Arriving for the 2008 WNBA season I met the Storm’s new head coach, Brian Agler, who’d been appointed after Anne resigned. Brian had been the assistant coach with Phoenix and the San Antonio Silver Stars, and was a totally different kind of coach—like Anne and Tom he was flexible and able to identify what would bring out the best in his players, but unlike Anne he showed little emotion.
I loved the way Brian coached, in fact if I was ever to be a coach I would want to be like him, because he understood his players both individually and collectively. He really got the best out of his girls, he had good professional relationships with each and every one of us, knowing we were all different. Sometimes coaches are so stuck in their ways, in their own mind, they’re not willing to bring in ideas gleaned from other coaches and other teams. If I see a team that’s really successful, I personally always want to dissect the parts that really appeal to me and try to incorporate that into what I do. I think that would be my biggest thing with coaches, being flexible with their players and their offensive plays, and being able to work around individual players. Coaches who are flexible are the best.
I didn’t play the last four WNBA games prior to the Olympic break, as I left the US to train with the Opals. Harley had retired from basketball and I’d been named captain, and I needed to rejoin my team. The lead-up games to that Olympics are all a bit of a blur for me, mentally I really wasn’t there, but I was certainly able to compete, playing some of my best basketball.
I was selected for the Opals without having to try out, that’s one pressure I didn’t have to deal with most of my career. The only time I really ever had to compete to make the Opals squad was before the 1998 world championship, but once I was in, I was in. I didn’t play many games for Australia after I made the WNBA, only the major tournaments—by contrast, in the lead-up to the Games, most of the 2008 Opals team had been together and training at home. They’d also travelled to Europe to play, and competed in a couple of week-long tournaments in Asia. There would have been plenty of time together and plenty of training.
After I arrived back in Australia from the US, we hosted and played against Brazil—who were fourth in the world—and won both games in Wollongong and Sydney, before heading to China for the prestigious FIBA Diamond Ball for women. We won against the host nation China 84–79, and then Mali the next day by 112–43, before playing the US in the final.
As expected, it was a tough, close game. The US were ahead one point at the end of the first quarter and then pulled ahead to be six points in front at half-time. We each scored 21 points in the third quarter, and in the fourth managed 17 points to their 15. It wasn’t enough, with the final score US 71, Australia 67.
The Opals were ranked number two in the world behind the US. Our team was a great mix of experience and talent, I was playing some of my best basketball, I knew personally that I wouldn’t be satisfied with anything but gold at the Olympics. That was my focus, that’s what kept me going.
My right ankle was playing up again and I had to manage it carefully. There was no way I wasn’t going to play. I wanted to play, and headed with my team to Beijing.
We won the opening game at the 2008 Olympic Games with an 83–64 victory over Belarus. An 80–65 victory over Brazil was next, followed by a 90–62 win over Korea, before meeting Russia, placed third in the world, who we comfortably defeated 75–55. The Opals once again were going into an Olympic quarterfinal unbeaten. We defeated the Czech Republic 79–46, then China in the semi-final 90–56, to book a place in the gold medal match against the US.
There’s no easy way to say this. We lost by 27 points, and it was devastating. The US had us from the start, and when the game ended I think we were all in tears. We had silver, but we had so wanted that gold. To rub salt into our wounds, Lisa Leslie wore her previous three Olympic gold medals on to the dais where she was to receive her fourth with the team. It was incredible to think she’d brought them all with her. Apparently, an official saw her wearing them as her team came out, and told her to put them under her jacket, but she took them out again as the American national anthem played. As much as it was so not something I would do, I wouldn’t know what it was like to have an Olympic gold medal—so I’m not sure how I would act with one, let alone four, around my neck.
After the medal ceremony, I went over and gave my parents a huge hug, and handed my silver medal to Mum, but was too upset to attend the post-match media conference with our coach Jan. We’d convinced ourselves we could win, would win, but it was not to be, and we were all truly devastated. I was shattered.
Before the closing ceremony we’d had a few drinks, someone had managed to get alcohol into the village, it just landed in my hand and I was feeling the effects of it by the time we marched in. As the nations milled around in the middle of the arena, I went up and gave the Chinese basketballer Yao Ming, who seems to tower above everyone at 2.34 metres (7 feet 8 inches), a big hug. Someone snapped the photo. I knew him, I’d met him before, and full of liquid courage I went and gave him a hug—and all of a sudden it was all over social media, with stories insinuating that I was having some sort of affair with him. The basketball fraternity is really small, we all know each other, it could have been anyone I hugged. There were thousands of athletes at the closing ceremony. He was just there, and I didn’t think.
Being good at sport, I know you become public property, but the reaction to that whole incident was ludicrous to me, it still is. I was surprised when my teammates were talking about it the next day, I was wondering how the hell they knew, given I’d pretty much forgotten about it already. I only saw the newspaper reports a day or so later, I don’t think I was even on social media back then. So that’s how I found out how huge the story actually was, when people who didn’t usually comment started saying stuff to me, my friends, my family, people in America. I went right into my shell, I didn’t speak to anybody, I felt sick. I completely shut down.