Augustus Hits Century Mark For Games Played In The Red, White And Blue

Doug Ammon

If you’re searching for the picture of consistency in the women’s game, look no further than Seimone Augustus. The now 32-year-old has played in at least 15 games in all but one of her 11 seasons in the WNBA.

The crafty swingwoman for the Lynx, and former first overall pick in 2006, has been a staple on the floor for Minnesota’s three championships in the span of four seasons between 2011-2015. She’s replicated this sort of stability for the Women’s National Team as well, and on Sunday reached her 100th game with the team.

The reaching of the century mark for Augustus should come as no surprise for the six-time All-Star and 2011 Finals MVP but she actually wasn’t chosen for the under-21 National Team in her first two tryouts. “It means a lot, especially not being able to make the teams before to now be talking about participating in 100 games with USA Basketball,” Augustus said after featuring in the historic game on Sunday. “It means a lot to me, especially to the people back home in Louisiana.”

As prideful as they come, Augustus used the disappointment of her younger years as motivation in her quest to be one of the 12 best female ballers in the world, and in turn be selected to don the red, white, blue at the most storied athletic tournament in history.

“Because of the struggle I had to go through to get on this team, this team is different than any other. Before I made this team, I had made every other team (I tried out for). I probably was the first pick, everybody was calling my parents to be on their team, and this team was like, ‘No, you’re not good enough.’ And I’m trying to figure this out as a player that’s always been given things, then someone says you can’t have it,” Augustus said after recording 10 points on 5-for-7 shooting her 100th contest.

She continued, “Okay, now I have to figure out what I need to do to become a better player. Or you just give up and that’s something that’s not in my character, as far as giving up. So, I had to figure out what it was that USA Basketball needed me to do to be on these teams. And here I am, 100 games later.”

In her 100 games with the United States Augustus has won two Olympic gold medals and one World Championship. As of Sunday she’s also won 45-straight Olympic games and counting. She’s gone from being an afterthought to a no-brainer for a team comprised of, in many cases, the best women’s basketball talent the world.

Going forward Augustus should reach 103 career games for the United States if everything goes as planned and the squad reaches the gold medal game. While it was special to reach triple-digits in games played, Augustus knows that the amount won’t mean as much if she leaves Rio with anything but gold around her neck.

“Once we clean up a few things we’ll have even more (assists), hopefully 50. We broke the record today,” Augustus said after the China win. “So, we need to shatter that record. We’re looking forward to that. We keep talking about peaking. We haven’t reached our peak performance yet, so we still got a lot left in the tank.”

That’s right, even after 100 games with National Team, Augustus and the United States still have a lot more left in the tank. Watch out world.