Huntington’s Sydney Taylor has always dreamed of playing in the WNBA. That dream may be closer than ever to reality for the former St. Anthony’s star.
Taylor will compete against some of the best 3×3 women’s basketball teams in the world on Friday and Saturday at 3XBA in Edmonton, Canada.
“I’m excited,” Taylor said. “We get to play against another USA team, and I know a couple of the girls on some other teams out there. I’m excited to get into Canada.”
Sydney Taylor of Huntington Credit: FIBA
The 3XBA is an organization that prides itself as a pipeline to the WNBA and other professional circuits, utilizing the summer months to line up with FIBA’s 3×3 tournaments. Transitioning to a three-player format from the traditional five-player lineup has its nuances.
“It’s a lot different,” Taylor said. “There’s so much more space, so it forces you to create more off the dribble one-on-one. Reading little defenses can help your game when you go into five-on-five, picking up on small details that you wouldn’t notice with nine other people on the court.”
Perhaps Taylor could put those skills to good use at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. After playing four seasons at UMass and her graduate season at Louisville, she has represented Team USA and was named the 2024 MVP of the FIBA 3×3 Women’s Series in Quebec, averaging a tournament-best 6.8 points in the 10-minute games. It’s even more notable considering the Olympic-level talent alongside her in then-teammates Hailey Van Lith, Kennedy Brown and Cierra Burdick, with Van Lith and Burdick winning 3×3 bronze medals in the 2024 Olympics. Van Lith is currently playing in the WNBA for the Chicago Sky and Burdick played five seasons in the WNBA.
Sydney Taylor of Huntington Credit: Keith Webber Photography
St. Anthony’s girls basketball coach Hugh Flaherty offered his former player a spot on his staff following Taylor’s time at Louisville. Taylor, who was a member of Newsday’s All-Long Island girls basketball first team for the 2018-19 season, attended a Friars practice in December 2023, an experience Flaherty remembers well for the impact it had on his team.
“All of my kids were in love with her,” Flaherty said. “They’ve heard of her. I still get choked up thinking about her. She spoke to them about what her path was, how she got where she was and where she’s going.”
Taylor instead went overseas to continue her dream, competing in Lithuania for Vilnius Kibirkstis. “Even to this day, she still comes back [to shoot at St. Anthony’s],” Flaherty said. “She just wanted to be so good.”
After some initial disappointment following the 2024 WNBA Draft when she went unselected, Taylor said she’s learned to “feed off” the external doubts she hears while using skills like journaling to help her.
“That was tough for me,” Taylor said. “The next couple workouts, I was in my head. But I got out of that, and I know there are other ways to get to the WNBA other than just getting drafted.”
One of those ways is being so good you’re impossible to ignore. Taylor has the opportunity to build on that in Canada.
“You’re going to have people who don’t think you can do it, you’re going to have people who don’t think you’ll make it in that field,” Taylor said. “If you find other ways to get there, you get there. Not everyone’s path is the same, but if you keep working hard, you’ll get to where you want to be.”
The tournament will be shown on the All Women’s Sports Network (AWSN) on Pluto TV, beginning at 6 p.m. Friday and 8:30 p.m. Saturday.
Michael Sicoli covers high school sports for Newsday. He graduated from Quinnipiac in 2022 and left with a master’s degree in sports journalism in 2023.