When preparation meets opportunity: Cayla George's winding journey to a WNBA championship
Cayla George stayed ready throughout a mentally challenging WNBA season and rose to the occasion in the biggest moment. Now she returns to the WNBL, with eyes on another championship.
Everyone has a unique story and journey. While Cayla George’s story in life and basketball is still being written, she’s added some of the most memorable chapters over the past couple of years.
Prior to 2021, she’d already achieved so much in the sport, including multiple Olympic and World Cup campaigns, WNBL championships and a championship in Europe too. But George has truly cemented herself as one of the most accomplished basketballers in Australian history over the past two years.
She’s added another WNBL championship (her fourth), a WNBL MVP Award, a World Cup bronze medal and most recently a WNBA championship with the Las Vegas Aces. She’s also become a mum over that time and with daughter Pearl by her side, George has truly taken her game to the next level.
Credit: supplied
The decision to return to the WNBA after last playing in the league in 2018 required a total family commitment, and George credits her husband Kailou for taking six months off work to be Pearl’s dad for making this chapter possible.
“There'd been some conversations even before the [2022/23] WNBL season, sort of around ‘do you even want to, is this even an option for you if we pursued this when the time was right?’ from multiple WNBA teams after the World Cup,” George said. “It was like, ‘oh, honestly, Kailou, can we? Would you leave work? Can we make it work as a family?’. We had a good hard think about it. I couldn't have done it without Kailou, I wouldn't have taken Pearl away from him for six months and I couldn't do it without Pearl, so it had to be all of us or none of us.”
A member of the juggernaut Aces team, George had to bide her time on the bench, playing behind the likes of two-time WNBA MVP and Finals MVP A’ja Wilson, Kiah Stokes and Candace Parker (prior to season-ending injury). She admits it wasn’t always easy.
“There were times I was just trying to mentally get through because it was a little challenging, I'm not going to lie,” she said. “I'm not going to sit here and be like, ‘oh it was so great, I loved playing my role, I love sitting on the bench’, but I also have an understanding of what my role was and I'm playing behind A’ja Wilson, she's the best player in the world. I just watched her play for six months - she's unreal, her motor is incredible.”
Having played a combined seven minutes through the first three games of the WNBA Finals against New York, George was called up to the starting lineup by coach Becky Hammon in a potential championship-clinching Game 4. Suddenly finding themselves hit by injuries, the Aces were without All-Star point guard Chelsea Gray and defensive anchor Kiah Stokes, both of whom were injured in a Game 3 loss, for the biggest game of their season.
George understood the assignment. She recounts the moment she found out she’d be starting.
“I was working out in the gym – just doing what I'd been doing. Becky messages me ‘where are you?’, ‘call me when you get a chance homie’. I was like, ‘oh, that's weird, she never calls me homie!” she said with a laugh. “It’s so funny, I’ve kept the message because she never calls me homie! I called her and she was like ‘Kiah’s out, we’re going to start you. Be ready to go’. I was like, ‘yeah, cool, say less. I’ve got you, whatever you need’.
“That's all I said. I just stayed really cool, calm and collected because why would I get excited? We just have to get a job done.”
That calm demeanour was locked in on helping finish the job that the entire team had been working towards tirelessly all season long. In a game for the ages, George delivered when it mattered most.
Despite shooting 1/6 on triples in the first half, George drew on her experience and confidence that she’s built up over her career to hit back-to-back triples in a third quarter that will go down in Aces history. Las Vegas flipped the script on New York by turning a nine-point half time deficit into a two-point lead with a quarter to play.
“Becky said ‘let it fly. If you hesitate, don't shoot it. You’ve got a green light, let it fly’, and I bloody did!” She said. “I'm glad I got to showcase a little bit of how I play because I got the opportunity and it was just at the right time that allowed us to win that game and the championship, which is bloody unreal.
“It's tough as a bench player – you can contribute in towel waving, cheering and giving little pointers to the players that sub in and out, but for six months that's so fatiguing, because ultimately I'm a hooper and I want to play.”
“I would just go about my business as the most professional I could be, do my extras when I needed to and be ready when I needed to be ready. If anything, to show the resilience that I showed throughout the season of just being patient for my time, staying ready and then getting my opportunity, that's a testimony to anyone looking on to my journey through this year and I hope that helps at least one person.”
George finished the game with a season-high 30 minutes of court time, producing 11 points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals as the Aces sealed the win with an unforgettable one-point win, 70-69.
Pearl became the star of Las Vegas’ Championship parade when she decided to dance as the Finals MVP was speaking to the thousands of fans that turned out to celebrate.
“Pearl was on stage dancing,” she said. “Aunty A’ja was doing her big speech at the parade in front of screaming fans and she decides to go behind her and have a little dance.”
The environment Pearl is growing up in is special.
“I get told a lot how cool it is that she gets to do this and it's not lost on me at all,” she said. “This is my lifestyle and I've just continued on with her in it. She's adapted and it's all she knows. We have aunties all over the world now, so she'll always have connections everywhere.
“Being around all the aunties every day, she loved it. She took it in her stride and that's all she knows – she was nine days old when we moved to Melbourne. She's around these elite humans, elite female athletes her whole life, she jumps from one team to another with all these amazing humans that just love her up.
“She's getting to be around empowered women who she can look up to.”
Fresh off a WNBA championship, George has quickly had to pivot to life in Sydney. Having made the move from the Melbourne Boomers to the Sydney Flames, George joined the squad just a couple of days prior to their season-opener against the Lynx last week, which she admitted wasn’t the best road trip after the travel she’s undertaken lately.
Photo credit: Kris Saad
“Look, two days in, we went to Perth and played a game. Couldn’t have picked a worse time to travel to Perth, golly!” she said with a laugh. “I'm just trying to put one foot in front of the other and find some good rhythm with the group. I thrive when I can help others thrive, so I'm in my best position when I can just really have a good understanding of the people around me and help them.
“The crew here is really great, the culture is already amazing, and Tess [Madgen] does a really great job with how she leads. I'm a better person and a better version of myself on and off court when I'm around Tess and [Flames coach] Guy [Molloy], so I think in the long run that will put us in a good position.”
The Flames currently sit at 1-1, having bounced back from a loss in Perth with a win over Bendigo on Friday night. George was instrumental in the 68-62 win, finishing with 12 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals.
Next up for George and Sydney is their home opener – today at Qudos Bank Arena – against her former team, the Boomers. It promises to be an enticing matchup with both teams having reloaded over the off-season.
George is excited for the season ahead with the Flames.
“I think with a bit more time under our belt, we'll produce the goods and it’ll be a cracking season,” she said. “Success doesn't always mean cutting the net at the end because I think if you counted every season you didn't win as a failure, you'd have a lot of bloody failures, right? Success looks different in a lot of different areas, so I think a successful year for us will be just getting the best out of ourselves, having a fun year, doing the best we can, working hard and if that in the end means cutting the net, then you bloody ripper. If it doesn't, then it’s about what can we learn from the season?
“I never look at seasons that we lose as failures – I think that's a really terrible mindset because then you'd always be failing. I've won four WNBL championships in 16 seasons, you can’t tell me I've had 12 failed seasons, that's just not how I look at it. The highs always feel so much better when you’ve had those lows. In life, not even just in basketball, you're always going to have way more low than high, but that's why the highs taste so good.”
Photo credit: Kris Saad
The one high George hasn’t experienced in basketball is claiming an Olympic medal. When asked if that’s in the back of her mind with just over 250 days until the Paris Olympics get underway, her response was telling.
“It's at the forefront of my brain, it's not at the back, it's right at the front!” She said. “Especially when I was overseas and the one year to go milestone hit, I was like ‘say less, here we go. We're training for the Olympics, every shot I take is Olympics training!’
“Every time I'm in the gym, I'm thinking about the Olympics. There was a patch where it actually helped get me through some lower times. I was thinking about the Opals and our culture, what I mean to the girls there and it kind of helped me function because that's just what the Opals program means to me and the sisters that are in it with me. I don't ever take that lightly or take it for granted and I'll do everything in my power to be ready to make that team first and foremost because I never assume to make that team.
“To win [an Olympic medal] would be just the ultimate. It's not even about me winning it, it's about us as a collective doing it for ourselves because I think we owe it to ourselves to be back on that podium at the Olympics. After the pressure of having a home World Cup and being able to overcome that and winning bronze, it was just overwhelming – my tear ducts are overwhelmed right now even talking about it.
Photo credit: FIBA
“I think we owe it to ourselves because we're a bloody hard working group – we’ve gone through some shitty trauma, but we ride the extreme highs and extreme lows together, we definitely owe ourselves an Olympic podium spot.”