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From Sydney, Australia, after enjoying a day on the beach, Celeste Taylor talked to Swish Appeal about her first weeks in Australia, where she’s playing for the WNBL’s Sydney Flames.
We also talked about growing up in a Colombian household in New York, moving from to Texas to start college, entering the transfer portal twice and playing for three teams—the Indiana Fever, Connecticut Sun and Phoenix Mercury—as a WNBA rookie. Highlights from the talk include:
On moving from New York to Texas to play for the Longhorns:
I’ve always been very independent since I was young and my parents kind of always knew that I would end up not close to home, so not in New York, not kind of local. And so I was looking at a lot of different schools. Once I narrowed my list down, I went on my visit to Texas and I just fell in love with it. I love the warm weather. I love the sun. That’s definitely a major part for me. But when I went there, the coaches that recruited me made me feel at home. They were like a second family to me, but at the same time, you have ups and downs with your family. Your parents are on top of you, and that’s how my coaches were, they wanted me to be a great leader, a great basketball player and a great person. And I felt that from them. I felt the family aspect. I loved the university and everything that it had to offer. From their resources to everything that was around, and then the the girls that were there were great.
On being cut by the Indiana Fever, the team that drafted her No. 15 overall:
As a rookie, you come in and you’re just trying to find your role. You’re trying to find your spot, especially if you’re not a household name, like Caitlin Clark or Angel Reese or Kamilla [Cardoso], you’re trying to find your place. And so when I was in Indiana, I was just trying to navigate my whole rookie year. You know, you go into something and you’re excited, but you still have a focus on making the team, and so Indiana had a different situation where we had 13 players on a roster for a certain amount of time. Somebody was injured, so one person always had to go since the beginning. And so obviously, I was the rookie, so I understood that at some point it could have been me, but I got positive feedback from the coaches and the GM telling me, “You’ve done everything we asked you to, it’s only 144 spots.” So it’s really up to them who they decide to keep and who they decide to have in their program. And it’s not a knock on me. A lot of people do take it, like, a confidence thing. And it kills your confidence. But me personally, I felt like I belonged. I knew I belonged, and so I think you have to have that and you have to consistently have that fight and that hunger in you to know that you belong somewhere in order to get back there.
On Diana Taurasi’s leadership:
I think when you have vets like that, it’s not so much about necessarily playing against them, but more of being able to watch them. I think that you can learn a lot by watching someone and I think that the way she came in, the way she prepared for games, for practices, the way she took care of her body, the way she spoke to her teammates, her coaches, the amount of input she had on the team, and just her voice and her leadership, I think that alone helped me grow. When you think of it, she’s been playing in the league almost since I was born! It’s crazy to go and be able to play with the GOAT of women’s basketball.
A special thank you to Cymonne New of Octagon for arranging the interview.
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