After 8 years of hard work in the WNBA, North Philly’s Kahleah Copper is officially an Olympian and fully a star

Kahleah Copper did not hide her emotions when she was named to the U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team.

“If y’all knew — oh my God,” the North Philly native said when USA Basketball women’s national team director Briana Weiss handed over Copper’s No. 7 jersey, with cameras rolling nearby.

They sure know among Copper’s friends and colleagues across the WNBA, where she’s a star for the Phoenix Mercury. And they know back home, where Copper is part of a lineage of Philadelphia women’s basketball greats.

Now the whole world is about to find out, as the 29-year-old steps onto the sport’s biggest stage for the first time.

» READ MORE: Kahleah Copper makes her first U.S. women's OIympic basketball team

“I feel a sense of reward, just looking back on my entire journey,” Copper told The Inquirer. “To be rewarded with the ultimate goal — I won a championship [with Chicago in 2021], and I think this is the next thing, for me to be named an Olympian. I’m just very grateful and just happy.”

This moment indeed has been some time coming for the Prep Charter and Rutgers grad. She’s been a pro for eight years, first with the Washington Mystics, then the Chicago Sky, stops in Spain, and, last winter, a big-time trade to the Mercury.

“To go as far back as to get traded my rookie year, leaving Washington, going to Chicago — and not going to Chicago as a franchise player, having to grow into a franchise player,” Copper said, “I went there, and I was able to establish my career there. But also, in Chicago, from not playing, to having to find my way, and when I got an opportunity, taking full advantage of it.”

She did not mind reflecting on what she called “that part of my career where I wasn’t playing and feeling like I deserved to play, but still having to get up and do it every day” as she waited for a true turn.

» READ MORE: Life as a WNBA rookie can be tough — even for Caitlin Clark. Here’s how these Philly-area players adjusted.

In 2020, amid the pandemic’s upending of everything in sports, Copper finally became a Sky starter. The next year brought the stardom she’d waited for, when she won Finals MVP honors in that title run.

Even then, though, there were speed bumps. Early in 2021, fellow North Philly native Dawn Staley invited Copper to the U.S. team’s training camp, but Copper didn’t end up making the Olympic team — making for an awkward moment playing for that year’s All-Star team against the Olympians.

In 2022, she traveled to Australia for the FIBA World Cup without knowing if she’d make the final U.S. roster. She did make it and ended up helping the U.S. win the title alongside her friend and fellow Philly-area native Betnijah Laney-Hamilton.

This time, there were no what-ifs or conditions: just that jersey, hers to cherish and put on this month.

“After all of that, to just hear your name called, it’s something special,” Copper said. “Nothing was ever handed to me. I’ve had to work for everything that I have.”

It’s a pathway worthy of a role model, and she’s happy to be one.

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“If something about it is an inspiration for young players in the league who are having a similar process — I didn’t have a player that was going through something similar,” Copper said. “So it was just me … trying to just continue to see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

She has plenty of support now on the Mercury, from fellow Olympians Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner to Broomall native Natasha Cloud. And Copper is having a career-best scoring season: 23.3 points per game, plus 4.6 rebounds, and 2.3 assists.

“She plays every single night for us; she goes to war every single night for us,” Cloud said. “She takes the best perimeter offensive player on the other team … and then she’s coming down and she’s having damn near 30-point games every single night. That [Finals] MVP season in Chicago really just woke a beast, and that Olympic team roster spot was hers, and she earned it in every single way.”

Taurasi, a six-time Olympian who’s been around Philly basketball since playing for Norristown’s Geno Auriemma at Connecticut, also lavished praise on Copper.

“She’s not worried about anything but competing every game, and to be an Olympian the way she’s gotten there is a pretty cool story. I’m just so I’m happy for her,” she said. “There’s just something about the basketball culture from Philly. … There’s a certain grit about them, but it’s an unselfish grit; it’s a humble grit. It’s in them — and they’ll let you know about it.”

» READ MORE: Kahleah Copper and Natasha Cloud bring Philly flair to the Phoenix Mercury: ‘They’re our spark’

Copper’s coach with the U.S. is another Philly-area native, South Jersey-born Cheryl Reeve of the Minnesota Lynx. She is the third straight U.S. women’s Olympic coach to hail from here: Staley (South Carolina) led the 2021 cycle, and Auriemma led the 2016 cycle. Even Weiss, the national team director, has local ties, having played four seasons at Villanova.

So there is a familiarity, and also a desire to continue a tradition laid down by those coaches, Elena Delle Donne, Debbie Black, Crystal Langhorne, and others: showing Philadelphia is a place to highlight on the women’s basketball map, not just the men’s one.

“That’s special,” Copper said. “I think that’s me continuing to add to my personal legacy, but also continuing to represent the city that has made me into the player and person that I am. I’m just grateful to be a part of that conversation — that’s a legendary conversation to be a part of, when we talk about Philadelphia basketball history and legends that have come out of this city.”

She wants to stay rooted here, too, as her travels continue to take her around the world.

“It’s the place that has made me who I am, gave me that competitive edge, gave me the work ethic, and also where I found my inspiration,” Copper said. “I had those players that I looked up to before, that’s what they’ve done — they’ve never forgotten about the city, always mentioned it when they had success. So I just know that’s what I’m supposed to uphold, and that’s how I’m supposed to continue to move.”

» READ MORE: Without Caitlin Clark, Cheryl Reeve is in a no-win situation at the Olympics. She bears some of the blame. | Mike Sielski

Times listed are Philadelphia time. All of NBC’s video streaming of the Olympics is available free with pay-TV provider authentication at NBCOlympics.com, or via subscription on Peacock.

Monday, July 29: Group stage vs. Japan in Lille, 3 p.m. (USA Network, Universo)

Thursday, Aug. 1: Group stage vs. Belgium in Lille (USA Network)

Sunday, Aug. 4: Group stage vs. Germany in Lille (USA Network, Telemundo 62)

Wednesday, Aug. 7: Quarterfinal in Paris, time TBD (USA Network)

Friday, Aug. 9: Semifinal in Paris, 11:30 a.m. (NBC10)

Sunday, Aug. 11: Gold medal game in Paris, 9:30 a.m. (NBC10, Telemundo 62) or bronze medal game in Paris, 5:30 a.m. (USA Network)