From 2021-2023, Natasha Mack played for AZS UMCS Lublin in Poland. In 2023, Mack helped the team win their first ever Polish Championship. (Photo courtesy of Phoenix Mercury)
PHOENIX – It felt like a storybook ending – selected 16th by the Chicago Sky in the 2021 WNBA Draft after a long, winding journey and an unlikely return to basketball. But for Phoenix Mercury forward Natasha Mack, that moment was just the start of another uncertain road.
A few years earlier, Mack had walked away from the sport entirely and taken a job in a poultry plant. Even as a highly touted high school recruit out of Texas, she was discouraged from chasing her dream – and she let those negative voices get in her head.
Mack thought she was done. But she came back through junior college, led the nation in blocks at Oklahoma State and was the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year in 2021. A version of her story had already been told, one of triumph and redemption.
But then, days before the start of her rookie season with the Sky, she was cut.
“I just remember not being good enough,” Mack said. “Not being ready, not being able to come in pro ready. It’s a short training camp. You have to be able to have it, or learn really fast. My ability to adapt was not the best at the time.”
“You can make it, but you have to stay”
Mack looks back on that draft night with mixed feelings, remembering the sense of excitement and pride that she felt.
“In the moment, I just felt like ‘Wow, I made it,’” she said. “But everybody kept telling me, ‘You can make it, but you have to stay.’ I didn’t realize what they were saying until I went into training camp. Then all I could say was ‘Damn.’”
The Mercury’s Natasha Mack has established herself as a premier shot blocker. So far this season, she’s seventh in the league in blocks per game, playing just 15.6 minutes per night. (Photo courtesy of Phoenix Mercury)
Like many WNBA hopefuls, Mack was caught between the celebration of being drafted and the brutal math of making a roster. WNBA teams only have a maximum of 12 roster spots, and at the time the league had 12 teams. Because so few spots exist, most draft picks don’t make opening day rosters.
Mack didn’t last long in Chicago. For a moment, her story had made headlines – a source of inspiration. Just as quickly, the league moved on without her.
Afterward, Mack went overseas and spent years out of sight for most U.S. fans, removed from the conversation. In truth, she had let go of her dream of playing in the WNBA.
“Honestly, I was going to be done with the W after 2021,” Mack said. “At the time, I felt like it was politics and they were going to pick and choose who they want.”
Between 2021 and 2024, Mack primarily played in Poland and Turkey. There were language barriers, no translators — but she found ways to connect by learning parts of Polish and Turkish, to adjust, to anchor defenses without needing to reinvent herself.
“I’ve never really been offense-focused; I mostly leave that to the four players around me,” Mack said. “I hold the anchor on defense. That’s where I hang my hat. Scoring is cool and all, but can you score on me? I’m going to make it super hard.”
The door cracks open again
By 2024, she’d found a rhythm overseas — and stopped thinking much about the WNBA.
Her second chance came quietly. Her agent mentioned Phoenix. The Mercury were rebuilding their roster and had open spots. Mack didn’t expect anything.
She was still unsure whether to give it another shot until her girlfriend urged her to try one more time. Just go, she told her. See what happens.
So Mack showed up to training camp tired from her overseas season, not fully prepared and ready to just enjoy the experience.
“I went in thinking, ‘Well, I know how the last training camp went. If I don’t make it, I’m taking all the gear,’” she said. “I need the bras, the socks, the jersey. I’m going to have the best two weeks.
“The whole two weeks I was dying. You can ask coach. I was like, ‘I don’t think I’m going to be able to make it, I’m about to die, I’m about to pass out, I’m about to get cut.’”
But then: She did make it.
“When I got the news – ‘I made it’ – I was shook,” Mack said. “Like, wow, OK. Now I have to prove myself for real.”
A defensive anchor
On June 19, on the second night of a back-to-back and without Kahleah Copper, the Mercury visited the 10–1 defending champion Liberty, looking for a jolt.
On one possession, Phoenix closed in too aggressively on Liberty star guard Sabrina Ionescu at the 3-point line, seemingly giving her an open path to the rim. As she strolled in for an unassuming finger roll, Mack came from behind, sending the shot into the stands.
Later, just 20 seconds after she blocked Liberty forward Nyara Sabally, Mack was there again, this time lurking in the paint. Sabrina Ionescu pulled up for a jumper instead of challenging Mack at the rim — a clear business decision. It didn’t matter. Mack swatted that, too.
“Just her rim presence, her pop. She’s just got a knack for the ball,” Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts said. “She doesn’t care if she plays eight minutes, 15 minutes, 20, 22. She’s the ultimate team player. She’s about the right stuff, and that’s why we love her.”
On a Phoenix team that has progressively relied on her more, Mack has become one of the league’s most effective shot blockers and a nightly defensive menace. In 2024, she was 11th in the league in blocks per game with 1.2 in 15.5 minutes of nightly relief for Brittney Griner. Now, 2025 presents greater possibilities.
After returning from a back injury that sidelined her early in the season, Mack has become a key spark off the bench. Her return, alongside Copper, coincided with the Mercury’s six-game win streak, helping them surge to the second best record in the league at 12-5. In 15.6 minutes off the bench, Mack is seventh in the league in blocks at 1.3 (among players with at least five games played), and has added 1.3 steals per game for good measure.
Her defensive mentality is built on more than effort. It’s instinct, timing, craft. She studies pump fakes, body positioning and angles. And when the moment comes, the outcome seems inevitable.
“If you get in the air, I’m going to send the shot back or you’re going to the free throw line,” Mack said. “That’s the only choice.”
Among Mack’s teammates, her impact hasn’t gone unnoticed.
“Mack has been massive,” forward Kathryn Westbeld said. “She’s athletic, she’s long. You can pretty much throw the ball anywhere and she’ll get it. … She makes my guarding skills look better.”
Copper added that “she’s just put her head down and been in the gym. She’s made a jump. That’s exactly what you want to see.”
Belief, returned
Mack’s renewed WNBA life didn’t come easily. But when she couldn’t believe in herself, others did.
“Shoutout to my woman, my parents, my brother, my sister,” she said. “They believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself. They said, ‘Your time is coming,’ and I thought they were just talking.”
Still, she showed up, tired, unsure – but grounded.
“I’m a little more mature, older, and have better professional habits,” Mack said. “So it makes it easier.”
This time, she stayed.