Although she came in as the youngest member of the Mercury’s new star trio, there were high expectations for her, being just two seasons removed from winning the league’s Most Improved Player award in 2023.
Through the first quarter of the season, Sabally was a rock, playing without several other starters and still leading Phoenix to a 7-4 start. In those first 11 games, she averaged 20.5 points, good for fifth in the league. She scored 20 or more points seven times, and her usage rate of 32.9% was the highest in the league by 3.4 percentage points (minimum 40 total minutes played).
With her teammates, including fellow star players Alyssa Thomas and Kahleah Copper, injured, Sabally took the reins, jolting Phoenix to a respectable start in her first year in the Valley.
“We’re asking her to do more,” head coach Nate Tibbetts told the media after the Mercury’s win over the Los Angeles Sparks on June 1. “It’s impressive. Especially with AT and Kah here, she was probably thinking that she was going to have to play one way, and now she’s having to do more, which is great experience for her.”
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Now the team is firing on all cylinders, and Sabally is still the offensive spark, just as she was to start the year.
The Mercury are 15-7 going into the All-Star break, holding the third-best record in the league. Sabally is averaging a career high 19.1 points, good for sixth in the league. She’s also snagged a team high 7.7 rebounds per game. For the third time in her career, Sabally was named a WNBA All-Star, earning a starting spot in the mid-season classic, although she won’t participate due to a right ankle injury.
Sabally’s caliber of play for the Mercury this season is no surprise. Before coming to the Valley, Sabally’s resume and list of accolades were quickly growing. General manager Nick U’Ren and the front office knew what they were getting when they traded for her back in February.
“I don’t know where to begin in terms of the excitement in terms of bringing you to our organization from a versatility standpoint, from a size, from a shooting, from a passing, from a rebound standpoint, from an intelligence standpoint,” U’Ren said at Sabally’s introductory press conference in February. “You can play any position. I know Coach Nate is so thrilled to think of the lineups you’ll unlock, and the most exciting thing is that I think you can get so much better on top of all this.”
Five months later, Sabally has lived up to the hype. Her play has been one of the brightest highlights of the Mercury’s season. Despite the ankle injury that kept her out of the four games preceding the All-Star break, it’s clear that Sabally has taken a step forward, and she’s ready to join the league’s most supreme tier of players.
The Unicorn in true form
Phoenix Mercury forward Satou Sabally (0) shoots over Connecticut Sun center Olivia Nelson-Ododa (10) during the WNBA game between the Phoenix Mercury and the Connecticut Sun at Mohegan Sun Arena, Uncasville, Conn. on June 18, 2025. (Photo Credit: Chris Poss | The Next)
Arguably, Sabally’s most impactful asset for the Mercury is her versatility. A large part of her skillset is based around her having the mobility of a guard despite her 6’4 frame, and having the strength and size of a forward while being capable of matching up on the perimeter.
Sabally doesn’t fit into the traditional mold of a forward and never has, which has earned her the moniker of “the Unicorn.” Her ability to play nearly every position on the floor is a dream come true for Tibbetts and his free-flowing, positionless style of basketball.
“[Satou] is a special player,” Tibbetts said in June. “So I’m so excited that she’s here, and the future that we’re going to have, just trying to help her continue to improve as a player. She’s been so dang coachable. I want to give her a ton of credit for that.”
Sabally’s uniqueness, which earned her the Unicorn title, extends beyond what she can do on the floor that others cannot. It’s also in her approach to the game and how her competitiveness kicks into overdrive from the opening whistle.
Unlike most WNBA players, Sabally is fortunate to have a sister, Nyara Sabally (who is two years Satou’s junior) also on a WNBA roster and earning valuable playing time for the New York Liberty, another of the league’s top teams.
When the younger Sabally and the Liberty visited PHX Arena on June 27, Satou welcomed her with open arms, posing for pictures with her in the tunnel pregame. But when they stepped on the court, the only evidence of their relation was the shared last name on their jerseys.
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At one point in the game, Nyara tweaked her ankle on the offensive end of the floor. Visibly hobbled, she stayed in the game and went down to the other end to play defense. The ball ended up in Satou’s hands, and in that moment, it didn’t matter that her sister was in front of her, playing with a bum ankle. Satou drove straight to the rim. She may not have made the layup, but the play epitomized her cutthroat instinct, that nobody, not even her sister, could impede her from making the play she wanted to.
“[Satou] has had a great year. She just, she’s a competitor,” Tibbetts told reporters after the game. “She’s out to prove people wrong about them questioning who she was and what she was about from a year ago, and she’s been on a mission. And I guess it doesn’t matter who’s in front of her, even her sister, she’s going to be aggressive.”
The determination to be the best doesn’t stop at overpowering her opposition. Every day, she’s in the gym working to become the best version of herself. Tibbetts has commended her for being open-minded and willing to listen to the vision the coaching staff has outlined for her.
“I think the main question that you’re asking is, can we get her to understand when she has the advantage?” Tibbetts said pregame on June 5. “And so just having conversations with her, you know, we weren’t very good in Minnesota [on June 3]. I just love the fact she came back, sat with one of the assistants, and watched the whole game, and so she’s curious. She wants to be great. She’s going to keep getting better.”
Her dedication to her craft has also caught the eye of her teammates. In his pregame press conference at Minnesota on June 3, Tibbetts spoke about how being around veteran players with numerous accolades and championship experience would be good for Sabally as she takes the next step in her career. In turn, she’s impressed those same veterans with her desire to improve and achieve peak performance.
“It’s really exciting to see her thrive here,” Sami Whitcomb said after the home win over New York. “She works really, really hard. She seeks that feedback out, and she takes on any of the sort of critical feedback we give her as well. I’ve said this before, she wants to be the best version of herself … so I’ve been really proud of her. Every single game, I think she takes steps forward for us, and it’s really fun to play with.”
Finding her fit
Phoenix Mercury forward Satou Sabally (0) looks to pass while defended by Minnesota Lynx forward Alanna Smith in a game between the Mercury and the Lynx at Target Center, Minneapolis, Minn. on June 3, 2025. (Photo credit: John McClellan | The Next)
As free agency neared this offseason, it was widely reported that 2024 would be Sabally’s last in Dallas. Sabally herself confirmed it on Jan. 9. The scramble to acquire her ensued, and Phoenix won out.
But what the Mercury’s organization has unlocked in Sabally is more than many could have expected. External talk about Phoenix taking the next step forward largely revolved around Thomas and Copper, with Sabally as the leading footnote.
Instantly, it became clear that would not be the case.
While points can be made about the difference in her utilization, coaching and the team around her, Sabally has attributed her success this year to being able to just “worry about basketball.”
The Mercury’s landmark investment in a practice facility, coupled with an athletic training staff, resources for recovery and team-based nutrition planning, has taken the onus off Sabally to keep her body right throughout the season.
For a player with an injury history as extensive as Sabally’s — she’s only played more than 20 games in a season once in her career — that’s a big deal. Going beyond the physical, these amenities have also benefited her mentally, removing stress and worry about securing the necessary resources and food to keep her in prime basketball shape for the whole summer.
“I’m super happy to be in a new environment, around great people, around an organization that also is able to keep us healthy and really just pours everything in us,” Sabally said back in June. “So I really feel just grateful to be able to give that back. That’s what I do, and I really do it with pride.”
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With the style of play the Mercury have adopted under Tibbetts, Sabally’s fit on the floor is just as pivotal. Tibbetts and the Phoenix coaching staff have challenged her to step outside the mold she’s fit into in previous WNBA seasons.
This has meant putting the ball in her hands more often, encouraging her to initiate the offense, turning her into a downhill threat in pick-and-rolls rather than just a pick-and-pop option, and giving her the go-ahead to shoot upwards of six 3-pointers a game (she currently averages a career-high 6.1 attempts beyond the arc).
As an organization, the Mercury have taken care of Sabally’s physical and mental well-being and redefined who she is as a player, setting the table for the evolved version of Sabally seen through the first half of the season.
“Satou and I have had a lot of discussions since she decided to come here, even before, you know, during free agency, she wants to be coached, which I love,” Tibbetts told the media after practice on July 1. “I’ve been super impressed with her commitment to her profession. She’s typically, she’ll tell you, probably not one of the first ones in the building, but she’s one of the last ones every day, for sure. And she talks about it, I’ve heard her talk about it, just the resources that she has here, she could just worry about basketball.”
Locker room love
Phoenix Mercury forward Satou Sabally (0) huddles with other Mercury players during a game between the Mercury and the Minnesota Lynx at Target Center, Minneapolis, Minn., on June 3, 2025. (Photo credit: John McClellan | The Next)
Satou’s contributions to the Mercury’s success go far beyond just what she does on the court. In a locker room that includes four players 30 or older, the 27-year-old Sabally is developing her leadership style in her sixth year in the league. And on a team that rosters a healthy mix of overseas talent trying to find their footing in the WNBA, Sabally is an ideal go-between.
“This is the first time for Satou to have the caliber of players like AT and Kahleah around her,” Tibbetts told the media after a practice in June. “And so she does a good job of putting her arms around the young players and bringing them along.”
For much of the first quarter of the season, Satou was one of the only veteran voices on the floor, with many young players thrust into larger roles and key minutes due to injuries. Satou stepped up and guided them with her play and her words.
“She’s a great leader,” rookie guard Lexi Held told reporters after the June 5 win over the Golden State Valkyries. “You can see on the court, she really brings us together. She’s somebody that you want on your side, especially when things aren’t going away. But she’s someone that will always bring you together, lift you up, and it’s great playing with her.”
But even when Sabally is not rallying the troops and trying to align the team, she’s contributing to the locker room culture with her personality.
Her social media posts on TikTok and Instagram stories frequently highlight the bonds this team has. From making dance videos following the latest trends with some of the more reserved personalities on the team, to documenting the team’s daily vitamin shots and chastising teammates’ reactions, saying, “It’s not that bad,” Sabally brings the energy for the Mercury’s locker room.
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Even when she isn’t on the floor, she’s still a support system on the bench, cheering loudly for her teammates, complaining in defense of the Mercury’s players when they don’t get foul calls, celebrating big plays and constantly having a smile on her face.
“[They’re] just encouraging us,” Thomas said of Sabally and Copper’s bench behavior after Phoenix’s win over Dallas on July 9. “Nothing changes whether they’re playing or not. … It’s always great to have them around, their energies close for us.”
In addition to being “Positive Patty,” as forward Natasha Mack called her, Sabally has also earned the respect of her teammates.
Through her habits in the gym and her drive to be the best teammate she can be and the best version of herself for this Mercury team, she’s showing the team how dedicated she is to them, and in turn, they’ve supported her in this new phase of her career.
“Satou is a great player,” Thomas told reporters at a practice in late June. “I think, for me, I’m able to adapt to anybody. I love playing with her. As you can see, she has a lot more that she can offer. I feel like she’s just beginning to scratch the surface as well.”
Ready for the moment
Phoenix Mercury forward Satou Sabally (0) attempts a layup while defended by Minnesota Lynx forward Jessica Shepard in a game between the Mercury and the Lynx at Target Center, Minneapolis, Minn. on June 3, 2025. (Photo credit: John McClellan | The Next)
As one of the best young players in the league over the last few years, Sabally is no stranger to the spotlight. But with her move to Phoenix and the improved performance that came with it, Sabally has positioned herself among the league’s brightest stars.
With that status comes expectations and responsibilities that Sabally is seemingly prepared for.
She and Tibbetts have joked about her often being late in the order of arrival for practice — the title of ‘first one in’ goes to Whitcomb or Thomas — but they also point out that she’s always one of the last players to leave the floor, putting up extra shots and getting extra work in individually. The development of her professional habits is indicative of Sabally’s growing preparedness to be a premier player in the league. The extra time has paid dividends for Sabally as she’s made strides as a player.
“I really work hard, and I really enjoy just playing alongside amazing players,” Sabally said after scoring a game-high 25 points in Phoenix’s win over New York on June 27. “And then things come easier when you have greatness around you, things come easier. And if you keep working on your game and never stop believing in yourself, then you’ll just have your moment to shine.”
Off the court, Sabally is using the attention she garners to benefit the league altogether. On multiple occasions, she’s sent a message to WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert in press conferences, expressing her and the players’ unhappiness with Engelbert’s operations.
It started with criticism of the Mercury’s early scheduling when they were required to play nine games in 18 days through May and June. Now, as negotiations have stalled for the league’s new collective bargaining agreement, Sabally is again sharing her thoughts as part of the WNBPA Leadership Committee.
“We got a proposal from the league which was honestly a slap in the face,” Sabally said at an early July practice. “We want to work with the league. I think it’s time for labor to be paid, and for us, every other revenue stream has basically been increased. Ticket sales are up through the roof, we have higher numbers in watching on television, so I feel like it’s time to pay the labor that is here every single day, that is contributing to the work.”
For five years, Sabally has flown somewhat under the radar in the WNBA. This year, in a new city, with new expectations, an elevated level of play, and a reinvigorated spirit, Sabally is moving to the forefront of the league, making sure that her impact reverberates on a whole new level.