Tina Thompson on Mentoring Alysha Clark: ‘I Saw a Whole Lot of Potential’

When veteran WNBA guard Alysha Clark signed with the Dallas Wings this offseason, she knew exactly who she wanted to honor with the team’s annual mentor trip. So she called Tina Thompson.

Thompson, a Hall of Famer and four-time WNBA champion, played with Clark during Clark’s rookie season with the Seattle Storm back in 2012. They were teammates for two years before Thompson retired. But the relationship didn’t end there.

Before the Wings faced the New York Liberty on Tuesday, Thompson sat down with WNBA reporter Khristina Williams to talk about what it means to still be that person for Clark more than a decade later.

“I’ve kind of been her mentor and her friend for a really long time,” Thompson said. “With Alysha being in her first year here, when she found out about the program, I was the first person that she called and invited to come out.”

The mentor trip is a yearly tradition in Dallas where players get to bring someone who shaped their career to a game and have them recognized. For Clark, now in her 14th WNBA season, that choice was obvious.

Thompson was blunt about why she took Clark under her wing in the first place. “It’s been great because something that just started by me being a veteran and her teammate, just helping her. I saw a need and I saw a whole lot of potential, so I just wanted to help where I could.”

Clark’s Numbers Don’t Tell the Whole Story

Statistically, Clark’s first season in Dallas hasn’t been her flashiest. Through 14 games, she’s averaging 1.7 points and 1.1 rebounds while shooting 26.1 percent from the field and 25 percent from deep. She’s logging just over eight minutes a night.

But nobody in the Wings organization is looking at her box score to measure her value. Clark has stepped into the same veteran leadership role she once looked up to in Thompson. That’s the part that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet.

For Thompson, seeing Clark now take on that responsibility is the full-circle moment she always hoped would come. “I just wanted to help where I could,” Thompson said. That help seems to have carried further than either of them probably expected back in 2012.