More than Undefeatable: The Resilience of Azurá Stevens


In part three of a four-part series for the WNBA “More than Undefeatable” campaign, the third edition focuses on Azurá Stevens of the Chicago Sky.

The Chicago Sky have put together a stellar season, culminating in the most wins in franchise history in a single year. Inarguably the best collective passing team in basketball, the Sky thrive on movement, multiple players handling the ball, and intuitive play. A career season from Azurá Stevens has propelled Chicago even further. 

At 6’6, she has the length and size to play the five, but she also possesses the lateral mobility and fluidity of a true forward. Her defensive versatility is through the roof, and with improved post defense this season, she continues to round out as a plus defender.

Since she got to Chicago, Stevens has shot 36% from deep on volume, making her a shooter that needs to be guarded. What happens due to that gravity makes Stevens one of the most compelling young players in the game. It’s one thing to draw a closeout at 6’6. It’s another to get to the rim off the dribble as the defender flies by you.

Only a handful of players her size can attack off the bounce and keep the defense in rotation. Her handle is tight, and she has some shiftiness. She can make quality, timely live-dribble passes, and her touch in the paint and around the rim is pure. She modeled her game off of Candace Parker and Kevin Durant growing up; the second she said that it was easy to envision. 

Her per-minute scoring averages are the highest of her career, she’s played the most minutes she ever has, and her confidence in her shooting has revamped: This has been a career year. It’s been a journey for Stevens to get to this point on and off the court, finally finding her peace. She played a substantial role for last year’s title team, starting the last month of the season and in the playoffs, but 2021 was a challenging year for Stevens.

“I went through a lot last year, and I got to a place that I didn’t like myself being in,” says Stevens. 

In 2020, she was amidst a breakout year in the bubble, her first with the Sky. However, a knee injury sent her home early and contributed to frustrations as she returned on a minute restriction to start 2021. She felt like she’d finally gained some momentum and was unearthing who she could be as a player in Orlando.

She’d had surgery before in Dallas, having dealt with a nagging foot injury, but that surgery was planned out. The knee injury came out of left-field.

“I felt a lot of anger at first and throughout most of the year. The pain that you feel post-surgery… there were some days where I’d wake up; my knee just wouldn’t be feeling it. There was nothing structurally that was wrong, but it was really painful or achy. That was unlike anything I’d ever experienced.”

Stevens considers herself a naturally wired person. She’s struggled with overtraining in the past. The injury forced her to slow down a bit and start to appreciate the smaller things in life. She did her rehab back home in North Carolina and stayed with her family.

Her father is a chef and owns a food truck, Same O Dame O’s, and Stevens spent time helping out on the truck as she returned from injury.

“It was really awesome to see my dad create. I compare it to athletes because chefs are artists; the kitchen is their space to create and do what they want. There’s no recipes for my dad. It’s just whatever comes to his mind. He went to culinary school, so he can just whip something up in ten minutes without thinking. Like, it’s crazy to me! Like, I have to have a recipe,” laughs Stevens.

I imagine her dad watching her erase a ball screen with a quick switch and quick slides of her feet or finish through traffic, pointing out that it goes both ways! 

Her family and North Carolina’s importance to her came into fruition again this past off-season after the WNBA Finals. Last season’s difficulties wore on her. She knew she needed to make changes in life and figure things out so she could be in a different headspace moving forward. 

She took some time off immediately after the season ended.

“There were a lot of emotions that went into the championship, and I feel most comfortable with my family because they’ve seen me through literally everything. I was especially grateful for that last year. I really needed time where I didn’t have to do anything,” says Stevens.

She loves riding her bike. Especially with multiple prior injuries to her lower extremities, she tries to keep from pounding on her legs. There are vast miles of trails in the land near where her family lives, and she loves getting out in nature and finding peace and quiet. 

Fishing with her father was another escape that she enjoyed. She and her father regularly see movies together in the off-season; Action films are a mainstay when they hit the theater. John Wick and the Taken movies are amongst her favorites she’s seen with her dad, but Black Panther takes the cake. She’s eager for the upcoming sequel.

Stevens likes the thinking that comes from thrillers and horror movies, although she watches fewer horror movies when she’s home alone! Jordan Peele’s Us has multiple meanings and ways to be understood, and she enjoys that multiple people can take away a different feeling.

“Everyone’s interpretation was different. I love that. I love watching movies and going online after and seeing different people’s takes on it. It’s so interesting to me.”

Her sister’s an artist, and she tries to dabble in art herself but laughs that her sister’s a little too optimistic that “everyone can be an artist.”

You can really tell in listening to Stevens speak how freeing and essential the time away was to get herself in a better place.

After her few months off post-title, Stevens played for Nika in the Russian Premier League and EuroCup play. She was tremendous in overseas play, but the season was still ongoing when Russia invaded Ukraine in February, leading to her cutting her season short and heading back to the United States in March.

“I ended up coming home, and I did take a little bit of time off, honestly. The emotional and mental trauma of that situation was a lot,” says Stevens.

She focused on light work, maintaining the shape she got into during the season, and many shooting reps and workouts. The biggest focus was continuing to hone in on her mental health and outlook. She considers herself a very private person but opened up more this year and let the Sky staff know that she wanted to be part of any mental health initiatives. 

They launched The Net in early August, an initiative to increase athletes’ mental health awareness and transparency. It’s headlined by Stevens, Ruthy Hebard, and Rebekah Gardner, with messaging, individual videos, and stories from the three aimed to destigmatize mental health and speak up on struggles.

Stevens has carried that over with a wonderful Twitter presence. She posts daily positive quotes and routinely hypes up her friends around the league and teammates on the Sky.

“I came into this year making sure I took care of myself as hard as I could because I don’t want to go back to that place again. I love posting those quotes. I have an app on my phone that sends me them, and it helps me to keep the right mindset throughout the day. I actually send quotes to some of my closest friends every day. It just helps me to be on the right things. Some days, you wake up, and it’s easy to not be feeling it that day as an athlete, or even just people in general, but as an athlete, you don’t really have the freedom for an off day, especially if you’re trying to achieve something,” says Stevens.

She also points out that this is a journey; it’s never finished, not in the perfectionist sense, but rather noting that better mental health isn’t some linear progression. Just like being an athlete, you have to keep working at it. It’s like a muscle group. It needs to be worked out and repped out to stay in shape.

Unlocking and understanding that aspect of herself and life has undoubtedly contributed to finding her best self on the court.

She participated in the All-Star Game Skills Challenge in Chicago this season, and it’s easy to envision Stevens taking part in the game itself in the future. She’s shown the skill and nailed down the consistency this season. 

As an unrestricted free agent this coming off-season, she has a more significant role in her future, whether in Chicago or elsewhere. She was a Sixth Player of the Year candidate and would start on many teams across the league. 

She’s not looking ahead, as a vital elimination game against the New York Liberty takes place tonight. A deep run and hopeful title repeat are on the forefront of Stevens’ and the Sky’s minds. She’s more than undefeatable not for her accomplishments on the court and what they might parlay into but rather for finding comfortability in who she is. It’s been a journey, but Azurá Stevens has found her peace and balance, and she’s thriving because of it. 

WNBA reporter Mark Schindler writes a column on WNBA.com throughout the season and can be reached on Twitter at @MG_Schindler. The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the WNBA or its clubs.