Armintie Price finished her 2007 season in style by bringing home the WNBA Rookie of the Year award. Randy Belice/NBAE/Getty Images

As we welcome a new crop of players into the league from last week’s WNBA Draft, we look back at a fresh face from a year ago, who emerged as the brightest star of the 2007 draft class.

Armintie Price was selected by the Chicago Sky with the third overall pick in the draft and the Ole Miss alum made an immediate impact upon her arrival in the Windy City. Price started all 34 games for the Sky and averaged 7.9 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.9 assists on her way to winning the WNBA Rookie of the Year award.

WNBA.com’s Brian Martin spoke with Price to dig deeper into her journey from small-town girl from Myrtle, Miss. to WNBA star.

Q. What first got you involved in the game of basketball?

Price: I first started playing in the eighth grade. Actually, one of my friends – Megan Robertson – asked me to play basketball. I said I don’t want to play ball. And she said well let’s just play. I said well what number am I going to be? She said I’ll be 23 and you’ll be 24. I said okay and we started playing.

Once I got into high school, my mom didn’t want me to play because in the Pentecostal religion we don’t believe that girls wear shorts or pants or anything like that. So she said you have to wear a skort. I said "Mom, I’m not going out there in a skirt!" She said, "Well then you won’t play." So I came out there and they had my shorts and they put a flap over it. So I played with that on all throughout high school. Then once I got to college, she said it was my choice if I wanted to wear it or not. I said I want to be like everybody else. I still love God if I wear shorts.

I just started taking it more serious once I got into high school. My friend that got me into it, she became a cheerleader, and she stopped playing ball. But I kept playing basketball and just became more into it and that’s how it happened.

Q. Were you involved in any other sports before that?

Price: No, I didn’t do anything. I just played kickball in the gym. Once I got into high school, I started running track and we won three state championships in track and then my senior year we won a state championship in basketball.

Q. What events did you do in track?

Price: I did the 4x100, 4x200 and 4x400-meter relays, the 200-meter dash, the 100-meter high hurdles and long jump. I’ve never been beaten, man!

Q. When did you feel that you could take you talents to the next level and play collegiate and possibly professional basketball?

Price: I didn’t even think anything about college, I was just thinking about playing. My high school coach started talking to me about it. He asked if I wanted to play in school? I was like, "Yeah." "Do you want to play in the SEC?" he asked. I said, "Yeah."

I didn’t know anything about the conferences. I didn’t know anything about Tennessee and how big they are. I was like, "Mom, I want to go somewhere close." She said that was okay. So we picked Ole Miss. I started playing there and then around my junior year my coach told me that I could maybe be a professional. I was like, "What, a professional basketball player!?!" And she said yeah. That’s when I started to take it seriously and started to aim toward getting better so I’d be able to play beyond the college level. Then once I got to my senior year I just had to take over.

Q. Were there any times where it got tough and you thought it may not happen?

Price: Not really. I always felt like whatever God had in mind, it was going to happen. I never wanted to push anything because my mom always said everything happens for a reason. It's like my senior year at Ole Miss, we lost our last home game and I was so mad. You don’t lose your last home game! From then on, I was always like whatever happens is meant to be and God didn’t bring me this far to leave me.

Q. What else drives you? What other goals have you set for yourself off the court that you’re pursuing?

Price: I’m really a more focused church person, so that’s kind of the main thing that I do. I just spend time with my church. That’s what I was doing before I got picked. I’ve been telling them to pray for me about rookie of the year and they’re waiting for me to get back to tell them about everything.

Q. Are there any specific activities that you do in the church?

Price: They have me speak at different things, like the youth exposure program. I sing in the choir and stuff. It’s a small church in Grenada, Mississippi. My pastor is James Timothy Harrington and I’ve been going there since I was a freshman in college so that’s kind of like my home now. I love it there. The kids are like my little sisters and brothers. They don’t treat me like "Oh, she’s a WNBA player." They're just like, "Hey girl! Come on, let’s eat!"