Q. How is your knee feeling, and are you full go or still managing?
GEORGIA AMOORE: My knee is feeling really good and I've been full go for a little bit now.
Q. How does it feel just being back in the mix finally after a year of getting to redo training camp?
GEORGIA AMOORE: Yeah, you take some time off the sport you love and obviously it gives you an added level of gratitude and thankfulness to be out there. Never taking anything for granted. I think you think that you don't do that until it's taken away from you, and you're like, oh, I definitely just woke up and rolled onto the court and did my best.
But I'm super grateful to have this opportunity again.
Q. What are your goals for yourself and this team this year?
GEORGIA AMOORE: Personal goal for myself is to be the best leader I can. Obviously we're super young and I don't know what everyone's definition of a vet but I'm not sure if it is year one or two, but we have a lot of those on the team, aside from Kira and Mick. But my goal is to be the best vocal leader I can.
And also just have that reciprocated. We want to have the relationships where they can ask me questions, but I want to ask everyone else questions. I don't care if you've played however many minutes, however many games. That's kind of the culture and the relationship we want to build is to have that direct communication.
Q. Long process to get back out there on the court. What was it like when you were able to be out there and actually participate in the ways that you want to participate?
GEORGIA AMOORE: I mean, obviously it felt amazing. I think the best part about it was one day, it was like, contact, here we go. I wouldn't want it any other way. You kind of prep, somewhat free, you start freaking out. But it was cool to just build up to that moment and really been on a roll ever since that day I really got the all good to go.
Q. You kind of touched on it, but not many vets, no vets in the point guard room. If any, it would be kind of you in terms of W experience and with this team. For you, how are you kind of approaching that, because you still haven't stepped foot in a game yet, how can you be that leader without that type of experience?
GEORGIA AMOORE: Yeah, I mean, obviously you're talking about having the experience on the court. That's still yet to come for me, obviously, but I think just leadership-wise, IQ, vision. I sat a lot of times behind the bench able to have those conversations and cultivate those relationships with the coaches but the players.
I'm ready for it. There's no shortage of me in confidence that doesn't think that I'll be able to adapt and adjust. I've always kind of been just thrown into situations and figured it out at the end of the day. I'm the type of player where my performance doesn't dictate how good or bad of a leader I am. If everything is going well for me, I'm not, let's go, I feel amazing, I'm going to be the best leader and when it goes bad I'm mute. That's not what I like to do. I like to be consistent leadership-wise, whether or not I'm playing good or bad.
Obviously it's going to be my first year playing, so I know there's going to be ups and downs, like there is with anyone else. But my physical way of playing is I'm trying to make and not shake how I can be as a leader.
Q. With regards to your ability to evaluate and watch the style that Sydney Johnson wants to play the game with, and that's with a high level of pace, the first eight seconds, how do you feel you can impact what the pace of play needs to be and how you're going to conduct that at the point guard spot?
GEORGIA AMOORE: Yeah, we're already definitely having fun with it. The reps we've played, as soon as I catch that ball, I'm looking to fire it up. I don't have to dribble it every time. Just moving the ball up -- the ball when you pass it is always going to move quicker than any type of body.
So I think that's been really fun process having great rim runners. Kiki is hungry. She's going to look to rim run every time and I'm going to look to feed her every time.
I think the best part about Coach Syd now is he understands that this is a process, so for the first couple of practices was I throwing the ball at the wall? Yeah, but at least Kiki knows the ball is coming and I'll gradually start hitting her more in the spots she likes it. But I'm excited to play with this pace for sure.
Q. You talked about gaining that gratitude over the last year. Curious if you feel like you gained anything basketball IQ-wise from having to get that new perspective of watching on the sidelines as long as you did.
GEORGIA AMOORE: I don't really have a direct answer for that right now. Because I felt like a lot of times -- honestly, a big part for me honestly is you can watch the court, watch the film, watch the games back but I found such value in watching a lot of other women in the league, their pregame rituals, their warmups, how they activate, how they cool down.
Obviously after the game you go back in the tunnel and you just see all these women walking around with different ice or compression or just how they attack -- whether it be on the Mystics or any other team. I peep everything, and I just wanted to see how the pros warm up and cool down and how they travel. That's one thing you don't really think about coming from college to the pros, so when you land in a city you really have the autonomy to do whatever you want. So how do you prep for that? Maybe we're in a new time zone, so I have to wake up a little earlier to get my body clock right. Maybe I have to go to bed a little later to get that right.
Any one percent or little advantage I can get from just my preparation and my cool-down is something that I really paid attention to last season.
Q. You talked a little bit about working with Kiki, but how excited are you to have the multitude of front court options that you have as a point guard, and how does that impact the way you look at the game going forward?
GEORGIA AMOORE: Yeah, no, I'm super excited. Obviously we drafted a lot of height. But especially I'll shout out Cotie because her ability to get downhill is amazing. It's only going to collapse defense. We can collapse a lot of defense and play a lot of inside-out basketball just by having post presence like we do or people who can attack. Someone like Sonia who can cut behind you and catch people off guard.
As a point guard, obviously passing opportunities arise, but as a shooter, my defense is probably going to turn their heads a little bit or suck in a little bit. It's only going to make me more open for my shooting opportunities. We're going to play a lot of unselfish basketball and our ball movement is something we're going to take pride in and it's because we have those options.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports