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The Phoenix Mercury were down 20 points in the third quarter. They were counted out, just as they have been much of this season.
But then, they stormed back against the Minnesota Lynx, with a chance to send the game into overtime.
Staring an 0-2 deficit in the eye in a best-of-five series, the ball landed in familiar hands with a chance to extend the game.
No, not Alyssa Thomas, Kahleah Copper, or Satou Sabally.
But Sami Whitcomb.
And like she has many times before, Whitcomb hit the big shot, in the big moment, to tie the game, extend the game, and lead the Mercury to a Game 2 win in overtime.
pic.twitter.com/muRZiDzC36
— Phoenix Mercury (@PhoenixMercury) September 24, 2025
“Oh, she’s a shooter,” said one Phoenix Mercury teammate earlier this year before a game in Atlanta.
See, Whitcomb has been at this for a long time. She entered the 2010 WNBA Draft, and her reputation precedes her.
“Sami? Yeah, she’s a hooper,” said a WNBL teammate of hers.
But despite having that reputation, the journey to get where she is now has been anything but a smooth one.
Notice how we say that she entered the 2010 WNBA Draft, but we didn’t say she was selected.
That’s because she wasn’t. Whitcomb went undrafted, and she didn’t make her actual WNBA debut until 2017, when she was 28 years old.
But despite that, Whitcomb, at 36, in many ways had a standout season as a member of the Phoenix Mercury. It’s a season that is reminiscent of her 2021 campaign with the New York Liberty.
“I really think it’s the people around me, my teammates, the organization, and the coaches. They really encouraged me to be a little bit more of the player that I am overseas here,” Whitcomb, who averaged 2.5 assists per game this season, said. “They really believe in me, and I think I probably have the ball in my hands more than I have in my last couple of seasons in the league, similar to that New York season.”
Notice how Whitcomb lifts up her teammates first. It’s the kind of quiet, reserved, and selfless person that makes her, well, her.
But make no mistake about it–Whitcomb can get hers when she needs to.
It’s what she was referencing with her overseas play, as she’s coming off an MVP season in the WNBL for the Bendigo Spirit.
“I really enjoyed the basketball that I was playing over there this year. It was really fun, and it was some of my best basketball, so I was trying to carry some of that over,” Whitcomb, who averaged a league-high 21.2 points per game in the WNBL, said. “Obviously, it’s a new situation here in Phoenix, so I wasn’t sure how that would unfold. But they were very clear early on that they wanted me to be myself. That’s what I’ve been trying to do.”
It’s been successful so far for Whitcomb, who spent the last two seasons with the Seattle Storm – where she spent the first four years of her career – before spending 2021 and 2022 with the New York Liberty.
While it’s been a standout season for Whitcomb–and one with a memorable playoff moment in Game 2–there was another game this year, too, where people turned their heads and said, “Oh, she’s like that, huh?”
That was July 7 against Dallas. Whitcomb set a new career high in points with 36 – her three previous highs came during that 2021 season in New York – and shot 7-of-11 from three-point range and a career-best 63.2 percent from the field.
In her bag. Walking bucket. Hooper. The rim is the size of the ocean.
Pick your cliche. During that game, it fit.
PROUD 😁
Our reigning WNBL MVP Sami Whitcomb was on fire yesterday 🔥
She dropped a career-high 36 points as the Phoenix Mercury took down the Dallas Wings 🏀 #ReadyToRise
📹: @WNBA pic.twitter.com/MUSUsgCw1z
— WNBL (@WNBL) July 9, 2025
And as we saw in Game 2, with the game on the line, the moment, once again, wasn’t too big for Whitcomb.
“There were definitely heat-check moments, but I think it’s more that you’re playing so fluidly and you’re not thinking about it and everything just feels good and feels right,” Whitcomb explained. “You’re just so connected to the ball and into the game that you don’t really know you’re in it, but I think you’re semiconscious enough that you take shots that you wouldn’t take otherwise. My confidence level is 1,000 times in those situations.”
It’s worth noting that the game-winning shot came on an extended possession.
Watch the clip again.
pic.twitter.com/muRZiDzC36
— Phoenix Mercury (@PhoenixMercury) September 24, 2025
Whitcomb takes the initial shot, but is challenged by Courtney Williams on the closeout. The shot falls short, but lands in the hands of Alyssa Thomas.
And Thomas, in that moment, knew what to do, as she often does.
See, right when the interview stopped, she dropped a gem of a line.
“AT’s basketball IQ is unmatched. It’s next level.”
Ask around the league, and you’d hear a similar sentiment.
“Someone like AT, who’s fantastic and just knowing who the hot hand is, she’s going to find you. So we don’t even have to design anything or make it happen. Like, you know AT is going to find you,” Whitcomb said. “I’ve loved playing with her. Getting to kind of pick her brain as the point forward she is and see how that can help me get better looks, get open, and get her more open. That’s been really fun.”
Mind you, Whitcomb is 36, and Thomas is 33. But when it comes to the WNBA, Thomas is the veteran, and Whitcomb is always trying to learn. But, in turn, Whitcomb will take that advice that she gets from the OGs, like Thomas, and pass it on to others.
“Obviously, Lexi (Held) and Kat (Westbeld) it’s their first year in the league, but they played overseas for a number of years. They’re fantastic players,” Whitcomb said of players on her team that she’s been a veteran presence for. “They’re a vet of basketball, just maybe not the WNBA. So I really enjoy just kind of trying to help them navigate the WNBA in that way.”
We saw that after Game 2. Taking to Instagram, instead of posting a clip of herself or her stat line, Whitcomb posted a shot of Westbeld hitting a corner three with the caption “BIG F’N PURR.”
“I think it’s been really easy to do that with a few of them because I really see a lot of myself and my journey in theirs,” Whitcomb said.
Whitcomb is still finding her footing in the desert. With Seattle and New York being her hometown cities for the WNBA – she also played college ball in Washington – it’s been an adjustment for a coffee-loving (“Indigo Room is my favorite Phoenix coffee”), outdoors person (“I try to do it a little earlier in the year when it’s not so hot”).
But for her, as long as she has her family by her side, she feels right at home.
When I brought up her wife, Kate, and her kids, Nash and Reef, a big smile came across her face. It’s not surprising at all, as you see the outpouring of love that Whitcomb has for her wife on social media.
“I can’t do this without her. What she does for us and our family … it’s hard to put a value or anything on that. You can’t,” Whitcomb said. “I can unequivocally say that I wouldn’t be able to do this, and I wouldn’t still be at this level and still trying to improve and still being able to have a season like I did in Bendigo in the WNBL or a season like I’m having this year without her, all of the things that she does for our family.”
But before Whitcomb worries about the next chapter, the next city, re-signing in Phoenix, or defending her MVP in the WNBL, she’s focused on the playoffs and having performances like she–and her team did–in Game 2 as the series shifts back to Phoenix, extending the Mercury’s season for a minimum of two more games.
It’s a moment that she doesn’t take for granted–even as a two-time WNBA champ–knowing where the league was at when she first entered the draft in 2010 to where it is now.
“There are so many eyes on the product, and look around at just how many players are household names now as well,” Whitcomb said. “I just think it’s so exciting that the league is on the map globally now.”
With her performance in Game 2–not to mention her career night against Dallas earlier this year–it’s safe to say that Whitcomb is on the map, too.
