It has been a trying season for the Phoenix Mercury, but veteran guard Kahleah Copper was able to celebrate a win after being named to the All-Star Game earlier this week as an injury replacement.
The selection marks the fifth of her career, and with this year’s All-Star festivities taking place in Chicago, the nod gives Copper a chance to return to a city where she made a huge impact over the span of seven seasons earlier in her career.
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The former Chicago Sky star spoke about being picked for the All-Star Game and expressed her love for the city.
Despite originally coming into the WNBA with the Washington Mystics in 2016, Copper spent just one season with the team that drafted her before being moved to Chicago in a trade.
In retrospect, that trade helped shape her career. Although she was primarily a bench player in her first few seasons with the Sky, that changed in 2020, when she started in all 22 of her appearances. That was a career year for her at the time, as she averaged 14.9 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game. She would’ve had a strong case to make the All-Star Game had there been one in 2020.
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In the following years, she really took flight. She spent three more seasons with the Sky and made the All-Star Game in all of them. Her best statistical season during that span came in the 2023 campaign, when she averaged 18.7 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game.
But the highlight of her tenure was the 2021 season, when she helped the Sky to the WNBA title. She averaged 17.7 points per game during that playoff run and 17.0 points per game in the championship series en route to Finals MVP honors. As it happened, the championship came against the Mercury, her current team.
Since the end of her Sky tenure, the 31-year-old has continued to be one of the top players in the league with Phoenix. She has two All-Star nods in three seasons with the team and took home All-WNBA honors in the 2024 season.
While the Mercury have struggled to a 10-18 record this season, Copper has done her thing, averaging 20.5 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game. Phoenix, for what it’s worth, was able to win a couple games in a row heading into the break.
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Copper deserves the All-Star recognition and will get a chance to represent her team on Saturday when the game takes center stage.
