"This group was just a special group," Connecticut Sun center Brittney Griner said as she looked down, reflecting on her team's chemistry during her exit interview. "This is a special group."
Griner spent a lot of time on the bench this season due to injury. However, that did not affect the culture of the locker room whatsoever. Rather, it altered the trajectory of different roles athletes played as leaders and playmakers on the court.
Coming into this season, there was a lot of excitement for Griner making her way to Connecticut. She was expected to become the new vocal leader after the Sun lost Marina Mabrey to the Toronto Tempo in the expansion draft and Tina Charles to retirement .
Her vocal leadership didn't necessarily disappear every time she had to sit out for a game. However, it provided an opportunity for those with less experience to step up.
"It was really awesome of [Griner] to just verbally still be present with me and us," center Raegan Beers said.
Beers faced tough circumstances for her first season in the league. Imagine being put up with the task of needing to replicate the product of a WNBA Champion.
"I'm just super proud of [Beers] because it's not easy as a rookie to be thrown in the fire," forward Aaliyah Edwards said regarding Beers' progress, which especially showed in the latter half of the season.
By the end of the season, several impactful Sun players were put on the team's injury report. Those on the list include Griner, Olivia Nelson-Ododa , Kennedy Burke , and Saniya Rivers . Ultimately, they had to show up in different ways other than on the court by the time the season came to an end.
Adapting to missing pieces that were once constants for this group was just one obstacle this team had to face in a season that, at times, felt like a never-ending course of challenges. The noise surrounding them this season was unlike any other.
The past two years have ended with the worst records this team has held after making it to the playoffs for eight years in a row. Multiple Sun players reflected on the chemistry the team built in the locker room, regardless of what the scoreboard read.
"Sometimes the locker room is not that great [when not winning a lot of games], but our locker room was great," forward Kennedy Burke said in her exit interview. "The fact that we were able to stay positive through it all – you can't get a lot of players and teams that are like that."
Playing during a season where all any viewer can think about are the final moments is tough, especially with a losing record. The narrative revolving around the end of the road was only adding to the day-to-day struggles every professional athlete faces.
"People will never know the adversity that we went through this season, like with injuries, with our personal lives, just everything," guard Saniya Rivers said. Being the second-youngest team in the league, the gap in player strength and overall basketball IQ between this group and their opponents was wide.
"This league is tough. It's hard. It's not easy. You're playing with other W players. These aren't middle school or high school basketball players." Rivers said. That gap in technique is what pushed these players behind the scenes all season long.
"I was the oldest on the team, so we were a young team," Griner said. "And every day that they came in, worked hard. That will always stick out to me." A lot of the team's mentality for overcoming adversity was to stay present in the moment. While that applied in front of fans on game day, it also applied in the gym.
Athletic training and overall conditioning are not a week-by-week growth measurement. But the "staying present" mindset is what allowed this team to recognize their growth by the time exit interviews rolled around. Players also used this mindset when overcoming mental challenges.
After having a record-breaking rookie season , Rivers came into her second year with a lot of eyes on her. After not performing at an award-winning level, the guard learned how to still have a positive effect on the team as a whole.
"I think bringing energy into the locker room is a big testament to my character and who I am as a person and the way I was raised," Rivers said. That energy extended beyond her teammates and into the stands.
"I am inspired by players like Saniya Rivers who have been open about their grief," Kate Owens, a women's sports digital creator, said in an interview. In the past, Rivers opened up online about losing her mom , applying a more humanity-focused lens through which athletes can be viewed.
This vulnerability also helped to create a more tight-knit community around Mohegan Sun Arena. The fandom is also "tight-knit" in a literal sense, too. Adrianna Wilkinson, who also goes by the Instagram handle @cute.crochets119, wore her hand-made, crocheted Saniya Rivers jersey to every home game she attended this season.
"I'll never forget the day she gave me that jersey," Rivers said when asked about the Connecticut Sun fan base. The same season that marked Rivers' first year with the team also marked Wilkinson's first year as a devoted fan.
Wilkinson spent this season gifting crocheted jerseys to five different players: Saniya Rivers, Olivia Nelson-Ododa , Charlisse Leger-Walker , Aaliyah Edwards , and Brittney Griner .
Wilkinson described her crocheted jersey for Griner as a welcome gift in honor of her first and only season in Connecticut. "It's kind of like a tribute, saying 'I see you. This is what you do, and this is what I want to continue doing to show my support for you.'"
This season honored fan dedication more than ever before. Many athletes recognized throughout the year that any might be a fan's last time at Mohegan Sun Arena. Naturally, players wanted to make it count.
Being a smaller franchise, there was a larger emphasis on what fans meant to both the team and each other. There was often a sense of familiarity within the arena.
Fans constantly recognized court-side superfan Angel Earle in Uncasville for her unique crocheted outfits that she would make for almost every game. Earle started cheering on the Sun in 2019.
This past season, she crocheted a rainbow outfit for Pride Night. She also made a UConn-themed outfit for when the Sun played the Golden State Valkyries, representing all eight former Huskies on the court that night. Earle was just one of several familiar faces among the community.
Other fans would call her "auntie," and oftentimes people would come up to her courtside asking if they could get a photo with her. Fans wouldn't be the only ones using the "auntie" nickname. Many players did as well.
"It's amazing to have that type of relationship with some of the players," Earle said. Her unique crocheted outfits are so iconic that former Sun players, like DiJonai Carrington and Courtney Williams , will still give the fan a hug when they're playing for the visiting team.
Earle's support for the Connecticut Sun went well beyond figuring out what she was going to wear. While admitting the past two seasons have been disappointing record-wise, she emphasized the need for fans to show up.
"I still yell," Earle said. "I still scream. I still holler." She has been attending games long before viewership spiked across the league. She recalled when people would call the Sun "not a real team" and wore a crocheted outfit that read "Disrespect" due to the disrespect the team constantly faced, even when they were constantly making the playoffs.
While that hasn't been the case the last two seasons, Earle describes fans as "the sixth man for the team." Time after time, players would talk about how they owed it to the fans to give them an entertaining final season. More than anything, they wanted to give them quality basketball to watch.
Beers described the mindset heading into the final game on September 24. "We really wanted to go out just having lots of fun because the more we have fun, the more entertaining it is for [fans], obviously."
The fandom for the Connecticut Sun wasn't one that only centered around watching 40 minutes of basketball. It brought out senses of joy in individuals like Owens, who is open about how women's basketball helped improve her mental health over time.
"I was dealing with a lot of bad stuff in my life that I was trying to get away from and also find myself again," Owens said. "I wasn't setting out to fix any of that through women's sports, but there was just a natural return to that." The community-based fandom created an overall sense of joy for her.
Because the Connecticut Sun has a smaller fanbase, it was easy to create a community, or "family" as many called it, through several outlets. Wilkins' fan project, where she crocheted 1,000 small suns, fared well for her own content online as well as an in-person connection with other fans.
"One of the people that I'd given the suns to was sitting right in front of me at the TD Garden game," Wilkins said, showing how small the community really was. The digital creator described the passion these fans showed as a "built-in love of the game."
The dedicated fan talked about how it would take her by surprise when even full-grown adult men would want to give her a hug. Simply put, the Connecticut Sun became a community like no other because of its fan base.
"I've gained a second family here that I didn't even know that I could have," Wilkins said.
A lot of what makes this fan base so tight-knit is that a lot of them entered because of the same reason: the UConn pipeline.
For their final season, two former Huskies, Nelson-Ododa and Edwards, were the bridges between collegiate and professional basketball. So much of this fanbase relied on familiarity, and they even saw that in the players themselves.
"I came into this state at 17 years old, now leaving at 26," Nelson-Ododa said in her exit interview. The center spent her entire career playing in Connecticut. After four collegiate seasons and five professional seasons, her time in the state has come to an end.
Several fans started paying attention to the league once their favorite player from UConn graduated and started playing professionally. Owens, a UConn alum, followed Breanna Stewart into the league. Eventually, the digital creator found her way to the Sun fanbase.
The crowd often cheered louder for former Huskies during starting lineup introductions, ultimately creating a stronger connection with fans.
Those cheers were especially loud for Edwards last season, after being traded from the Washington Mystics to the Sun. Edwards recalls the community welcoming her back with open arms, despite not having been in Connecticut for over a year.
"I was really happy that I was able to finish out the last couple of games in the Connecticut jersey for one last time," Edwards said. The center spent a large amount of time on the injury report for the second half of the season. Similar to many Sun players, Edwards is at a very early point in her career, and gets to call Connecticut part of her beginning.
The Connecticut chapter is coming to a close for players, fans, media members, and everyone in between. Yet, it was one of the most impactful chapters the WNBA could've written.
It was a chapter with enough impact that when the league returns to New England, just like Edwards, the community will welcome it back with open arms.
The post Mindset Behind the Sunset: How the WNBA Closed Its CT Chapter appeared first on The Lead .
