Even before her first regular-season professional game, Los Angeles Sparks rookie guard Zia Cooke has already had her “Welcome to the WNBA” moment.
Cooke, the Rogers High School graduate and South Carolina standout, drew the assignment of guarding WNBA legend Diana Taurasi in the team’s preseason game Friday against the Phoenix Mercury at 11 p.m. Toledo time on ESPN.
“Guarding DT was definitely a ‘Welcome to the league,’ for sure,” Cooke told The Blade. “I got hit a few times by her in the face. Then getting hit by screens from Brittney Griner was crazy. I think that first preseason game was definitely a welcome to the league for me. It’s probably going to take a while for me to get adjusted to playing against those two for sure.”
Sparks head coach Curt Miller took it a step further and added Cooke had to guard Jewell Loyd in the team’s closed scrimmage against the Seattle Storm.
“In the exhibition games, she’s guarded Diana Taurasi and Jewell Loyd,” Miller said. “There’s your introduction to the league, right? You’re a rookie and you’re guarding Diana Taurasi and Jewell Loyd within the first two weeks that you are in the league. There’s these great two guards [in the WNBA]. Out of the gate, there's going to be Diana Taurasi and then we play Vegas twice and it’s Kelsey Plum or Chelsea Gray. So it's sink or swim with these [rookies] and they just have to keep battling and fighting.”
The Sparks host the Phoenix Mercury on Friday at Crypto.com Arena in their season opener. It has been just two weeks of training camp for Cooke after she was drafted No. 10 overall in the WNBA draft in April, and Cooke is doing her best to process all the information she needs prior to her rookie season.
“Her head is spinning right now, I'll be honest,” Miller said. “It’s totally different for these rookies. We throw a lot at them. We’re going into the longest regular season in the history of the league and you’re trying to put in a brand new system for everybody in a two-week period. So her head’s spinning right now, but we love her competing. She has shown flashes on both sides of the ball, and that’s what interested us in the draft — that she could potentially be a two-way player.”
Cooke said the veterans on the team are helping her with the transition to the professional game and all the information she is expected to learn and retain.
“They continue to be in my ear every single day to remind me first of all who I am and why I got drafted to this team,” Cooke said of the Sparks’ veteran players. “On top of that, they have always been in my ear giving me little tips. Today Azura [Stevens] was talking to me and telling me she was going to start drawing up the plays and sending them to me. It’s a load, and they are able to tell it’s a lot for me. So it just shows that they care about me 100 percent. They are all dialed into me and want to see me be the best that I can be and vice versa.”
Soon after Cooke was drafted, Sparks players like Nneka Ogwumike could see the drive and determination that she possesses.
“I had the pleasure of watching Zia play and meeting her at the draft,” Nneka Ogwumike said during a news conference in training camp. “The discipline is there. The work ethic is there. She’s a great person. It’s really just about making sure she knows she’s here for a reason and having that confidence and making sure she knows that she doesn’t have to limit herself. She’s also learning from amazing vets. I’m a vet, but we have amazing guard vets and I’m excited to see how much better she’ll get just in camp leading up to the season.”
Despite all the adjustments from college to professional basketball — the pace of the game, the extensive playbook, and even the traffic in Los Angeles — Cooke is still taking the time to soak in the experience, because she knows she has worked very hard to be a WNBA player.
“I think for a pretty long time I’ll be soaking in this moment and it’s something I’ve always worked hard for since I was 6 years old to be in this position,” Cooke said. “For me to finally be here, it’s something that I’m always going to cherish.”
Cooke said she has enjoyed working with Miller, who is in his first season with the Sparks after coaching the Connecticut Sun. Under Miller, the Sparks are in a bit of a rebuilding phase.
“He moves at a really fast pace, I will say that,” Cooke said. “You have to catch on very, very quickly. That’s something I’ve noticed about him. But he believes in his players and that’s something I love the most. That’s how I’ve always liked to be coached is by people that believe in me and believe in our team and know that we are capable of doing some things that people might not think we are capable of doing. I absolutely love our coaching staff and I think they are very dialed into our team and making a change for the L.A. Sparks and for us to do some great things this year and moving forward.”
Cooke said she doesn’t know what her role will be in her rookie season, and right now, Miller is stressing patience.
But Miller, the former Bowling Green head coach, is confident that because of Cooke’s positive mindset and will to get better, she will be a part of the Sparks’ future.
“I love her attitude and I love her humbleness,” Miller said. “She has tremendous gratitude and appreciation for the opportunity. I think she has a ceiling to get better on both sides of the ball. We’ll be patient with her and as for any rookie in this league there is going to be some ups and downs, and we shared that with her. But as long as she keeps a great attitude and strives to get better, it aligns with what we are trying to do with culture creation and not putting too much pressure on us to get great right away. We just have to try to get better every day.”
First Published May 18, 2023, 5:14 p.m.
