Winning isn’t everything for Sami Whitcomb

The veteran guard has become the WNBL’s MVP favourite in a season that’s seen Bendigo become title favourites. But personal and team success stems from a focus that goes way beyond just winning

Photo credit: Mike Owen / Getty Images

You only had to see one minute.

Throughout the course of a gruelling season that spans some six months, and includes more than ninety fully timed, forty minute games, you only had to see one minute of Sami Whitcomb’s swashbuckling, scintillating, swaggering sorcery to know why she should be this year’s WNBL MVP.

Fittingly, it all happened in prime-time. The league’s marquee Wednesday night slot was broadcasting a clash worthy of top billing, with ladder leaders Bendigo hosting their biggest threats for the championship, Perth.

While Bendigo might have been the benchmark all season, they were suddenly very much at risk of surrendering top spot. They trailed the Lynx by seven points with 8:48 to play. It was approximately around this time that Whitcomb put forward her case as the league’s most lethal player.

She first took a hand-off from Kelsey Griffin right at the top of the three-point line, gliding past the subsequent screen with one wide lefty dribble. With Griffin accounting for a trailing Ally Wilson, and Laeticia Amihere lurking in the paint, Whitcomb quickly launched an off-balance triple. It bounced off the rim no less than six times, before softly falling through the bottom of the net. Perth by four.

That was the dry run, because on the very next play, the very same result. A Griffin hand-off, a left hand gather dribble, and a wide-open triple. While Wilson and Amihere clearly hadn’t learned their lesson, Whitcomb self-corrected enough to this time swish the finish. Perth by one.

History seemed to be repeating, but it wasn’t quite Groundhog Day. By the third sequence, Perth had seemed to cotton on. Another Griffin hand-off, another left-handed gather. As Whticomb exploded around the action, Amihere hedged her bets and edged forward. Whitcomb hesitated, but so did Amihere. A fatal mistake. In an instant, Whitcomb used another wide dribble to create space and launch another triple. A slightly different set, but still the same outcome. Bendigo by two.

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All up, a white-hot Whitcomb needed just one minute to win the MVP race once and for all. Across the seven minutes after that, Bendigo would go on to win too, thanks to a 30-16 quarter that has them two games clear at the top of the table heading into the pointy end of the season. The Spirit’s dominance, and Whitcomb’s superhuman exploits, have been the defining story of the season.

But to fully understand the success of Sami Whitcomb, you need to understand why winning isn’t everything.