How Khadijah Sessions went from USC to USA: ‘Didn’t think I’d have this feeling again’
Editor’s note: This story is part of The State’s series “SC Sports: Where are the stars now?“
When USA Basketball unveiled its final roster for the 2019 AmeriCup tournament this past September, the list of names read as a who’s who of gold medalists, WNBA All-Stars, top draft picks and college All-Americans.
Nestled among them — Khadijah Sessions.
While other players had their WNBA or college team listed after their names, Sessions, a two-time captain and point guard for South Carolina, had Kouvot, a professional team in Finland she last played for in 2016.
So how did Sessions — who starred at Myrtle Beach High School, finished off her collegiate career with the Gamecocks in 2015-16, went undrafted by the WNBA and was out of competitive basketball completely — wind up on the national team, playing against the likes of Canada, Brazil and Puerto Rico?
‘Ready for any opportunity’
It started with practice. Sessions is a trainer nowadays, helping work out young players around Columbia. She’ll visit her old program and former coach Dawn Staley some days, jumping into practice as needed. She works with other trainers in the area too, staying fit, staying ready.
“I know I’m still on the market. So I’m always going to be in shape for anything at any given time, ready for any opportunity,” Sessions told The State.
And in September, an opportunity arose.
Staley, acting as head coach of the U.S. senior women’s national team, was prepping for the FIBA AmeriCup, the championship tournament for North, South and Central Americas. She needed people for her national team players to go against in practice during the pre-tourney training camp.
With “USA Basketball director Carol Callan, we were just trying to figure out who we could invite to camp, and a lot of the point guards we wanted to invite were either playing in the WNBA playoffs or they had committed to something else,” Staley said. “And then I’m like, Khadijah, she’s the first person that came to mind because she’s always in shape, she’s always thinking basketball.”
Sessions got the call. She wouldn’t be on the official 12-woman roster, but she’d get the chance to compete with top-level players in USA Basketball. “Why not?” she thought.
In her first day in Miami for training camp, Sessions ran into legendary point guard Diana Taurasi during breakfast. Entering the gym, she spoke with Staley and another all-time great, Sue Bird. WNBA All-Star Skylar Diggins-Smith welcomed her into the fold.
“My nerves were running through the roof. Just the simple fact that, you know, you go from working out every day and believing in your craft and teaching other people your craft to getting one of the biggest calls of your life just out of nowhere, of course … my blood pressure was going crazy, but at the same time, you know, I know I’m built for that,” Sessions said of that first day.
And that first practice meant far more than Sessions realized at the time.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say (I was) going all out. I was just making sure I played the point guard role, being smart and playing with the best players in the world,” Sessions said. “So now I had to up my game to another level. Just do my part, don’t try to force the issue, and it went really well.”
The coaching staff had some news later in the day — WNBA champion and All-Star Jewell Loyd had injured her finger, and her spot would be taken by a player the selection committee liked the best in practice.
“The coaches talked it over, and (Callan) called me over and asked me to go to Puerto Rico with them, and that’s pretty much how it came about, after the very first practice,” Sessions said.
Practice had paid off.
A friend group forms
As the only one of 12 players who made the team who wasn’t in college or currently on a professional team, Sessions was in a unique spot on and off the court. But she quickly bonded with three of her new teammates: Arike Ogunbowale of the Dallas Wings, Brittney Sykes of the Atlanta Dream and Sylvia Fowles of the Minnesota Lynx.
“It’s weird how we all just gelled, like we all seem like we’ve been friends for years with our stories, and when we’re hanging out, just talking and learning each other,” Sessions said. “It just seems like we met for a reason.”
The four women range in age from 22 to 34, in experience from WNBA MVP to just out of college. But they connected early on and would hang out every day in Puerto Rico, eating, shopping and going out occasionally. Even now, they still have a group chat going and plans to reunite for another trip.
“Those three girls, they have a special place in my heart, you know. Everybody does. So like if I reach out to one of those girls that was on the team, they reach back, they talk to me, vice versa. You know, we had a ball, we tried some authentic Puerto Rican food. They got me out of my comfort zone. So, just had a good time, they’re good people,” Sessions said.
The friendship with Fowles, in particular, was special for Sessions — the highly decorated center is her mother’s favorite player. In Puerto Rico, when Sessions FaceTimed with her mom, Fowles came on the phone.
“My mom’s like, ‘No way, you hang out with her every day?’” Sessions said. “I’m like, ‘Dude, we hang out every day.’”
And Fowles had high praise for Sessions, calling her a “mini me”.
“I just liked that she liked to soak up information. She listened very well. She went out there did what was asked of her, so it just put me in a good place to pretty much take her under my wing once we discovered she was heading down to Puerto Rico with us,” Fowles said.
“She’s very quiet, for one. She didn’t say much but always was being a sponge and soaking up information. And like I said, she worked hard,” Fowles continued. “And I don’t really say much, but I’d rather lead by example. And I always try to do what is asked of me and try to be very coachable, and that’s exactly what Khadijah was.”
‘I used to watch this stuff on TV’
On the court, Sessions didn’t see that much playing time during the tournament — she appeared in five games, recording 26 minutes, two points, two rebounds, three assists and two steals.
“She ran our scout team; she was good. I talked to her a little bit about, I had to give other players more time, more experience,” Staley said. “‘Coach, do what you gotta do,’ (she said). And she just was thankful for the experience and she made some great friends out of it.”
She also got some hardware, as the Americans went 6-0 and defeated Brazil in the gold medal game.
“When we was at the medal ceremony, it was cool, man, it was like … I used to watch this stuff on TV. You know what I’m saying? You watch this on TV, you look at Twitter, you look at Instagram, you see all the greats always with the USA stuff on,” Sessions said.
“The fact that that moment happened, I mean, I probably I think that’s … probably my biggest accomplishment in my career, even though I didn’t play a lot and had that much to contribute, but you know, the things I did in practice, the minutes I did have. I mean, incredible. I didn’t think I’d have this feeling again because I had this feeling at the Final Four. That Final Four feeling and this feeling, the feelings are the same, but of course the USA is better because you’re representing your country — it’s the best couple of people in the world. Just to see your name on the list is enough.”
Still waiting for a chance
It’s been a few years since Sessions was on a professional team. But she’s still waiting for the right opportunity and plans on trying for at least a little longer to make it as a pro.
And while Staley was the one to give her that initial chance to work with the national team, both agree she has the talent necessary. It was just a matter of getting the right people to recognize it.
“She took a chance on me. I mean, you can look at it as, you know, she’s my coach, blah blah blah, but I don’t think one coach is going to just randomly put somebody on there that’s not capable of doing something,” Sessions said. “It takes a lot. That’s the big stage. She knows I’m ready for anything. She’s gonna get on something and that’s gonna look bad on her.”
“I don’t pick the team. The (selection) committee was out there, and the committee just felt like she would be the perfect person to complement what we already had,” Staley said.
And of course, making the team and having the opportunity to interact with professional players and coaches gave Sessions hope for her career moving forward. Two of Staley’s assistant on Team USA are WNBA head coaches — Dan Hughes and Cheryl Reeves — and Sessions wanted to impress them for her own career, and for Staley.
“You gotta make sure, you see somebody taking a chance on you, you gotta give it all you got for them, because they took a chance on you,” Sessions said. “So that also helped me as well, but you know just being around familiar faces was great, but I’m just waiting for somebody else on that next level to take a chance.”
This story was originally published February 4, 2020 at 12:23 PM.
