TORONTO — New places and faces are seemingly just part of a professional athlete’s job.
But even by those standards, packing up and travelling across the globe to an unfamiliar country and incomparable league sounds like quite an undertaking. Which would be true for a seasoned pro, let alone a rookie, like the Toronto Tempo’s Laura Juskaite, who’s wholeheartedly embraced the daunting journey.
Make no mistake, however, despite her enthusiasm, the trek has been far from easy. Even though the Lithuanian wing has been among the WNBA’s most productive rookies this season, she admits it’s been a grind. Especially while navigating a much more demanding basketball schedule.
“A lot of my (production) comes from energy and physicality, and when we have two or three games in five days, sometimes I just don’t feel physically well enough to be myself,” Juskaite explained before the all-star break. “It’s what I never experienced in Europe because we play two games per week. Here we play sometimes three or four games … it was hard for my body to adapt, I’d come to the game totally off because I am exhausted, and it just takes time for the body to understand the rhythm and intensity of the league.”
And still, despite that early fatigue, she’s found a way to rank top 10 among rookies in scoring (9.8), rebounds (4.0), steals (1.2 – fourth) and minutes (24.3), and has positively impacted the Tempo’s offence — from an on-off perspective — more than any player on the team, increasing the offensive rating by 3.5 points per 100 possessions in over 800 minutes (per Databallr).
“I think it’s way better now … I think I’m past this phase. I feel more comfortable around people, I know what to expect in the game,” Juskaite told Raptors Republic. “So it’s been challenging at the beginning, but with every game, I feel better.”
Part of that growing confidence draws inspiration from her upbringing in the hoops-crazed nation of Lithuania, where basketball is a “second religion” according to Juskaite, who captains the senior women’s national team. She’s routinely been embraced and supported by her countryfolk throughout multiple stops of her first WNBA season — on Tuesday, Juskaite took part in a meet-and-greet with close to 100 Lithuanian fans right after the Tempo’s game against the Indiana Fever at Scotiabank Arena. And previously did the same alongside countrywoman and fellow WNBAer Juste Jocyte following a game against the Valkyries in Golden State.
“Everybody (in Lithuania) understands basketball, and everybody’s watching basketball … So basketball is huge for us. And I don’t think everyone is aware of that,” she added.
But that’s not the only reason Juskaite has made steady progress throughout her first pro season in North America. Part of her growth has been her ability to navigate the WNBA through a unique lens. Specifically, an 18-55 millimetre one for her Fujifilm XT30 II.
Bringing along the camera she purchased on a whim nearly two years ago has since become part of her daily routine, and certainly one of her road-trip prerequisites. It started as a way to add another activity alongside her travels while playing basketball, and she quickly grew so fond of the process that it led to creating a photography-based social media account. Sharing her photos initially took encouragement from those around her, but now she’s more than comfortable letting people see “the world through my eyes,” as explained on her Instagram bio.
From ideation and planning to framing and composition, the methodology drew her attention — like waiting along the Toronto lakefront for an extra 20 minutes to capture a plane crossing perfectly over a floating convenience store on Lake Ontario.
“It is my way to recharge and do something other than basketball, because there are so many days I just go back home, and there’s nothing to do. So you just turn on another basketball game, and you keep watching, watching, and at some point, you get tired of it,” Juskaite explained. “So photography is a nice hobby to walk around, stay in the fresh air most of the time, and see the world through a different perspective.
“You don’t want to stay on the couch all day. So you just take a camera, and it makes more sense to have a goal like, ‘oh, I will go to this place. And I will try to take a photo of this or that.’ So yeah, it’s been fun to do it here.”
“Here” being not just Toronto — although she was quick to check off the CN Tower from her photography bucket list — but as much of the country as she can reasonably explore between living the life of a pro basketball player. Among Juskaite’s favourite places to capture photos since joining the Tempo has been Niagara Falls. She’s already posted multiple images of the natural wonder and plans to take similar photos of Canadian landscapes when visiting Vancouver for the Tempo’s cross-Canada series, which begins on Friday. And when she can’t stay in a spot long enough to capture her ideal photo, or doesn’t have her camera, Juskaite often makes a note in her phone so she can return later.
What makes her photography especially unique is that, like her game, the imagery is predicated on her natural instincts and creativity, often coming together on a whim. The same way she finds unique angles to drive and attack the basket, Juskaite gets plenty abstract with her camera, like capturing the CN Tower through the gaps of a bridge to naturally frame the Toronto landmark as if it had been put through a vignette filter. Or by using the reflection of her phone to blend two perspectives of an image together — she doesn’t edit any of her photos after taking them, relying solely on a couple of camera presets and her imagination.
“What you see is straight from my camera,” she noted on Instagram.
But what may be most meaningful about Juskaite’s photography is the understated meaning of what it all represents for the rookie.
“I think for me, especially after bad games and losing streaks, sometimes you get lost in who you are and you don’t feel good enough of as a basketball player because you keep losing and it’s easy to get down and find yourself laying in the bed and overthinking what was wrong … and it’s easy to become negative and destroy yourself even more and punish yourself for things that don’t go well,” Juskaite said.
The 28-year-old later explained that photography hasn’t just become a way to keep her mind occupied, but it’s also been a way to express her feelings.
“I think every photo reminds me of something. And I usually put some songs on it as well if I post them, so it has some meaning to me. And sometimes it describes my mood, like I post black and white photos, then I’m maybe more tired and sad and not in the mood, and more colorful pictures when I am with more energy and happier,” Juskaite added. “So it’s interesting. It’s a way to tell my feelings, I would say, but nobody knows what’s behind it at the end of the day.”
All of which has turned her interest into an important tool for compartmentalizing her life as an athlete frequently under the microscope of fans, all while navigating a whole new side of the world.
“So (photography) is something different that you go; nobody cares how you performed or what you did. You do your own thing, you forget about basketball. And I think it’s important to have other hobbies that you can have and make it like a daily routine … all these things just for your mental health and well-being in general.”
Tempo head coach Sandy Brondello echoed that sentiment, explaining how she often urges her players to “get away” from the court.
“Otherwise, you’re in a fish tank, aren’t you? That’s when it can get to you, wear on you, the wins and losses.”
And Juskaite isn’t the only player on the Tempo that’s been abiding by Brondello’s advice, especially in the midst of a trying 11-game losing streak. Others on the team have formed a book club, led by veteran Kia Nurse, while some have joined matcha-aficionado Nyara Sabally for coffee dates during road trips.
Which the Tempo will be doing even more of, travelling yet again on Wednesday to visit the Washington Mystics for the second night of a back-to-back and the first of six road tilts in the team’s final 10 games of their inaugural season.
Wednesday is also World Photography Day, a fact Juskaite only learned during our interview but seemed keen on remembering. And if given the time to explore the DMV area, expect the rookie to keep exploring as much as she can through her unique lens. For now, it’ll still be that 18-55 millimetre one. But Juskaite does have plans to upgrade in September once the season is over — treating herself after Year 1 in the WNBA, which’ll come to a close right around her birthday.
A way of celebrating all the new places and faces Juskaite came across on a journey that may have seemed overwhelming at first, but has since been about reaffirming one thing above all else.
“I think I belong. I have good games, I have some bad games, but everybody does. And I think my minutes in the game, my stats show that I belong here.”
And now she’ll have plenty of photos to look back on to remember how it all happened.
