By MARK MOSCHETTI
For storm.wnba.com
A tough hat. And a lunch bucket.
Briann January does not truly deliver these issues along with her on apply days with the Seattle Storm. Would not deliver them on sport days, both.
However for 14 seasons – together with this primary, final, and just one with Seattle earlier than retiring – she brings that form of work ethic each time she walks onto the apply courtroom or onto the sport courtroom.
Be able to go from the opening whistle. Be able to do no matter it takes. Be prepared to remain till the job is finished – even when it sometimes takes some additional time.
Each workforce with championship goals – together with the Storm – has its share of high-caliber, high-profile horsepower.
However the distinction between dreaming of a championship and truly successful one relies in no small method on its high-intensity, lower-profile workhorses.
“She has no downside with that facet of coming to work each single day, placing the work in, going arduous in all the things she does,” Storm coach Noelle Quinn mentioned. “You like that about her.
“On the finish of the day, she has the guts of a champion – you by no means query it,” Quinn added. “She’s simply the consummate skilled.”
That is why January suits in so effectively in Seattle as she prepares to deliver down the curtain on a profession that features 4 journeys to the WNBA Finals, one championship (2012 with Indiana), six All-Defensive workforce appearances, and one All-Star sport. .
“They checked loads of the bins I used to be on the lookout for,” mentioned January, who signed the Storm on Feb. 2, simply someday after free company started. “Understanding this was going to be my final 12 months, I needed to compete for a championship, and I felt like this workforce is constructed to compete for one and put themselves in rivalry. Additionally, there was one other veteran level guard (none aside from Sue Fowl) to share the load with. Coming off a 12 months like final 12 months (with Connecticut) once I performed 30-plus minutes a sport, I used to be not wanting to try this once more.
“Finally, it got here all the way down to enjoying in entrance of my household yet one more time. Being from Washington, my mother and father are in Spokane, they usually’ve already been in a position to catch extra video games than they’ve in a season.”
Heading into the ultimate regular-season homestand, which begins on Wednesday in opposition to Minnesota when the Storm will salute January for her distinguished profession, she has seen motion in all 31 video games, with 5 begins, and double-digit minutes in each sport. She’s averaging 3.5 factors and a pair of.4 assists. Her help common consists of one sport every of seven, six, and 5, and three video games of 4.
Matter of truth, given the selection of creating a game-winning shot or making the cross for that shot, it is a no-brainer determination for January.
“Oh, man – making the cross!” she replied, breaking into an enormous smile on the similar time. “I like that you simply’re setting as much as get it executed. I’ve at all times liked that.”
EXCEEDING THE EXPECTATIONS
From her days at Lewis & Clark Excessive Faculty in Spokane to varsity at Arizona State, and proper into her WNBA profession, Briann January has approached basketball with the concept of out-working everybody else.
“I used to be by no means one of the best participant; I wasn’t extremely recruited out of highschool,” she mentioned.
She landed at Arizona State, and beneath the steerage of legendary coach Charli Turner Thorne, January blossomed right into a two-time Pacific-10 Defensive Participant of the 12 months, a two-time honorable point out All-American, and the all-time chief in assists (538) and free throw proportion (.830) chief for the Solar Devils.
Even with that, January did not have significantly excessive expectations heading into the 2009 WNBA draft.
“I at all times joke that on draft day, I used to be invited to the draft, however I used to be referred to as by a special workforce saying they needed to ask me to coaching camp.”
January wound up because the No. 6 total choice, tabbed by former Storm coach and then-Indiana Fever head coach Lin Dunn.
“No person actually anticipated that,” she added of being the sixth choose. “My agent knew; he was speaking about it. I used to be like, ‘Are you positive?’ Even in that second, I used to be form of doubting it.”
“(Dunn) had adopted me up and down the West Coast that whole season, so I knew she had her eye on me. However I wasn’t positive it was a particular factor,” January recalled.
As a rookie in ’09, January performed in 33 of the 34 regular-season video games, averaging 6.9 factors and a pair of.3 assists. Then, she was in all 10 Indiana playoff video games, averaging 10.6 factors and three.0 assists, ultimately serving to take the Fever to the decisive fifth sport of the WNBA Finals earlier than falling to the Phoenix Mercury.
Already, January was making her mark as a professional – and in her thoughts, there was no query as to why.
“I’ve had this chip on my shoulder, this underdog mentality the place I simply should maintain working my butt off and show I belong right here,” she mentioned. “I by no means believed it, however I simply stored my head down, stored working – and right here we’re.”
NEXT STOP: JUST CALL HER ‘COACH’
And right here we’re.
Like most each athlete in most each sport, January want to maintain enjoying a bit longer. The guts at all times needs to say, ‘Go.’
However typically, the physique says, ‘No.’
“I nonetheless love this sport a lot,” she mentioned. “But when we will be fully sincere, it is getting to some extent the place I really feel like I am unable to be myself on the market. I do not wish to be on the market if I am unable to play the best way I wish to. I really feel like I’ve sufficient to complete this season and provides this workforce all the things I’ve, and after that, grasp it up.
“Enjoying in ache takes away the enjoyment typically. I do not wish to keep in mind enjoying that method.”
Nevertheless, the subsequent a part of her ardour for the sport is already heating up:
January needs to educate.
She has executed so on the faculty degree. She spent 2013-14 as a volunteer assistant at Adelphi College in Backyard Metropolis, New York. Throughout the 2017-18 season, she was an assistant at her alma mater of Arizona State.
As her subsequent step approaches, January has her sights set larger.
“I wish to coach within the ‘W’ and assist a few of these girls have lengthy careers like I did and obtain all the things and expertise all the things that I did, being an All-Star and successful a championship,” she mentioned. “I wish to give again to this sport that has given a lot to me.”
Talking of successful a championship, the Storm at the moment are formally within the combine to just do that, as they clinched a playoff spot with final Saturday’s 82-77 victory at Washington.
That checks considered one of January’s bins.
“We’ve got a bunch of veterans right here, and all of the belongings you form of should work via with youthful groups, like communication and placing and the work and dealing collectively, all of these issues occur effortlessly right here,” she mentioned. “We’ve got veterans who’ve been within the league, been profitable within the league, they usually know what it takes to win.”
January talked about how this ultimate season has so many “final moments,” which incorporates ultimate video games in every of the 11 league cities. Probably the most important of these video games for her was a go to to Indiana on July 5, the place she performed for the primary 9 seasons of her profession.
“Now, I simply form of step again and take a look at all the things, and it is like, ‘Wow,'” she mentioned, getting a bit emotional as she spoke. “Truthfully, that is all I can say. It has been a tremendous profession for me.
“It has taken loads of work, however I’ve loved each second of it.”