Alanna Smith is the definition of ‘delayed not denied’

After getting cut by the Indiana Fever nine games into the 2022 season, she found herself in the WNBA wilderness with no clear path back to playing at the level where she always dreamed she would be. Then, in the span of less than two calendar years, Smith went from league afterthought to a big-time free agent and even to the podium at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Not everyone around the league knew Smith was destined for this. Smith herself never stopped believing in her ability to make it in the W, but it was starting to feel like the league itself had. As it turned out, the league wasn’t done with Alanna Smith; it was just waiting for the right opportunity.

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Finally Flowers

The Target Center crowd swelled towards capacity as the final seconds melted off the pregame countdown clock. Lynx fans had been buzzing through downtown Minneapolis with anticipation all day, and the ones who had tickets to the game were given plenty to cheer, scream and shout about before the game even tipped off. Chapter 1 of the WNBA Semifinals was seconds away. The Connecticut Sun were in town, but so too was league commissioner Cathy Engelbert, whose main order of business for the night was distributing several pieces of hardware to Minnesota’s 2024 WNBA award recipients. 

Lynx superstar and league MVP runner-up Napheesa Collier received her trophy for the Defensive Player of the Year Award at center court. Next up was head coach Cheryl Reeve, after her front office and coaching staff were honored with the trophies for Executive of the Year Award and the Coach of the Year Award respectively. 

There was no bulky triangular blunt object on hand to commemorate Smith’s status as a second-team WNBA All-Defense selection, but that didn’t make the Lynx crowd any less enthusiastic for their starting center. When Smith took her turn at center court she received a soaring ovation from the fans in her new WNBA home, fans she won over with her unrelenting toughness and graceful versatility from the first time she put a Lynx jersey on. She also received a bouquet of white roses from Lynx president of business operations Carley Knox, perhaps a more fitting reward for Smith’s season where the league finally gave her her long-awaited, and well-deserved flowers, of both the metaphorical and literal varieties. 

“I guess like, just being really grateful to be in that position,” Smith said when asked by reporters what was going through her mind during the moment. “I posted about this, but two years ago I wasn’t in the league, so being able to even be in the position to play and have the opportunity to work hard and get that award, it meant a lot to me. Being in Minnesota and being able to play, and play my style of basketball too, it was a lot of pride as well being able to be recognized at your home court.” 

Smith’s path back to the WNBA over the past two seasons has been a poetic testament to patience and perseverance, a story that looked like it might never happen when the Australian product of Harbor, Tasmania returned home after the Indiana Fever relieved her of her basketball playing duties nine games into the 2022 season. Hours after getting cut, the No. 8 overall pick in the 2018 WNBA Draft made the long journey to her homeland and faced the tough decision of whether to continue to give her all for a league that didn’t appear to want her. 

“When I got cut from Indy, I went home and started weighing up whether or not the WNBA could be the league for me,” Smith said on Minnesota’s media day before the 2024 season. “Because it was just really, really challenging and tough physically, as well to have to do that trip, go home, come back. It’s just really hard. So I was humming and hawing about it, and then I played overseas in Poland and had an amazing season overseas. It just kind of lit a fire in me like, ‘I know I can make an impact in this league. I know that I’m good enough to be in this league.’ So [last year], just had another crack at it.”

The opportunity for another crack at it did not come easy, and it did not come geographically close to anywhere Smith had ever called home.

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‘Miasto wielu możliwości’

Gorzów Wielkopolski, commonly referred to as just ‘Gorzów,’ is a riverside town in Western Poland on the banks of the River Warta. It clocks in at 4,458 miles away from Chicago and more than 10,000 miles away from Smith’s hometown of Hobart. The city motto is ‘miasto wielu możliwości,’ which translates in English to ‘city of many opportunities.’ 

For Smith, the opportunity to suit up for club AZS AJP Gorzów Wielkopolski (also the 2024-25 overseas club of Lynx teammate Diamond Miller) and head coach Dariusz Maciejewski turned out to be one of the biggest blessings in her career. Her own assessment of having ‘an amazing season overseas’ is not personal bias. Smith led Gorzów to a third-place finish, a Round of 16 EuroCup appearance and averaged nearly 22 and 10 in league play en route to earning Energa Basket Liga Kobiet MVP honors.

Despite Gorzów sitting on the other side of the planet from any WNBA city, Smith’s Polish performance was never out of sight from the eyes of those in the league who had yet to write her off as a W-caliber player. The coach who kept the closest eye on her had been doing so for a long time and coincidentally happened to be the head coach in the ‘largest Polish city outside of Poland.’ 

“It goes back to 2018 when I first got the job,” former Chicago Sky head coach James Wade told The Next in a phone conversation in November 2024. “She was at Stanford, and she was having a great year. She had started to shoot the 3 really well, and I liked her in the draft. … I was tempted to take her in the draft back then, so we kept our eye on her progression. We watched her from afar [when] she was in Indiana and then went over to Poland, we just kept our eye on her. The way we liked to play was pace and space, and that’s the thing that she added. She plays really hard, and she started to see her shots fall, and we just felt like she could compliment whatever direction we wanted to go in.”

Smith may have proven herself as one of the premier players in the world as an MVP with Gorzów, but that didn’t mean she was instantly thinking about trying to break back into the league that turned its back on her. 

“Especially as a foreigner in the league, it was at a point in my WNBA career where I was like, ‘Do I come back to the league?’” Smith recalled during Minnesota’s 2024 Media Day. “I wasn’t sure if it was something that I wanted to do again. It’s pretty cut throat. You can make a team, play 10 games with them and be cut. Your position is never really secure. Being from the furthest away possible that you can be from — Australia’s a 16-hour flight — I can’t just pick up 10-day contracts. I can’t go home and then come back for 10 days. It just doesn’t work like that for me.”

Wade made sure Smith knew right away this offer wasn’t just a chance to play in the WNBA again, it was a bonafide guarantee.  

“I approached her because I felt like she could be a special player,” Wade said. “I approached her like she was a big-time free agent, and then it was going to be on our coaching staff to bring [out] the Alanna Smith that you guys know today. We felt like that’s what she could be. … When we talked to her during free agency we let her know, ‘You’re on the team, this is not a tryout situation. We’re really going to depend on you a lot, but we want you to be yourself and be the best player that you can be.’”

Wade’s pitch cut through any lingering hesitations Smith may have had about returning stateside, and 260 days after the Fever sent her packing, Smith put pen to paper and was officially a member of the Chicago Sky and back in the WNBA.

“He gave me an opportunity to play in Chicago,” Smith said of Wade’s pitch in free agency to her. “I wasn’t looking to go back to the WNBA to be honest. Then he gave me a call and was like, ‘I can give you a spot on the team.’ He said he wanted me on his team.”

Wade had missed a chance to bring Smith to Chicago on draft night in 2019. He wasn’t willing to miss the opportunity to do it again.  

“I wanted to coach Alanna for years,” Wade said. “I understood the hesitancy. I understood a lot of players have hesitancy once they go to training camps and they put all this sweat and tears into the WNBA and it doesn’t repay them right away. … I could say ‘I understand that it was tough for you, but we’re going to make the same joy that you have playing in Poland, we’re going to give you that joy in the WNBA.’ That was how I approached her, like, ‘You’re going to be yourself, you’re going to play free and you’re going to be the best Alanna that you can be in the best league in the world, and that’s what’s going to bring the joy back on this side of the pond.’”

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Finding joy on this side of the pond

Smith’s first game back in the W to start the 2023 season came on the very same floor where she’d be honored at the end of the 2024 season. Minnesota hosted the Sky for the season opener, and Smith more than set the tone for her next act in the W. In just over 20 minutes against the Lynx, Smith scored a then WNBA career-high 15 points on a perfect 5-of-5 from the field and 2-of-2 from the line. She added four boards, an assist and five blocks while posting a game-best +21 plus/minus in Chicago’s 77-66 win at Target Center. 

Smith averaged then-career-highs across the box score in 2023. She also led the league in 2-point field goal percentage (62.5%) and finished just one steal shy of being one of five players in the league to log 50+ steals and 50+ blocks (Breanna Stewart, A’Ja Wilson, Aliyah Boston and Elizabeth Williams were the others). Smith finished third in the voting for the league’s Most Improved Player behind Satou Sabally and Jordin Canada and helped the Sky reach the WNBA playoffs for a fifth consecutive season. 

Before Smith could contribute her talent to an ambitious Lynx team, she first had to be a thorn in their sides, which she was in 2023. Smith helped the Sky take two out of the three meetings with Minnesota and shot a scorching 71.4% from the field and averaged nearly 10 points per game, performances that caught the attention of all the right people. 

“I told Cheryl, ‘We need to get Lan,’” Napheesa Collier reflected during her 2025 media day session with reporters. “Unassumingly, she’s so hard to guard in the post. You didn’t hear about her a lot. She was a little bit underrated, but I knew every time I played her, it was a really tough matchup, and those are the kind of people you want on your team.”

Collier’s assessment of Smith’s game and her wish for Reeve to turn her from an opponent to a teammate during free agency is about as high praise a player can get from an opponent. But Collier wasn’t the only player in the W who really wanted to play with Smith heading into 2024. Her do-everything and say-everything Chicago Sky teammate, and fellow Lynx free agency target, Courtney Williams made it clear to her friend and to her new coach  

“I said, ‘Big ‘Lan, what are we doing? Let’s get to it! Let’s get to it!’” Williams said at the pair of Sky-turned-Lynx players’ introductory press conference last season. “’Lan is just a ball of great energy. We had so much fun last year. So when Cheryl hit my line and was like, ‘How do you feel about ‘Lan?’ I’m like, ‘We gotta go get Lan! What we talking about?!’ ‘Lan is a dog, so I’m excited to play with Big ‘Lan again for sure.”

Smith’s WNBA arrival in Minnesota could have come as early as 2019. Reeve told media during the 2024 season that had the name ‘Napheesa Collier’ not still been on the board when the Lynx were on the clock at pick No. 6 of the 2019 WNBA Draft, Smith would have been the rookie on her way to Minneapolis. 

“A big part of me was looking for a place that I can call home,” Smith said during her first press conference as a member of the Lynx. “Talking to everyone from [Minnesota] and the feeling I got from them, I feel like Minny could be my second home for me in the U.S., somewhere I can feel really comfortable as a non-American who doesn’t get to go home often, just a chance to feel really good in a spot for more than just one season. That was something that really, really helped me in my decision.”

As it tends to happen in any great journey, Smith’s career soaring to new heights in Minnesota wasn’t denied, just delayed until the meeting of the right moment with the right opportunity. 

“The first four years we didn’t see much of her, so I can’t really say what I knew of her as a pro,” Reeve said of Smith before the 2024 Commissioner’s Cup Final. “I think James Wade gets credit for bringing her to Chicago. It’s all about opportunity and timing. Being in Chicago at a time when there was an opportunity to play and to start, that’s what it is for a lot of these players, getting an opportunity. Sometimes it’s just a great fit. For ‘Lan, last season in Chicago proving who she is now as a WNBA player, I mean the year before that she was getting released by a non-playoff team and went home to Australia and was like, ‘Hey I’m not sure about this WNBA thing.’ Then she got herself together and said, ‘No, I know what I can do.’”

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From the fringes to the Finals and beyond

Smith’s Lynx tenure got off to a dream start. In her very first game in a Lynx uniform, she scored a career-high 22 points to go with eight rebounds in an 83-70 win against the Storm in Seattle. She did not look back. 

In 2024, Smith started every game she played for the Lynx and set career bests in points (10.1), assists (3.2), blocks (1.5) and steals (1.4) per game. She attempted more 3s than she ever had in her career and made them at a career-best rate of 39.8% (47-of-118). Only A’ja Wilson (98), and Smith’s Australian teammate Ezi Magbegor (82) blocked more shots than Smith’s 57. 

Outside of the box score, Smith brought a toughness and an edge to an organization with a proud history of tough bigs who play with an edge. Her pace and shooting ability allowed the Lynx to fully blossom into one of the most explosive teams in the league on offense, and her rim protection and basketball IQ contributed to one of the league’s stingiest defensive teams. A true two-way player, she earned WNBA Second-Team All Defense honors, and received votes for the league’s Most Improved Player Award for the second consecutive year. 

Not to mention, she did all of that while attending her honors year of graduate school online at Monash University. She’s working towards a Masters in Psychology all while playing basketball around the globe and around the clock.

“Cheryl’s reputation precedes her,” Smith said on Media Day before even playing a game for her new coach. “She has developed players to be the best that they can be. You can see it with the players she’s had over the years and even now with Napheesa and the player she is and is becoming. I think what Cheryl is really good at is helping people become the player that they can be, which is something that she communicated to me in the lead up to this, and I think that’s really exciting for me.”

The old adage ‘Good things come to those who wait,’ is an often-repeated saying for a reason — an old adage that translates to “opportunity and timing” to her head coach. Smith herself offered the best interpretation of all the highs and lows of her career that led her to a deep finals run in 2024 and a highly anticipated season in 2025 in her own words. 

“It’s all about opportunity,” Smith said to the media after the Lynx eliminated the Phoenix Mercury in the first round of the 2024 WNBA Playoffs. “I was given a really, really good chance by a really, really good group of people. I’m really grateful that I fell into this position where I’ve been put into a position to succeed. They’re not looking at what’s happened with me previously, they’re not like, ‘Hey she got cut, we’re not interested.’ There’s been a belief in me from the very start. When you have a group of people behind you, especially like this, like [Reeve] and [Collier] who have that belief in you, it just lifts you to higher heights. … You’re just lifted to this place where you have confidence and you want to win with these people. 

“I look back at being cut, and I’m so happy that happened to me. I’m so happy that I was cut from that team, and it led me to this. Because now I’m in the semifinals of this season in the WNBA, and that team’s not.”

Of course, Smith and the Lynx turned that mic drop moment and the ensuing trip to the semifinals into a trip to the 2024 WNBA Finals. In 2025, Smith is determined to help the Lynx capture the trophy they just barely missed and achieve the fifth championship season in franchise history, aka “one for the thumb.” 

A scary thought for Minnesota’s opponents is her coaches don’t think Smith is even close to done with how much more she can improve. 

“I think we’re probably going to take a similar approach with her that we took with Phee a year ago,” Lynx legend and assistant coach Rebekkah Brunson said. “Talking about the ability for her to grow as a more active defender on ball. She has great length and great size, and she’s been able to really, really hold her own in certain spaces. We have no problem putting her on anybody defensively, but I think she could take a leap there.”

Brunson added the same energy that was present in Smith’s game when she was fighting for her WNBA life hasn’t subsided at all with the recent accolades. Coming off a phenomenal season overseas where Smith averaged 18.6 points per game and 10.4 rebounds per game for Shandong in China, Smith has had another phenomenal camp and continues to prove those who believed in her were right to do so as she reaches higher and higher. 

“I feel like I haven’t [wrapped my head around it],” Smith told The Next on the first day of this year’s training camp. “Last year was really, really heavy in a good way with the Olympics and the WNBA Finals. Like, I won a bronze medal. I was in [the] All-Star Five at the Olympics, get to the Finals and an all-defensive team, it was like the pinnacles of my career in a space of three months. It’s hard to take a breath and just process all of that. It happened so quick. Leading into this year, it does give you a little bit of confidence for sure, just being recognized for your hard work and what you’re able to do. I know I’ve been able to do that type of stuff for awhile now, so the fact that I was able to show it and then be recognized for it is really, really cool.”

The story of Smith’s career is still being written. She’s risen from the bottom of the WNBA barrel, to the podium at the Paris Olympics and to one of the top 10 defensive players in the league last season. Even if at one point the league didn’t want to give Smith her flowers, she demanded them anyway. 

The remaining chapters of her global basketball tale continue to unfold. No one can say for sure how much higher she’ll climb, but those who have followed her story through the valleys of her career can already see the happy ending printed on the final page whenever that may come. 

“She’s probably going to go down as one of my favorite stories,” Wade said. “I have a few of them, but she’s going to go down as one of my favorite stories because you give so much to the game, and sometimes us as coaches, we put so much pressure on players, and it can take their confidence, but like I tell the players, ‘The joy that you find in basketball is yours and yours only, and we don’t have the right to take it away from you.’ I always wanted to see her express that. To see how she came back and bounced back and was able to find joy again in the game is probably going to go down as one of my proudest moments as a GM or coach.”

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