NEW YORK — Satou Sabally was so close to the top of the basketball world she could taste it. Yes, she and her Phoenix Mercury teammates were down 0-2 to the Las Vegas Aces in last season’s WNBA Finals, but both losses had come on the road. They were home in Phoenix for Game 3, mounting a fourth-quarter comeback, and Sabally was playing one of the best playoff games of her career with 24 points, five rebounds and three assists.
But with less than five minutes to go, she attacked the basket, missed the layup, became entangled with Jackie Young and lost her balance. On her way to the ground, her head bounced off Kierstan Bell’s knee. Everything stopped. She remained on the floor for minutes. She could hardly stand, let alone walk unassisted. Her teammates and medical staff propped her up and guided her off the court. It was a harrowing sight.
The Mercury went on to lose Game 3 by two points. Sabally was officially diagnosed with a concussion and missed Game 4. The Mercury’s season ended in a sweep. Her symptoms lingered in the offseason, forcing her to miss the Unrivaled season.
Eight months later, Sabally still isn’t interested in getting into details of the immediate aftermath, just noting that it was “not great.”
Rehabbing injuries for athletes often involves physical therapy, exercise and treatment, active tasks that a competitor can attack with vigor. A concussion is different. Sabally, who has always been in constant motion, was forced to sit still and wait. Usually self-sufficient, she suddenly had to lean heavily on family and friends. Unable to practice basketball, she instead practiced patience and did a lot of self-reflection.
Looking back, she’s appreciative of that time.
“This concussion just made me slow everything else down in my life and really put into perspective what I really needed and wanted,” Sabally told CBS Sports. “It’s pretty special, and it fills me with a calm identity that I truly didn’t have before.”
Internal changes often beget external ones, too. In March, Sabally, a 6-foot-4 German forward known as a “unicorn” for her on-court versatility, emerged on Instagram with a shaved head to honor a friend with alopecia. The next month, the three-time All-Star made one of the most stunning free agency moves of the condensed offseason, leaving Phoenix to sign with the New York Liberty on a two-year, $1.67 million contract. The move almost instantly made the Liberty title favorites.
“Growth begins the moment we embrace the opportunity to improve. Thank you to everyone who helped me return to doing what I love. It is the beginning of a new version of me,” she wrote on Instagram last month, after she was finally cleared to play again.
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While she hasn’t yet regained her All-Star form and has recently had to embrace a new role on the bench, the Liberty are on a five-game winning streak, and Sabally’s play is a big reason why.
“I went through a lot in this offseason, and I feel like I’m just in a different mental space, and just more grounded in the way that I see the game, and how fast it can be taken away,” she reported. “I think I just have more insight into who I am and who I want to be.”
A new team
The Dallas Wings selected Sabally with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2020 Draft, right behind her Oregon teammate Sabrina Ionescu, who went No. 1 to the Liberty.
The German — who was born in New York City and lived in her father’s home country of Gambia before moving to Berlin when school started — struggled with injuries her first few seasons, but still showed promise, making her first All-Star team in 2021. The 2023 season was her true breakthrough, as she was named an All-Star starter, won the WNBA’s Most Improved Player award and finished fifth in MVP voting. But the Wings did not have much on-court success during her time there. After the 2024 season, she decided it was time to move on from Dallas, and the front office traded her to Phoenix, where she teamed with Kahleah Copper and Alyssa Thomas to form a true Big Three. They made a great run for the championship, but came up short.
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Sabally, an All-WNBA talent, likely could have signed a $1.2 million max contract somewhere. So it surprised many when she decided to go to New York on a discount. But she had her reasons.
“I would say a new opportunity, and really being able to finally come together with the people that I have played with before. Also, being in a big city, being closer to home, time-difference-wise,” she reported. “But the biggest thing was going somewhere that has a big market and an opportunity to win a championship, where I can contribute to that. I felt like New York really checked all my boxes for what I wanted for myself and for other people around me, too.”
In Brooklyn, Sabally reunited with Ionescu, her former college teammate. Oregon was one of the favorites to win the 2020 NCAA Tournament before COVID shut down the world, and the former Ducks view winning a championship together as a piece of “unfinished business.” She also gets the chance to play alongside her teammate on the German national team, Leonie Feibich. That familiarity is important. Being on the East Coast also makes it easier to communicate with her family in Germany.
And, if a championship is her goal, she’s in a good spot. The Liberty were considered a super team even before Sabally came to town. Breanna Stewart was the MVP in 2018 and 2020. Jonquel Jones was the MVP in 2021. Ionescu is a four-time All-Star. They won the championship in 2024.
“Everyone is a walking highlight tape, so I feel like I fit right in,” Sabally reported. “It’s just fun.”
A new look
A female athlete’s appearance is always a fraught subject, but Sabally has been very open about how intentional her new look is, and how closely it is tied to her offseason evolution. Her best friend, Soniva, has alopecia, an autoimmune disorder that results in hair loss. Sabally was by her side a decade ago when she first started losing her hair.
“We were really close, and I followed her journey and I always knew I wanted to shave my head for her,” Sabally told JD Sports in April. “It’s been almost a decade, and it just felt like the right thing to do for me. After my concussion, it was just a lot of work on my head. And I called her and I was like, ‘(Soniva), it’s going to happen now, I’m going to shave my head.'”
Sabally even brought Soniva to her introductory press conference with the Liberty.
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She reported the reaction to the style has been “mainly positive,” but she still sees the haters, which has given her a new perspective on how limited the general public’s understanding of womanhood, femininity and gender can be.
“There’s a lot of insecurity on womanhood when you have short hair,” Sabally reported. “It’s funny how other people take the freedom to comment on your sexuality or comment on your womanhood. So I thought it was really interesting, and then I shaved it off even shorter because I just thought, ‘Well, I love this hairstyle.’
“And I love, love it,” she emphasized. “I feel like it’s a part of me now.”
This season, Sabally has also started wearing bold red lipstick during games, reminiscent of Tina Thompson’s signature lip. She calls it her “war paint.” She doesn’t wear it in warm-ups, but puts it on right before she comes out for introductions.
“I just feel like it gives me that extra little pop,” she reported.
A new role
As excited as Sabally is to be in New York, the first month of the WNBA season has been challenging — she’s still working on getting her fitness back after the concussion, and an unrelated cyst injury and illness caused her to miss five games. Her first three games coincided with a three-game losing streak for the Liberty, which didn’t make things any easier.
But earlier this month, when Sabally returned from an illness, Liberty coach Chris DeMarco decided to bring her off the bench for the first time since 2022. It has paid immediate dividends: the Liberty are 5-0 during that stretch after Tuesday’s win over the Connecticut Sun. Sabally, who is averaging 9.3 points in just 15.9 minutes per game (down from 16.3 points in 26.6 minutes last year with Phoenix), is a big reason why.
“I feel like it just gives you a different perspective to start off the game. You can see what’s going on, the chemistry of the team, and then you can just kind of come in and bring your own impact. It’s actually pretty relaxing for me,” Sabally reported. “I get to recharge on the bench while the others are going, and then when it’s my time to shine, it’s my time to shine.”
DeMarco has been impressed with Sabally’s attitude and reported that while he is certainly open to moving her back into the starting lineup as she gets healthier and her minutes increase, he’s very happy with how she’s performing in this role. Her teammates, too, are excited to see her improvement and know she’s doing everything she can to get back to full strength.
“I think Satou brings a versatility,” Stewart reported. “Obviously, she’s a great player and had a great season last year and is going through some kind of injury things from the Finals. Here she can be herself. She can not rush until she gets back to full form.”
Fittingly, this new role is giving her a chance to implement the patience she practiced this offseason. But make no mistake, when asked what she was excited to show the world this year, her competitive juices returned.
“Just my game again. I think people will find a lot of joy in watching my game and the passion that I bring,” Sabally reported. “And some wins.”
