By: Tyler Byrum, Mystics Digital Content Specialist, Monumental Sports Network
This past WNBA season was supposed to be a big year for Brittney Sykes.
With no clear point guard ahead of her on the depth chart, that was going to be her new role. Or as Sykes liked to call it, she was going to be the primary "ball distributor" for the Mystics' starting group. She tasted that assignment a little bit in 2023 - her first year with the franchise - but this year most of the responsibility fell solely on her.
And on top of that, she had her other goals of being a contender for Defensive Player of the Year, First Team All-Defense, etc., averaging two steals and seven rebounds a game that she has every season.
Instead, goals had to be modified. Producing on the court wasn't her most valuable contribution this season. It's how her leadership carried through whether she was playing 100% healthy, partially healthy or in street clothes on the bench.
"Before [the injury] I probably just go balls to the wall, I get angry, I go and try and make something happen," Sykes told Monumental Sports Network late in the season. "And now I'm realizing I can't force that. And we make a joke that, I lost my - we call it spazzing out, and I lost my [expletive] after two turnovers that I caused, and I was internally upset, and that messed us up. I had to learn that my energy, it changes really quick within the team."
Learning how to mentally stay sharp playing just 18 of the 40 games was a new obstacle. This time, unlike other injuries she had in the past, Sykes was one of the established leaders and locker room voices. Going off to the side to focus on rehab and returning to play can't be the only responsibility for her.
How Sykes handles turnovers, fouls and other things outside her control can affect how the team handles it, too. At media day, she referred to it as a new mantra for the organization called 'on to the next.' With an impressionable roster full of players 25 years of age or younger, and which then got even younger as the season progressed, staying composed in stressful situations was critical to shaping the Mystics' future culture.
"I think she's really has done some work. Obviously, she has had to go through doing some work physically around her injuries and has dedicated herself to doing some work on the mental, emotional side of things," Mystics head coach Eric Thibault said during exit interviews. "How do you manage yourself? How you manage teammates? Especially in the type of role she wants to be in. We've seen flashes, obviously, of what she does defensively. But I think getting back, having an offseason where she can get back to her physical best, will go a long way."
Sykes opened up her season three assists shy of what would have been her first career triple-double against a New York Liberty team that is now playing in the WNBA Finals. Six minutes into her next game, though, Sykes suffered a significant ankle injury that would sideline her for nearly a month.
She returned to lead Washington to its first victory after a 0-12 start only to re-injure the ankle and miss the next 12 games.
All that was left for Sykes was a 15-game sprint to finish the season and those hopes for the 2024 season had gone up in smoke. It was a simple, yet complex, aspiration: stay healthy.
"Obviously, the biggest [goal] is just staying healthy, like staying healthy and staying as close to 100% as I can," Sykes said in August. "But I think for me, the biggest thing that keeps me mentally and physically and emotionally sane is just my goal is to just stay healthy, whatever that looks like, do it like kind of thing because just the fear of coming back and then going back out was already relived, and I don't want to relive it again."
The Mystics were 9-9 this season when Sykes was in the lineup. Sometimes she shared the court with fellow game-changing star Shakira Austin (just 12 games played this season), sometimes she shared it with 31-year-old rookie Julie Vanloo to alleviate some of Sykes's point guard duties. One constant through it all was Ariel Atkins, who with Sykes is the organization's other leader both on and off the court.
"If we're gonna be at the head of the snake for this train, like we got to know what makes each other tick, what makes each other go and how we can be that person for each other in the midst of the craziness, because it gets crazy," Atkins said. "Things get hot. And so if I'm that person that she can see and be like, alright, 'A's got me, or I know that Slim's got me,' that, to me, is when you start building true camaraderie, you start seeing it on the court, a little more, and being able to kind of give each other either that engine or like that fan and be like okay, we can pull off a little bit here.”