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“I was flying back from the Final Six — where Marième was competing as well,” Samuelson said. “And my phone blew up. I did not expect that to happen. But it’s draft day and anything can happen. I got a bunch of text messages before my phone could actually connect to the internet. So I knew I was traded, but I didn’t know where.”
When she landed, her first call was to her sister, Katie Lou, who had played four years at UConn with Lynx star Napheesa Collier.
“I was like, ‘Was I traded?’ ” she said. “And she just told me, ‘Yes.’ And my second call was to Cheryl.”
Samuelson played with Lynx center Alanna Smith at Stanford, with Carleton this year overseas. She also knows Lynx associate head coach Eric Thibault well, too, having played for him when he coached Washington last season.
Samuelson was undrafted out of college and spent her first few seasons trying to find a foothold in the WNBA through a string of hardship deals and roster cuts. But she kept playing in Europe. She played well for Los Angeles in 2023.
Then Thibault and the Mystics signed her to a two-year deal prior to the 2024 season, and she responded with a season high in scoring (8.4) while shooting nearly 40% on three-pointers.
