When Aislinn “Ace” Konig graduated from the now-No. 2 NC State women’s basketball program, she went out a champion, cementing her legacy as the ACC Tournament’s Most Valuable Player and a Wolfpack icon.
After graduating from NC State amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Konig went overseas, joining Elfic Fribourg of the Swiss Basketball League.
Konig was passed over in the WNBA draft, but her WNBA dream won’t end there.
“Preparing for the draft obviously didn’t go the way we wanted it to,” Konig said. “But I think the biggest thing I learned from that experience is that there are many ways to get to where you want to go, and as long as you’re willing to work for it, you have a chance. And I think that’s something that really helped me to make the best of a crappy situation…and end up somewhere where I’m incredibly happy. I get to play great competition and I get to evolve my game.”
It’s a tall task to be in the WNBA, with only 12 teams and 36 draft selections each year. Unlike the NBA, the WNBA isn’t able to afford protections to the players it adds in training camp, with cut players being forced to head overseas as opposed to the G-League. With all of the talented women’s basketball players in the world, there could easily be 30 competitive teams.
“As a female athlete, we know players who are at the top of their game that are single mothers, running their own businesses on the side,” Konig said. “And like you said, it’s a 12-month season. They’re going from national team to overseas to WNBA, and they’re just repeating the process over and over again, but they’re still managing to run companies, be sportscasters, be mothers and wives and all of these amazing things. And so it’s not really surprising because you grow up in it and you see it and you experience it.”
For instance, Skylar Diggins-Smith of the Phoenix Mercury played an entire WNBA season while pregnant and even made the All-Star team. Diggins-Smith is currently under a contract for four years that pays her a total of $899,480. A one-year minimum salary in the NBA for a player who has never played a game is $898,310.
Outside of Diggins-Smith, the world constantly sees women in the league fighting and using their platforms for real change. Maya Moore, one of the greatest players the world has ever seen, has taken a hiatus from playing in the middle of her prime to fight for criminal justice reform, being named to Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2020.
“To be a female athlete is a lot more than to just be an athlete,” Konig said. “It’s to advocate, it’s to be a role model, it’s to raise the next generations, it’s all of these things. So you see someone like Maya Moore who steps back and fights for a man’s life and players like Renee Montgomery, who again stepped back to do social justice…I’ve grown up watching women do this. So it’s exciting to see that other people are witnessing the things that we, as female athletes, have been watching our mentors do our entire lives.”
Recently, women in sports have seen somewhat of a surge, though there is still much work left to be done. San Antonio Spurs coach and former undrafted WNBA player Becky Hammon became the first woman to coach in an NBA game. Amber Nichols, a Raleigh native, recently joined Tori Miller as the first women to be named general managers in the G-League, while Jeanie Buss became the first female owner of an NBA Championship team.
“I think, for a very long time, that women’s sports have taken a background seat…I think the way the [WNBA] is set up is a product of that,” Konig said. “As support and excitement grows around women’s sports, I think we can expect expansion…It’s amazing to see all these badass women coming out here and taking charge of their potential and everything that they have to offer with Becky Hammon, the refs, everything that you’re seeing, the new female owners of lots of clubs that have now started to emerge. I think all of that is stepping stones to seeing this phenomenon as it feels like, to grow.”
A lot of Konig’s experiences with capable and strong women in sports come from her own experiences with the Wolfpack. Playing with stars like junior center Elissa Cunane, senior guard Kai Crutchfield and senior forward Kayla Jones, along with the young talent onboard, has taught Konig a lot that she’s been able to take with her in her professional career.
“We did teach each other a lot of stuff…we’re friends, we’re teammates, we’re sisters, so it didn’t really feel like that [in the moment],” Konig said. “Being around really phenomenal people who work incredibly hard is something that is easy to take for granted when you’re around it all the time. I think a lot of the things I’ve learned from them is, like with Elissa [Cunane], how to play with a tall, talented, mobile post. Kai [Crutchfield], how to put people in the best positions to score.”
While Konig has taken a lot from the team’s veterans, she hopes that she has been able to leave her own mark on the team.
“I hope what they’ve learned from me is really simple: shooters shoot, and you better believe the shot’s going in every time every single time you take it…” Konig said. “They are well-rounded, talented individuals, and I don’t think that I had much to teach them that they didn’t know. Hard workers, love the game and they had a lot of fun doing it which made it incredibly enjoyable to play with them…I love these girls so much…that type of success is something that makes me incredibly proud to be an NC State alumni.”
Being able to take the experience of playing with these women has meant everything to Konig, and she attributes much of her success to the atmosphere of NC State, from the fans to the players to the athletics department.
“I was looking for a very specific thing, the feeling,” Konig said of her recruitment. “The same feeling I assume before you realize you’re ready to marry someone…it’s just like the feeling that this is where I need to be…When I got on campus, I had just come from Stanford…I turned to my mom and she looked at me and was like ‘Are you okay?’ And I started crying and I said ‘We made it mom.’ In my head I was like ‘ThTere’s no way anything is going to beat Stanford.’ I walked onto NC State’s campus,, and immediately,, I had that feeling that this is where I’m supposed to be. And it proved that that feeling was right and that I made the right choice in choosing it because NC State not only became a home but became a family.”
However, the biggest connection that comes to mind for the Wolfpack faithful is that of fellow NC State legend, head coach Wes Moore, a pair whose relationship will stand the test of time.
“Wes Moore, now that is a really special relationship,” Konig said. “Me and coach Moore sat down…he looked me in the eye and he said ‘I want to win an ACC Championship. And I want you to help me do it. Are you ready?’ And I said ‘Absolutely, let’s do it.’ And then to sit here four years later, having fought tooth and nail with this man, sometimes against this man, and having accomplished that is something that you can’t even put into words really. It’s a bond that is going to last, that’s going to be something that holds us together for the rest of our lives. And that’s something that I hold incredibly close to my heart. I cannot be more thankful for my time at NC State and the people that I had the pleasure of playing for and with and in front of.”
