The Sparks’ Cameron Brink is redefining what it means to be a young WNBA star | Los Angeles Sparks

IIt is the fourth quarter of combat tense and close to Los Angeles between the sparks of the hometown and the fever of Indiana. The game has serious implications in the playoffs for both teams, so each bucket is heavy, and it goes over. Cameron Brink, the second -year sparks center of 6 feet 4 inch with an undoubtedly blonde braid from Raipunzel left the game, but you would not know about his enthusiasm on the bench. No one strikes stronger, stronger, stronger, for their teammates.

This is fundamental for those who are brink, according to all those I speak around the team during their last push for the playoffs in recent weeks – the Sparks are in a battle with Seattle Storm for the last place. Brink is one of the brightest young stars in W, securing a series of apartments (including a high-level agreement with New Balance that made her the first basketball player on their talent list), but Brink is far from the myopic and self-centered stereotype of a star.

“One thing I noticed about it, it is really intentional to include groups of niche from people,” said her teammate Azurá Stevens. “I think it’s a really cool line that she has, with all her notoriety.” Is it unusual for someone with the profile of Brink, I ask? “I think that sometimes, when people have a certain status, they don’t always think of everyone. So I think she has the status she has and that everyone feels included, fans, people in general, I think it’s really cool. “

Brink, a very popular recruit from Stanford who went No. 2 in total in the WNBA draft last year, had a promising start for his recruit season, starting the first 15 games for the Sparks. But the hot start was angry when she torn her LCA in mid-June 2024, leading to an absence of 13 months of the courtyard. The forced break was a curse, of course, but also something of a blessing. This allowed the 23-year-old woman a moment of introspection and time to explore some of her non-basketball interests.

“I definitely explored many areas of my life, it really made me realize how much basketball is in the big scheme of things,” said Brink in Los Angeles. “This is something that I will only do realistically for, probably, 15 years old at most. So it’s really a little … Honestly, I was a little in this spiritual journey to understand, you know, who I am outside basketball.”

These other interests were diverse dating from childhood, she said. “I saw myself being an artist or someone creative,” said Mark of his juvenile aspirations, of the career before basketball. “I grew up in a really loving and free house, so they haven’t forced me to do anything. I loved pottery, pastels, all this kind of thing. My parents have always sent me to the art camp, and I would certainly try all types of medium; I was just great, super creative. ”

In addition to a penchant for the visual arts (which appeared, recently, as an interest in fashion), the creative sequence of Brink was expressed behind the microphone this year with Straight to Cam, a podcast that she co-anima with her sister of God Sydel Curry (sister of the players of the NBA Stephen and Seth Curry). It was an experience she enjoyed, but she pauses in order to change her goal. This concentration? Basketball, and find out how to have a real impact in the world, something that has become increasingly important to the native of Oregon.

“I take a break in the podcast, which was honestly one of the best experiences of my life,” she told me. “It was taking time, and I feel like I want to pour all my energy into basketball. I think, in the future, I [would] I love having a platform to talk about things [again]. But I think I want to go towards helping marginalized groups, perhaps working more fashionable, perhaps working [for example] On shoes that correspond to people who are not in the normal size range or clothes. I think I always really try to understand my niche. I love to do the podcast, I just have the impression that I don’t need to have this kind of platform right now. I can try to do things and work behind the scenes, and really focus on stuff on the ground, and the rest can flow from there. »»

In a year of major questions and significant introspection, Brink managed to “keep the essentials of the essential,” said Sparks head coach Lynne Roberts. I ask her what advice she had, if necessary, for Brink to come back from such a serious injury, as a young high -level athlete. “I just said to him, try to remove air from the tires, not do so much pressure,” she said. “It’s hard to come back from its outing 13 months, it will not come back as cycling. It will take a bit.” Roberts is impressed, she said, with the focus and the intensity with which Brink has bounced, with his ability to compartmentalize and adjust the noise. “She wants to be great. And I think there is much more than she can do, and she can earn a lot of money, but she wants to be great in basketball. ”

Even when coming from a basketball family, being “excellent in basketball” and the pursuit that is there was not always necessarily in brink cards, which said in a recent interview: “I tried to repel loving basketball as long as possible, but fall for it was inevitable.” But the absence tends to make the heart more affectionate, and his time only served to crystallize his love and his passion for sport. “It was really revealing,” said Brink of his time on the sidelines, and self -discovery and the expansiveness that accompanied him. “But I think I really missed basketball, and I came back just black, I missed it so much.”

Between the field, Brink was a vocal defender of mental health. She talked about her own difficulties on the podcast of the star of Philadelphia, Paul George, the Podcast P – An appearance which, according to him, led the production sports of Wave, the production company of the program, to approach it with the idea of ​​hosting its own podcast, which has become entitled to CAM.

I ask her if she plans to use her new media platform to continue this plea, or incorporate other paths to do so. “I don’t know, I think that instead of talking about it, [I want to be] In fact, do things to help facilitate a change, I don’t know exactly what it is right now and it’s easy for me to say, but I’m a little tired of being in front of the camera but not really trying to TO DO Anything, “she says.” I want to find ways to try to get involved. It’s difficult, I really try to spend the rest of the season, but after the season, I am really excited to make trips to understand what really feeds me, which makes me feel as satisfied as I feel like basketball. “”

The answer reveals both the odyssey of self -discovery that she has gone through in the past year and a half, and Brissa as a person: she is, at the same time, an incredibly intelligent and passionate woman with great ambitions and the world to her fingers, and also, a 23 -year -old woman who always learns who she is, and doing it under study.