Every morning earlier than Cameron Brink pulls on her Sparks jersey, she scans a taped-up collage in her closet. Olympic rings, a WNBA All-Star crest, snapshots along with her fiancé and a scatter of Etsy trinkets crowd the board.
The canvas is a hand-crafted constellation of who Brink is and who she longs to be. Between journal clippings and scribbled affirmations, Brink sees each the grand arc and the small vows that tether her: to point out up as a teammate, a daughter and a accomplice.
“You could have a selection day by day to have a great outlook or a nasty outlook,” stated Brink, the Sparks’ beginning ahead. “I strive to decide on day by day to be constructive.”
That selection appeared to matter most when the longer term felt furthest away. The apply emerged within the thick of a 13-month restoration from a torn anterior cruciate ligament. Brink — the Stanford star and Sparks No. 2 draft decide — was compelled to measure life within the tiniest ticks of progress after injuring her left knee a month into the 2024 season.
Sparks teammates Cameron Brink and Dearica Hamby clap arms as they move one another on the court docket throughout a recreation towards the Storm in Seattle on Aug. 1.
(Soobum Im / Getty Photos)
Sparks veteran Dearica Hamby acknowledged how rehab was grinding down the rookie. One afternoon, she invited Brink to her residence, the place the eating desk was set with scissors, glue sticks, stacks of magazines and knickknacks.
“I’ve at all times been taught rising up that your thoughts is your largest energy,” Brink stated. “So I’ve at all times been open to stuff like that. I closely imagine in manifesting what you need and powering a constructive mindset.”
Hamby had been constructing imaginative and prescient boards for years and believed Brink may use the identical apply — each as a pastime and as a mechanism to fight the doubts that surfaced throughout her prolonged and sometimes lonely rehab.
“If she will visualize it, she will prepare her thoughts the alternative of her adverse ideas and emotions,” Hamby stated. “Whenever you see it, you may imagine it. Your mind is consistently feeding itself. And in case you have one thing within the again — these doubts — you want one thing to counter that.”
The board dearest to Brink wasn’t crowded with stats or accolades. She crafted what she calls her “fantastic life,” layering in snapshots of her fiancé, Ben Felter, and framed by symbols of household and group.
“You’re a product of your thoughts,” Brink stated. “All the pieces in my life, I really feel like I’ve fought and been intentional about.”
Preventing was what the 12 months demanded. Nonetheless inspiring the boards appeared taped inside her closet, the truth was gradual and sometimes cruel.
From the evening she was carried off the court docket final June to the ovation that greeted her return in July, Brink’s progress unfolded in inches — from the day she may stand, to the day she may stroll to the day she touched the hardwood once more.
Sparks ahead Cameron Brink, left, and guard Rae Burrell, who’re injured, shout and rejoice from the bench after their group scored towards the Chicago Sky on June 29.
(Jessie Alcheh / Related Press)
“It’s been such a journey,” Sparks coach Lynne Roberts stated. “Cam’s mentality was simply attempting to not freak out. She was actually targeted on not being anxious about it.”
Brink got here to apply along with her recreation on a leash, her exercise hemmed in by docs’ timelines. Whereas teammates scrimmaged, she studied units from the sidelines.
Roberts praised her affected person perspective as “nice,” a talent Brink sharpened by the ritual of opening her closet and trusting the journey.
Kim Hollingdale, the Sparks’ psychotherapist, labored intently with Brink throughout her restoration. Whereas sure by confidentiality, she spoke to how manifestation instruments can anchor an athlete by means of the psychological pressure of lengthy restoration.
“With the ability to keep in contact with the place we’re in the end attempting to get to may help on these days when it’s feeling crappy,” Hollingdale stated. “Visualization helps us be like, ‘OK, look, we’re nonetheless heading to that imaginative and prescient. That is a part of the journey.’ It offers function, route and just a little hope if you’re within the mud of restoration.”
That sense of function, she added, is about giving the mind one thing acquainted to return to when progress stalls — a method for the thoughts to rehearse what the legs can’t.
For Brink, that meant conserving her recreation alive in footage she ran by means of her head. Putbacks within the paint grew to become reruns in her thoughts, and Hollingdale stated the mind scarcely is aware of the distinction: If it sees it vividly sufficient, the muscle groups prime themselves as if the motion really occurred.
What mattered wasn’t simply mechanics. Tuning out noise grew to become important as Brink was cleared to return as a WNBA sophomore by calendar but a rookie by expertise. What may have been crushing strain was dimmed by the imaginative and prescient boards — the “psychological rehearsal,” as Hollingdale labeled it.
Sparks ahead Cameron Brink shoots a three-pointer towards the Connecticut Solar on Aug. 7.
(Luke Hales / Getty Photos)
“I didn’t wish to concentrate on stat strains or accolades getting back from harm,” Brink stated. “I realized the significance of having fun with being on the market, controlling what I can management, at all times having a great perspective — that’s what I reframed my mindset to be about.”
Throughout Brink’s return towards the Las Vegas Aces on July 29, she snared an offensive rebound and splashed a three-pointer inside the first minute. And since, she has posted 5.9 factors and 4 rebounds an outing, headlined by a 14-point efficiency by means of 11 minutes towards Seattle.
Hollingdale tabbed Brink’s return a rarity. She typically prepares athletes to climate the gauntlet of “firsts” — the primary shot that clangs, the primary whistle, the primary crowd cheer — with out anticipating a lot past survival.
However upon Brink’s return, these firsts weren’t looming unknowns. They have been rehearsed reminiscences.
“That could be a testomony to her with the ability to handle herself, her feelings and her anxiousness and all of the stress and strain,” Hollingdale stated. “To come back out and make a significant distinction to your group right away speaks to the power to remain locked in and lower out the noise.”
By refusing to dash by means of restoration, Hamby stated Brink insulated herself from the strain that shadows younger stars. The imaginative and prescient boards, Hamby added, grew to become a tangible expression of Brink’s determination to belief herself.
“She’s finished it in a different way,” Hamby stated. “For her, it’s extra of a psychological factor than a bodily factor. She took her time, not listening to folks inform her she ought to have been again sooner.”
When Brink shuts the closet door and heads to Crypto.com Area for recreation day, she’s already spent the morning tracing the steps of the evening.
On the following clean nook of her canvas?
“Being an All-Star and going to the Olympics,” she stated.
