For Kahleah Copper, the WNBA’s offseason went from slow to a sprint after the CBA got done

The WNBA’s offseason was a real-life example of Ernest Hemingway’s old “gradually, then suddenly” catchphrase.

More than five months passed from the end of last year’s WNBA Finals to the day the league’s new collective bargaining agreement was agreed upon with its players in late March. That left around six weeks for all of free agency, a two-team expansion draft, a college draft, and the preseason.

It’s all done now, and the league’s 30th campaign will start as planned on Friday. But it’s fair to take a moment to step back and see how wild the winter was.

“Actually, it felt a little hectic,” North Philadelphia native Kahleah Copper said as she prepared for her third season with the Phoenix Mercury and 11th in the league overall. “I think everybody got a little anxious about if we were going to have a season or if it would be delayed. But the hope was for everything to start on time like it is.”

It had to be even stranger for Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts and all the head coaches in the league. They aren’t the labor or the management, so they had to keep quiet through the bargaining, even if they wanted to support their players.

He gracefully put himself second when asked.

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“Personally, I think it was probably harder on the players,” he said. “I knew that I was going to be in Phoenix; our staff knew we were going to be in Phoenix. I think for the players, the hope was to be somewhere, but, obviously, you’ve got to sign a deal that makes sense for both you and the organization.”

When Tibbetts did turn to himself, he was thankful to not have to worry about the two players who sat with him at the table as he spoke: Copper and Harrisburg-area native Alyssa Thomas. Both players re-signed in Phoenix when free agency began, as did veteran forward (and Thomas’ wife) DeWanna Bonner and guard Sami Whitcomb.

“It’s been hectic for us as far as just figuring out the team — I’m super thankful that we’ve got six, seven returners from a year ago,” he said. “Obviously, as a staff, we were hoping that we would have [Copper and Thomas] back and build around them. But you just never know what happens in free agency, and I’m excited to build off of what we did last year.”

He added that the preseason has been “awesome,” and now those pieces are coming together.

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“It’s just been a lot of stuff coming at us quickly,” Tibbetts said. “You know, a lot of these players signed new deals with the hopes to be in a certain place, and then they’re there two or three days later. And so, for me, I was more, personally, just thinking of the players, just the quick turnaround.”

And though it’s been a dash to the starting line, the CBA agreement didn’t come out of the blue. There was a point in March when people in the know could tell a deal was approaching. That let Copper shift her thinking toward getting back to work.

“I think everyone’s mindset was already shifting to getting ready for the season,” she said. “Although it did feel like it kind of just all of a sudden happened, I think this is what everyone wanted. So it was a breeze to transition into just going back at it.”

The Mercury begin their season Saturday with a rematch of last year’s WNBA Finals: a visit to the Las Vegas Aces (3:30 p.m., 6abc). Led by stars A’ja Wilson and Chelsea Gray, the Aces won their third title in four years last season and are among the favorites again.