Former Temple star Shey Peddy was considering retirement. Now, she’s in the WNBA playoffs.

Shey Peddy began most July and August days with a strenuous workout before returning to her Houston-area home without a basketball destination.

That cycle forced the former Temple star guard to ponder whether she had reached the end of her playing career. She has been no stranger to navigating life on the fringes of the WNBA and maximizing opportunity when it arrived. But following a two-week stint with the Los Angeles Sparks in June, no new contract offers had emerged in the league or abroad.

“Maybe it’s time to retire,” the 36-year-old Peddy told herself. “ … I might be just working out for no reason.”

Then, the Indiana Fever called to ask if Peddy would help replenish a backcourt decimated by injuries. What began as a one-week hardship contract has turned into a rest-of-season deal. And as the Fever prepare for a winner-take-all Game 3 in their first-round playoff series against the Atlanta Dream on Thursday (7:30 p.m., ESPN2), Peddy believes she has demonstrated to the league — and herself — that she has come all the way back from a ruptured Achilles tendon she suffered in 2022.

“Even this month, my time right here in Indiana, that proved a lot to me,” Peddy told The Inquirer by phone last week. “You’ve still got it. You still love the game, and keep going until you know when you’re done.”

» READ MORE: Natasha Cloud bringing ‘dawg’ mentality to New York Liberty’s WNBA title defense

Peddy came off the bench in both playoff games after averaging 5.2 points and 1.7 assists in nine regular-season games with the Fever.

Consider it the latest chapter of Peddy’s fascinating basketball journey.

After a stint overseas, she made her WNBA debut with the Washington Mystics at age 30 in 2019, seven seasons removed from being named the Atlantic 10 Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year at Temple. The next season, with the Phoenix Mercury, Peddy hit a buzzer-beating three-pointer to knock her former team — and the defending champions — out of the playoffs less than a month after the Mystics waived her.

But the Achilles injury upended any career traction she had built in parts of four seasons with Phoenix. She has not had a year-round roster spot since, a tricky reality in a WNBA that is expanding but still has only 156 roster spots.

Even after being named the Defensive Player of the Year of Athletes Unlimited’s offseason league earlier this year, Peddy did not receive a WNBA training camp invite. When her former agent said teams were opting for younger players, Peddy responded with, “Well, I can’t help how old I am.”

“It’s just been a downhill battle trying to get back to my old self,” she said, “and trying to show teams that I am healthy.”

» READ MORE: Maddy Siegrist takes home Athletes Unlimited Basketball championship after dominant season

She expected her six-game stint with the Sparks to be short. Then, she returned to Texas to train at the gym helmed by former NBA point guard T.J. Ford and his brother, Tim.

Peddy focused on tightening her handle and on her shooting mechanics, quickening her release, and properly setting her feet off the catch or while on the move. Tim Ford said his goal was to run drills that would force immediate consistency in gamelike scenarios, which is necessary in a reserve role. Peddy sharpened ballhandling while sharing the court with high school players Tim Ford trained, who, in turn, got an up-close look at a professional’s routine.

“They’re not looking at it on the internet. They’re actually watching her work out,” Tim Ford said of those younger players. “ … A lot of times, kids just see [professionals] when they get to the WNBA, and she was showing the kids how hard you have to grind.”

Still, Peddy mentally wavered as the weeks progressed. Before she went on a vacation to Barbados, she talked to T.J. Ford about shifting into coaching.

“I was ready to turn to the next chapter of my life,” she said. “ … I really can’t afford to be unemployed. I’ve got a house. I’ve got to pay bills. I’m not trying to burn through all my savings.”

The Fever called right after she returned.

Peddy credits Tim Ford with keeping her on track during those challenging days. He would “light up the room” with her favorite music, Ford added, and emphasized that if Peddy “stayed true to the basketball itself, it will bless you.”

» READ MORE: They were stars on the Philly hoops scene and now play overseas. Could WNBA expansion call them home?

Peddy also can trace her resilience back to Temple and the belief instilled in her by then-coach Tonya Cardoza and assistant Willnett Crockett. While redshirting the 2009-10 season after transferring from Wright State with “no hype,” Peddy remembers thinking, “I’m not even playing this season. Why am I getting yelled at?” during difficult workouts.

“They’re like, ‘No you’re going to go to the league. You have the talent to go,’” Peddy said of Cardoza and Crockett. “They’ve really been in my ear and been my biggest supporters.”

Those coaches and Peddy remained in touch while she was tasked with quickly acclimating to the Fever. Rather than try to memorize 15 or 20 plays, Peddy has asked teammates which ones they prefer to run. Tim Ford was delighted when Peddy buried her first three-pointer, “knowing that we worked on that, over and over and over.”

“Everybody’s in prime game shape, prime season fitness,” Peddy said. “And I’m still just learning the plays, getting here, trying not to make a mistake. Then you realize, at the end of the day, it’s just basketball.”

Stability as a reserve ballhandler will be needed from Peddy in the Fever’s pivotal Game 3 in Atlanta. So will her playoff experience and reputation as a terrific presence in the locker room and on the bench, because “those little things that you won’t see in the stat sheet, that the camera might not catch, is where I can be beneficial,” she said.

And, for at least for one more day, any thoughts of retirement can wait.

“I know once I decide to do something else, there’s no coming back,” she said. “ … Whether it’s a year or two, my time is coming soon. And I know, once I walk away, I’m going to be walking away with no regrets.”