Azurá Stevens pulls back curtain on mental health as Chicago Sky aim for repeat as WNBA champions

As the Chicago Sky continue their bid for their second straight WNBA title with their semifinal series this week vs. the Connecticut Sun, Azurá Stevens looks back to last winter’s overseas experience as key to her standout 2022 season.

“I think confidence is the biggest thing,” said the 26-year-old Stevens following the Sky’s regular-season finale vs. the Phoenix Mercury.  “I think just believing in myself as a player. I mean, I think I’ve been capable of this, but it’s sort of like, people won’t see how you play unless you go out and do it.”

This season, Stevens has posted the best overall numbers in her five-year WNBA career, averaging 10.6 points, 3.9 rebounds and 0.8 assists while playing 21.9 minutes in 35 games.

“I think you just get to play really free overseas,” added Stevens, who competed for Nika in the Russian Premier League and EuroCup for several months during the WNBA offseason before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine led her to return home early. “And it really helped me, just coming back, just to not hold back. You know, there’s nothing to lose.

“It’s really just yourself that sometimes holds you back. So really coming into this year, I didn’t want that to be anything that stopped me from just (doing) all that I can do.”

But it was more than just a successful offseason that put Stevens on the right track for her third full season with the Sky. The fiercely private Stevens recently revealed that it was a concerted effort to tend to her mental health that truly made the difference – on and off the court.

“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,” Stevens said in a recent feature for WNBA.com, where she talked about the anger