A year and half ago, Anna DeForge was on the outside looking in. Now, the Mercury guard is on top looking down after being announced as last week’s WNBA Player of the Week.

In three road games last week, DeForge averaged 20.7 points, including matching her career-high with 26 points Tuesday in San Antonio, which she had set just five days earlier.

The three-year WNBA veteran becomes just the second Mercury player to have won the award twice after earning the honor for the last week of the 2003 season, and is the first non-Olympic athlete to win this season.

“It’s a great team accomplishment,” said the first Nebraska product to have played in the WNBA. “Obviously, it’s an individual honor because it has my name up there, but it’s definitely a team accomplishment. We’ve played well. That’s just a very good indication of the talent we’ve surrounded this team with this year. I owe everything to my teammates.”

While her scoring numbers are drawing the most attention, it is DeForge’s all-around game that is proving to be her biggest asset. In the three games last week, two of them victories, she averaged four rebounds, three assists, two steals and did not miss a free throw in 10 attempts.

“She was consistent,” said Head Coach Carrie Graf. “She had some streaks where she got the hot hand and took it at people. But not only was she shooting the ball, Anna also does the little things. She sets good screens, she’s one of our better perimeter defenders. All credit to Anna. She had a helluva road trip and we need our players that play big minutes to have consistent performances like that.

“She’s a class person and I think she’s really taken on a leadership role with our team, as well. She deserves what she gets because he’s worked hard for it.”

DeForge’s contributions have not been lost on her teammates, either. Rookie guard Diana Taurasi has appreciated the veteran experience in her backcourt mate and realizes what she has meant to the youngest team in the league.

“She was the constant in every game and kept us in a lot of those games,” Taurasi said. “She deserves it. She’s been doing it from day one in training camp.”

After being cut by Houston in 2001 due to complications resulting from hypoglycemia, DeForge worked hard to keep the disease under control through medication and diet, and forged ahead on a comeback.

Signed by Phoenix last April, the Wisconsin native worked her way into the starting lineup by mid-way through the 2003 season and wound up leading the team in scoring. For good measure, she then went to the Dallas Fury of the National Women's Basketball League (NWBL) and earned MVP honors on the way to winning the league championship.

“It’s been a whirlwind of a season and a half,” DeForge admitted. “I’m very appreciative and I’m very excited to still be here with the Phoenix Mercury. With the direction that this team has taken, just to be a part of it is an honor.

"I never gave up and I just kept forging ahead, hoping that I’d find a team. Even when I watched from the sidelines, I knew that I belonged. I knew I could play. I never doubted it.”

No one doubts DeForge belongs now. She might have been down, but never believed she was out, making rewards like this week’s honor that more meaningful.

“She’s had to fight for what she gets,” Graf said. “She’s not the most athletic person out there, but she finds ways to get her shot off, finds ways to defend people that are quicker and taller.

“To feel how bad it is at the bottom and then to feel the rise, that’s a real plus. To have tasted both ends is one of the nice things about playing at this level. If you can work your way to the top, like Anna’s done, that just shows what hard work and persistence can do.”

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