A rite of passage for every athlete is their welcome to the league moment. No matter how talented or how great an individual is, they will experience that initiation one way or another. Cameron Brink was the second overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft. It only took a handful of games for her to learn the difference between the WNBA and the NCAA.
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Unlike the majority of her draft class contemporaries, Brink doesn’t yet have an entire season under her belt. She has only played 14 games in her career due to a 2024 ACL injury, which she is still recovering from.
Despite her lack of WNBA experience, she has witnessed firsthand how big the jump is from college to the league. In a recent episode of the Straight to Cam podcast, she shared the details of one defining moment.
“It may have been Tina Charles,” Brink revealed. “You’ll make a move, and then you’ll be running down the court next to her, and she’ll be like, ‘You should have done this. Why didn’t you go do that move? I’m guarding you this way. What are you doing?’ So I would say that was my welcome to the league moment.”
It makes sense that Tina Charles would initiate Brinks, considering she is one of the best players in league history. The eight-time All-Star holds the record for the second-most points in WNBA history behind Diana Taurasi.
Fortunately, Brinks’ experience is quite mild in comparison to some others. Many players who went up against Taurasi in their prime still have nightmares of what she did to them on the court.
Brinks’ Los Angeles Sparks teammate Kelsey Plum was a superstar coming out of the University of Washington. Taurasi didn’t care one bit about Plum’s background when they went head-to-head for the first time.
“I’m guarding Diana. It’s like a dead ball. She’s looking at me, she’s like ‘Hey Plummy, how you doing?’” Plum revealed. “And I’m like, a little phased. Ball comes in, she looks at me, elbows me in the stomach, hits a three and then winks at me.”
Brink’s anecdote pales in comparison to Plum’s. The 6-foot-4 forward has barely gotten to experience the WNBA. There’s still a possibility her true welcome to the league moment is still waiting on the horizon for her to return to action.
