination games and feel that pressure because once we got to a series, we already knew what it takes. I'm so proud of this team on how we had a short-term memory on forgetting the regular season, which was very important, and coming into the Playoffs and completely killing.