TORONTO — A lot can change in a decade.
For instance, go back 10 years and about 800 kilometres south-east of Toronto, and you’d meet a 23-year-old Brittney Sykes making her WNBA debut, worried about nothing more than slowing down Jasmine Thomas and Courtney Williams.
“When I got in, I just knew, alright, I’m here,” the now 32-year-old told Raptors Republic while sifting through the box score, chuckling at her 3-of-5 shooting, zero-assist effort, thinking back to what she could remember from that game against the Connecticut Sun exactly 10 seasons ago yesterday.
What Sykes didn’t know was that in the decade since, “here” would end up being five different teams, or that the fifth would be in a whole different country. That rookie also had no idea that one fortuitous haranguing by then-Atlanta Dream head coach Michael Cooper would kickstart her origin story as “Slim.”
“My original nickname was Slim Quick, and (Cooper) couldn’t get the Quick out, so he called a timeout, and was going off on me, and he’s like ‘Your name is goddamn Slim,’ because I guess I didn’t respond to him (at first), and I was like ‘I guess that’s my nickname.'”
The part of the anecdote that Slim hadn’t mentioned before was that Cooper, A.K.A. “Showtime Coop,” (from his Hall of Fame playing days with the Los Angeles Lakers), later told her that every person he’d given a nickname to had gone on to win a title, especially those with an S, like “Silk and Smooth,” the iconic duo of Candace Parker (Silk) and Lisa Leslie (Smooth).
With that bestowment in mind, and in hopes of continuing said legacy, the guard made it clear, “Don’t ever call me Brittney … literally, I’ve been Slim for the past 10 years.”
Duly noted, Slim.
So, one name change, 10 seasons, and four all-defence selections later, Slim found herself in Toronto. No longer a rising rookie and not even as a once-stubborn star. Instead, she ends up north of the border to act as a franchise figurehead, a role Slim “asked” for a decade ago when manifesting the type of player she’d want to become down the line.
Yet that evolution has been far from simple.
From back-to-back ACL tears in college to a fluctuating role in the pros and then a mid-season trade last year (while in the midst of her first all-star campaign), it all could’ve been enough to impact even the most resilient of athletes.
And for a chunk of Slim’s career, it did.
“I had some people walking on eggshells,” she admitted. ” … I was a distraction because of the lack of emotional control with my responses.
“I’m a very passionate player, and that can seep into the team, that can seep into the game. I had to learn that, even though I knew how to continue to play with that emotion, everybody else didn’t.”
That shift in perspective was partially thanks to a candid end-of-year meeting with the Washington Mystics in 2024, on the heels of a season in which Slim played a career-low 18 games due to injuries. The message was clear: “If you want to have longevity in your career, you’re going to have to learn how to control your emotions.”
Sykes still thanks the Mystics staff for being “straight shooters” with her, telling Ashlee McGee and Eric Thibault as much when she saw them during the pre-season, both of whom are now assistant coaches with the Sun and Minnesota Lynx, respectively.
As for the “very intentional work” she’s put in since (and previously), some of it can be credited to her discovering the value of therapy along the way — still working with licensed psychologist Dr. Kensa Gunter, whom Slim first met as a member of the Atlanta Dream seven years ago.
But she mostly merits that growth to the aforementioned injury-riddled campaign, for forcing her “lens to be widened.”
“I had a lot of time to sit and watch what the game was outside of just playing. You start to realize how you affect the game more than just basketball. It’s personal relationships, work relationships, being intuitive about, OK, my teammate, this has nothing to do with basketball … How can I be of assistance to them? Offering up that side of me that I know most times I wouldn’t have in my career.”
The now-introspective vet acknowledged that young Slim wasn’t much of a “talker” and instead was more of a “lead by example” player. But that meant she served as both “a prime example of some good, (but) also a prime example of some bad stuff.”
Hence, as a leader of the expansion Tempo, one of Slim’s goals is to “help the youngins not make the same mistakes. Give them some tools that I learned later on in my career when it comes to certain situations and altering your thoughts and perspective.”
For instance, if she could go back and talk to 23-year-old Slim, she’d tell that rookie to “just stay the course.”
“When I look back, everything good, bad, and different was literally preparing me for the next stage … keep your plan in mind, because my plan was always to be a franchise player.”
The Tempo made Slim’s vision a reality when they signed her to a two-year max contract via free agency, with intentions of leveraging that blossoming leadership.
But that plan isn’t all Slim’s held on to over the last decade.
“The ‘I don’t give a damn who’s out there mentality,’ I don’t think that has changed at all,” she explained.
That her response was “every single one of them, that’s my job,” when asked who she’s most excited to play against this season, proved as further evidence her mindset “will never change.”
“I look forward to playing every version of competition. These are the new best players in the league? I want to guard them. That’s always been me. Even when the athletic clock is ticking … I still want to play these guards who are considered the best on their team, because I consider myself the best on my team … I want to be challenged.”
As a two-time steals champ and recently voted the No. 2 perimeter defender by WNBA GMs across the league, it’s safe to say Slim’s more than met that challenge.
But now she faces another task.
“We need our veteran players to use their voices. I say all players should have a voice and be leaders, but your veterans have been there,” Tempo head coach Sandy Brondello said. “Slim has been great with all the teams she’s played on and in different roles. She’s always been a defensive anchor, and it’s no different here. She’s a competitor.”
Being a leader for the Tempo, not just on the court but off it as well. Because, as Brondello explained, team culture has to be “player driven,” and Slim is expected to be in the driver’s seat most nights.
Yet it’s exactly that responsibility the vet has developed a fondness for. In fact, she now holds it “like a badge of honour.”
“Just being an emotionally sound person for my team, because I realized when I go, they go. And when I don’t go, they don’t know where to go. So I take that position on the team very seriously.”
And it’s precisely the many ups and downs Slim’s gone through over the past decade that have her feeling “prepared” for the duties of leadership.
“I don’t feel like I’m not supposed to be here. No, I asked for this. I asked to go through all the sh*t I went through … because now I have perspective on so much. I’m able to talk to the players on the high side … I’m able to talk to the quiet ones. I’m able to go across the board. And I think everything that I went through literally prepared me to be in this position for a franchise.
“People say culture, right? I was basically cultured through my situations to understand there’s so much more than just basketball about holding this position down.”
And so far so good. Her teammates have credited her for being a steadying presence both on the court and in the locker room as the Tempo embark on their historic inaugural season.
One that began with Slim rattling in a mid-range pull-up — “shoutout to the mid-range” — for the franchise’s first-ever points. A milestone that’s “always going to be a first of firsts,” and one that “nobody can take away” from her.
And in two decades, when the Tempo are commemorating their 20th anniversary, Slim wants it to be known, she’s “going to be there, with my basketball.”
With hopes that when fans look back at Year 1 of the franchise, what they’ll remember most is the “resiliency of the team.”
“I really feel like no matter what, no matter what win, no matter what loss, like, we still will be Toronto’s team. We’ll still be the Tempo. We’ll still have that upbeatness about us, no matter what the record is. My first year in Atlanta, we lost (nine-straight games), which you couldn’t tell because we still had happiness. We still had joy. We still came in and gave it our best effort, you know? And I never felt like we were coming into a loss. I felt like we were coming into a chance to win, you know, kind of thing.
“So with us, I’m not trying to manifest any of that, but just to give you an idea, no matter what, we will still be Toronto’s team. We’ll still be pushing towards a championship like everybody else will.”
A pursuit that got off to a solid start, after Slim and the Tempo celebrated her 10-year WNBA anniversary with a victory on Wednesday — the first in the expansion franchise’s history. She put up 18 points, eight rebounds, a game-high six assists, a steal and a block in the momentous victory.
Still living out her dreams, still making a winning impact, but now with more on her mind than just slowing down her opponents.
Today’s Slim, while still taking care of business on the court, takes a beat to think through her emotions, checks on her teammates along the way and looks to empower every fan she comes across. Like on Wednesday, when she broke focus during her pre-game workout after hearing a delightful “We love you, Slim!” from the stands. She searched for the source of the cheers, smiled, waved and then formed a heart with her hands as she made her way off the court, but not before signing a couple of autographs.
Done with the poise and passion that 23-year-old envisioned a decade and 281 games ago, even if she had no idea it would all come together 800 kilometres north-west, for a team that was little more than a daydream way back when.
But then again, a lot has happened since then. Including a capricious 10-year journey in the WNBA that has meticulously shaped Slim into the genuine leader she’s been striving to be.
“I never lost sight of the process, that’s what (my story) screams to me. Processes really don’t have a timeline. And in my mind, whenever that opportunity came, I wanted to be ready.”
And a decade later, she finally is.
