{"id":736559,"date":"2022-01-27T15:00:38","date_gmt":"2022-01-27T20:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/?p=736559"},"modified":"2022-01-28T16:22:28","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T21:22:28","slug":"kahleah-copper-slam-236","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/the-magazine\/kahleah-copper-slam-236\/","title":{"rendered":"Kahleah Copper on Her North Philly-roots, Emerging as Finals MVP and Becoming ‘Unguardable’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There are two sides to Kahleah Copper. That becomes clear the minute you get on the phone with her. The Chicago Sky forward\u2019s voice is more soft-spoken as she reflects on how she grinded her way to becoming an All-Star for the first time, a WNBA Champion and a Finals MVP, all in the same year. But when she starts talking about the other <\/em>version, who she transforms into when she plays, the cadence of her voice changes. It goes from reflective to real, sort of like when Meek Mill switches up the flow on Dreams and Nightmares<\/em>. As soon as someone from Philly starts talking about what they\u2019re about, they have a way of commanding your attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPhilly Kah is the ultimate competitor, just a dog,\u201d Copper says over the phone. \u201cLike, just a real representation of flat-out toughness. I think it\u2019s important for me to be like that, and for me to be able to even flip the switch once I\u2019m off the court. But, when I\u2019m on the court, like, I\u2019m just so locked in, in this zone. That\u2019s just who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s December, and Copper is calling from Spain, where she\u2019s been suiting up for the Perfumerias Avenida in the EuroLeague this WNBA offseason. Fresh off her \u201cworld tour\u201d of winning a chip and putting everyone on notice, she took three weeks off from basketball, went to Philly for her first SLAM cover shoot, and then quickly jetted off to Europe, where she admits that even her teammates noticed that she \u201ctalked different.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[They were] like, Wow, you\u2019re so much nicer than we thought. We didn\u2019t think you were mean, but like, we didn\u2019t think you was this nice.<\/em> And I\u2019m like, Yo, that\u2019s really not me<\/em>. On the court, that\u2019s really Philly Kah.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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SLAM 236 featuring Kahleah Copper is OUT NOW!<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Chicago Sky head coach James Wade explained it perfectly: \u201cIt\u2019s like when she gets on the court, she has something like, You ain\u2019t taking my candy<\/em>. Like, this is my game, and you can\u2019t have it. And if you try to take it, I\u2019mma show you<\/em>…It\u2019s just a toughness. It\u2019s that North Philly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

North Philly is the place that birthed her intensity, nurturing it in the parks on 33rd and Diamond, where she\u2019d play against the guys, and then on 32nd and Berks Street against her own cousins on a \u201cmakeshift\u201d rim they\u2019d built near both of her grandmothers\u2019 houses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow this is some Philly shit,\u201d Copper says, as she explains over the phone how the rim was created. At first, they had a crate, but then \u201csomeone\u201d stole a blue-trimmed Lifetime shatter guard backboard from the park and nailed it to a street pole. That\u2019s where it all started. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that really heightened my competitiveness, because I always wanted to beat them. It was never like, You a girl and  you can\u2019t play<\/em>. It was just like, You need to be tougher. We all out here playing, it don\u2019t matter that you\u2019re a girl. Be tougher.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That toughness never left her, and this past season, the world watched Philly Kah take her full form. During the regular season, Copper averaged 14.4 ppg. During the playoffs, those numbers jumped to a playoff career-high 17.7. She played with an energy that couldn\u2019t be contained, or defended, from anywhere on the floor. Not in the first round against the Dallas Wings, where she shot 71 percent from the field, knocked down pull-up jumpers with a fury and effortlessly caught no-look dimes from Courtney Vandersloot in transition. Or, in the semifinals, when she dropped a playoff-career high 26 points against the Connecticut Sun in a Game 3 win to help give the Sky a 2-1 series lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think my competitiveness just reached an all-time high. I think I was the ultimate competitor\u2026Even re-watching the games and seeing how locked in I was and seeing my intensity on defense. Getting hyped, just every little detail. I think that my competitiveness hit another gear.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That fire poured out of her in the Finals against the Phoenix Mercury. In the second quarter of Game 2, after Sophie Cunningham caught an outlet pass from Diana Taurasi and missed the layup, Kah was right there, diving onto the floor and muscling her way to try to snag the loose ball. As the refs blew the whistle, she jumped up, got right in Cunningham\u2019s face and gave her the look. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The photo that was captured became so iconic that Copper even put it on a t-shirt. \u201cYo, I love that picture. That\u2019s Philly Kah right there,\u201d Copper says. \u201cThey expect us to be all good and happy and shit, like, that\u2019s not how it goes. We are the best at what we do. We are super competitive.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, and just to be clear, Copper doesn\u2019t have any beef with Cunningham. \u201cPeople keep asking me if I have beef with that girl. I won a chip, that\u2019s over with,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s just what happens when you challenge the kid from North Philly. She\u2019s been dominating since her high school days at Prep Charter, where she emerged as one of the top ranked prospects in the country and was named a McDonald\u2019s All-American. The legacy continued at Rutgers where she learned from the legendary C.Vivian Stringer and established herself as one of Rutgers\u2019 most dominant scorers ever, finishing her four-year career as the program\u2019s third all-time leader in points. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time the 2016 WNBA Draft came around, Copper, who was selected with the No. 7 pick by the Washington Mystics, knew she wanted to carry the Rutgers legacy for Coach Stringer, for the program and for her own family. Her mother, grandmother and great grandmother have all had breast cancer. Sharing that moment on draft night with her grandma, specifically, was special. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was in college, and she had [it] and didn\u2019t tell me,\u201d Copper says. \u201cWhen I finally found out, she was like, I didn\u2019t want to distract you. You\u2019re trying to accomplish goals and I know that you\u2019re going to do it<\/em>\u2026I think she held on to every pain that she had, or whatever the case may be, just for her to be able to share that moment with me. I\u2019m just so grateful that she was able to see the seeds that she planted really blossom. And to see me reach one of my ultimate goals.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Copper came into the League with the sole focus of wanting to make an impact and be whatever the team needed her to be that year. And she did. As a rookie, she came off the bench and averaged 6.2 points in 16.2 minutes, a modest start to her pro career. But when she went to play overseas, she started seeing a \u201cwhole bunch of shit on Instagram\u201d that a trade could possibly happen. Next thing she knew, she got a call from Mystics head coach Mike Thibault with the news: She had been traded to Chicago.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was mad,\u201d she admits. \u201cI was close to home [in Washington]. My family was coming to the games, my grandma was coming to the games. Once I got to Chicago, it was a little more difficult for them to come.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her first season with the Sky was, in her own words, \u201ca lot.\u201d Copper didn\u2019t get as much playing time as she had the season prior in DC, only 14.3 minutes per game, averaging just shy of 7 points a game. That would be the case for the next few years. But she knew that this was the WNBA, and the process wasn\u2019t ever going to be easy. \u201cThat\u2019s how you build your character. That\u2019s how you build that toughness. Most people can\u2019t handle a little bit of adversity, so for me to have it so early in my career, well, that was good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She decided that she needed to refocus. She had a conversation with Wade about her growth and what she needed to do to take it to another level. \u201cHe was just like, We\u2019re going up from here. We\u2019re never looking back. You\u2019re going to be that player for us<\/em>….There\u2019s nothing like having somebody truly believing in you because that changes everything. Especially your head coach. When [your coach] and your teammates genuinely believe in you, and want you to win, a different person comes out.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She played with a vengeance during the 2020 WNBA wubble season, listening to Dreams and Nightmares<\/em> before every game. As a full-time starter, Copper posted career-highs in nearly every category, including points (14.9), assists (2.1) and rebounds (5.5) per game. Not only did Wade believe in her, but she believed in herself. She was putting the work in and now seeing the reward. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that I\u2019ve always believed in myself, and I think I was able [to] because of how I prepared. Prepared in a sense of putting the work in…Even rewinding to the bubble season, there\u2019s people who are always like, I want to play more. I deserve to play more.<\/em> But when you get more time, what do you really do with it? I was always like, When the preparation meets the opportunity, I\u2019m gonna be ready and I\u2019m never gonna go back.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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GET YOUR COPY OF SLAM 236!<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

She spent the offseason as an assistant coach for the Purdue Northwest women\u2019s basketball team and then returned for the 2021 season with two clear goals: become an All-Star and win a championship. To get there, Wade challenged her to become an even better defender. And then there was the arrival of Candace Parker, who pushed her every day to be the player the team needed her to be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the road to a championship wasn\u2019t an easy one. The Sky battled through a seven-game losing streak early on in May, only to come back and embark on a seven-game winning streak by June. Still, many doubted that the Sky could make it all happen. Copper admits that at one point during the \u201cbumpy season,\u201d she could have \u201cwent one or another way,\u201d and while she won\u2019t go into too much detail about it, she does reveal that she and Parker had to have a conversation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen she hears this, however it\u2019s translated or whatever, she\u2019ll know exactly the conversation that we had,\u201d Copper says. \u201c[It was] just about me having growth and me being mature. I think that without that conversation, the season would not have gone the way it went. We\u2019re so much the same\u2014stubborn. So stubborn. She\u2019s worse than me, but she knows when to be super stubborn and when [to be] like, OK, alright. <\/em>And that\u2019s the point that I needed to learn, like, OK, you pick and choose these battles.<\/em>\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the end, those moments are what has shaped her into the champion she is today. This offseason, Copper found herself sitting in her room in Spain, thinking about the \u201clong ass year\u201d that she\u2019s had and how she\u2019s stayed the course and trusted the process. Not only did the Chicago Sky make history by winning the first title in franchise history, but Copper has cemented her own legacy.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got legit superstars on my team, like, Finals MVP could have easily gone to anybody. Allie [Quigley] hit big shots in that game, we wouldn\u2019t have won that game without her. Candace\u2019s leadership, period, outside of her game and what she does for us on the basketball court. Then you got [Courtney Vandersloot], who sets everybody up. I feel like we have so many great players that, for it to be me, is\u2014I feel like it\u2019s a testament to what I\u2019ve been through and just a reward for, just everything.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even on the highest mountain top, Copper is ready to ascend to another level. To become the type of player who can help orchestrate an offense, not just dominate within it. When Spain played against Russia this past December, Copper talked to Vandersloot about how she can be unguardable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think the next level for me is being a better passer. I was telling Sloot, You think I\u2019m unguardable? You know how hard it is to plan to play against you?<\/em>…If I\u2019m out here driving and dropping dimes, now the weak side don\u2019t want to help \u2019cause now I\u2019m that good of a passer, so now there\u2019s no weak side and I\u2019m shooting the three. That\u2019s<\/em> unguardable. I think that people don\u2019t understand [that] there\u2019s so much more to being unguardable than just to create for yourself. When you\u2019re able to create for other people, that\u2019s it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“And when I tap into that, it\u2019s over.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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