After injury setbacks, Kahleah Copper brings ‘just a kid from North Philly’ energy to Mercury, WNBA playoffs

NEW YORK — Kahleah Copper grabbed her phone and began scrolling through photos from earlier this summer. The Phoenix Mercury guard was searching for the words of affirmation that Hannah Wengertsman, the team’s director of health and performance, regularly left for Copper throughout her rehab following left knee surgery.

Today is the perfect day to be proud of all the progress that you’ve made, one slip of paper read.

Don’t forget to look around and appreciate all the things that are going right, read another.

You have what it takes, another reminded.

“There were just so many every day,” Copper told The Inquirer on Tuesday afternoon. “That [stuff] really made a difference.”

Even for a player a decade into her excellent WNBA career and who takes immense pride in the toughness instilled by her hometown. No matter how long the fourth-seeded Mercury’s playoff run lasts — a decisive first-round Game 3 against the fifth-seed New York Liberty is Friday night in Phoenix (9 p.m., ESPN2) — Copper said she “for sure” will remember the 2025 season as the first time an injury sat her down for weeks.

The North Philadelphia native and four-time WNBA All-Star acknowledged that she still isn’t as “springy” as she is used to being. Yet she was a significant contributor in the Mercury’s dominant 86-60 win in Game 2 to keep its season alive, with 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting and helping spearhead Phoenix’s suffocating defense against the defending champions.

“It’s no different than just some regular … life [stuff],” Copper said before the Mercury’s practice between Games 1 and 2. “Make [expletive] lemonade out of lemons. That’s just what it is. That’s where I’m from, and that’s me in a nutshell. Even when I say, ‘Just a kid from North Philly,’ I didn’t have everything growing up, so it’s just working with what you’ve got and making the most of it.”

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Copper entered Wednesday’s matchup with plenty of experience winning elimination games, including in 2021, when she led the Chicago Sky to the WNBA title. Against the Liberty, she barreled to the basket on drives and in transition, clapping enthusiastically as she stepped to the free throw line after crashing to the floor in the second quarter.

She scored over New York star Sabrina Ionescu in the paint and hit up a pull-up jumper. Her terrific backdoor cut to receive a bounce pass from Harrisburg native Alyssa Thomas for a reverse layup gave Phoenix a 55-37 lead with 6 minutes, 27 seconds left in the third quarter to help squash any Liberty rally.

That type of performance is what the Mercury (27-17 in the regular season) envisioned when they traded for fellow All-Stars Thomas (15 points, seven assists, six rebounds Wednesday) and Satou Sabally (15 points, seven rebounds, four assists, four steals) to complement Copper. The goal was to transition out of an era defined by franchise legends Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner without a full rebuild.

Entering the season, Copper said her body felt “amazing” after playing in the Olympics and in the new Unrivaled league. But in May, she posted a photo from a hospital bed to share that she had undergone an arthroscopic knee procedure.

Copper was sidelined, so she leaned into the leadership she could still provide, becoming even more vocal with teammates and studying stat sheets during timeouts like she was a coach. Still, she faced the mental toll of “Well, when I’m going to feel like myself?” A hamstring flare-up just before the All-Star break in July did not help.

Copper sought advice from Candace Parker, her former teammate and the future Hall of Famer who previously dealt with knee cartilage issues. Copper felt the daily support of Mercury teammates and staff as she rehabbed and noted that coach Nate Tibbetts joined in on some of her workouts.

Once she could get back on the court, it sometimes was tricky inserting herself into a new-look roster that had created rhythm without her. But in the last several games, Tibbetts began “seeing what [Copper] did a year ago,” when she ranked third in the WNBA in scoring at 21.1 points per game.

“She’s one of the motors of the team,” said veteran teammate DeWanna Bonner. “When she goes, we go. We kind of piggyback off of her. She’s the ultimate two-way player. She gets out in transition. She can shoot the three. And when she’s going, I think our team is really hard to guard.”

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In the aftermath of the Mercury’s Game 1 overtime home loss, Copper emphasized that her team still needed that tone-setting energy from her. The cheers from the bench, even while sitting with foul trouble. Chest bumps heading into timeouts after big buckets. Conversations between quarters.

Copper also needed to apply adjustments following some blunt film study. Watching the offensive end — where she scored 15 points and went 5-of-13 from the floor in Game 1 — was difficult but ultimately uplifting, she said. But coaches challenged Copper to be better defensively, after Philly-area native Natasha Cloud went off for 23 points on 9-of-12 shooting and five assists in the Liberty’s victory.

“Seeing me not get over screens, not be close enough,” Copper said. “… I’m a competitor, so I want to get after it.”

After Wednesday’s win, Tibbetts said he was “really proud” of the way Copper guarded. She also immediately made an offensive impact, driving on Cloud for a tough finish inside and then burying a long off-balance jumper over the Liberty guard for Phoenix’s first two buckets. When asked if she anticipated being able to exploit New York’s defense early, Copper countered with, “I don’t draw the plays up.”

“I just go to the spot they tell me to go to,” she said. “That was just me doing what I’m supposed to do.”

“You made a couple tough ones, though,” Sabally told Copper while sitting to her right.

“At least you went to the right spot,” Thomas playfully muttered from Copper’s opposite side.

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Perhaps that exchange embodies the “MVO” — aka, Mercury Vibes Only — shirt Copper wore for Tuesday’s practice. She has the personality to jaw with her friend and former teammate in Cloud, “showing little girls out there that they can be passionate, they can talk trash.” And to sneak behind Tibbetts to throw up bunny ears while he answered a question about her during Wednesday morning’s shootaround. And to proclaim following her team’s win that she was “shocked” that a Liberty home crowd known as one of the WNBA’s most boisterous … was not?

“I don’t think that it was, like, loud to start,” Copper said. “I don’t know. I was shocked. I was expecting us to have to deal with some crowd [noise], courtside people. It was quiet.”

Copper and the Mercury, meanwhile, have earned at least one more game in front of their fans. It is a reward for Copper’s more solitary moments in Phoenix earlier this summer, when she needed those words of affirmation while pushing through significant injury for the first time.

Even if she is still not back to her complete, springy self.

“You’ve got to be patient, but you are enough,” she said. “Where you are is enough, and it’s going to be OK. Be 100%, and give it all with what you got.”