Jewell Loyd was supposed to play limited minutes in last month’s WNBA All-Star Game. The Seattle Storm guard had rolled her right ankle the previous week and sat out the Storm’s final game before the break for precautionary reasons.
Loyd had other ideas. The midseason showcase was back in Las Vegas for the first time in four years, and it meant something to Loyd. The 2019 All-Star Game was the last time she’d seen her mentor, the late Kobe Bryant.
“I remember halftime, I went over there and talked to him,” Loyd recalled. “He was like, ‘You’ve got to start cooking. Go take this s—.’ I actually was coming off an ankle injury that year too, so I wasn’t fully healthy. So I knew coming into this All-Star that the last time he told me to go get it and I had to make sure that I was going to do it.”
Loyd’s young niece and nephew, both in attendance this year, had also given her the goal of making 10 3-pointers.
The first came less than two and a half minutes into the game, as part of a four-point play. By halftime, she’d hit five 3-pointers and any minutes restriction was out the window. Loyd…
