PHOTO | SAM ROBERTS

Tanisha Wright, third from right, spent a season as a Charlotte 49ers assistant women's basketball coach before returning to the WNBA with the Minnesota Lynx.

Tanisha Wright wasn’t quite finished with playing basketball.

Wright, who spent a season as an assistant coach with the Charlotte 49ers, returned to the WNBA with the Minnesota Lynx, who are coming off a championship campaign.

Wright — a 5-11 guard who is 13th all-time in WNBA assists (1,231) and 20th in games played (393) —hasn’t played since 2016. But she missed playing, and found an opportunity to return to the game at age 34. The Lynx needed Wright to shore up the backcourt, which was depleted by the retirement of Jia Perkins and Renee Montgomery leaving in free agency.

“That was my reason for really wanting to come back – wanting to compete at a higher level,” Wright said. “So far, it’s been exactly what I expected, to be on a team of veterans and championship-caliber team that competes every single day.”

Wright, who averages 7.7 points and 3.1 assists in 12 WNBA seasons, earned a championship ring in Seattle in 2010 and all-defensive first team five times. She played with New York a couple of years before stepping away to coach.

“She didn’t leave basketball,” Lynx coach and general Cheryl Reeve told the Star-Tribune of Minneapolis. “She was coaching, getting on the court. She looks great. I think mentally, she’s excited. That’s important. Some players, they get to a certain point, it gets to be a grind. I think that was probably the case for her, when she decided to take a break from New York.”

Wright said Charlotte’s coaches and players supported her return to the WNBA, which started during the 49ers’ season with workouts. It took some time to adjust to the conditioning necessary for a comeback.

“Mentally, you have to start to get ready physically, you have to put yourself in a position where you have to adjust, starting with workouts in January,” Wright said. “You start out, ‘let me get up every day and work out,’ discipline myself and stuff like that. Physically, I’m fine, although your body’s beat up because it’s been a year and you haven’t been through a training camp and the physicality of playing basketball on a daily basis.”

The year in gave Wright a greater appreciation for coaches. By spending time analyzing strategy and working with Charlotte’s players, she’s taking that experience to the WNBA.

“The biggest thing I took is the amount of work that goes into preparing your players to be successful,” Wright said. “It’s a ton of work and paying attention to details as a coach and now as a player, I’m very intentional when I step out on the court to listen and pay attention to what the coaches are telling me. There’s a reason why they like it this way or that way, because they spent hours of video and conversations to the point where they believe it can help us be successful.”
Wright’s next chapter as a player starts May 20 when Minnesota opens the regular season against Los Angeles (5 p.m., ESPN2). She’s in a good place with a good team and has expectations for both.

“It was a good fit for me, it was a good fit for them,” she said. “It was not just, ‘hey, we’re going to bring in a veteran, but it was an opportunity for me to be used in a way I feel was necessary. I’m really excited about the people here I’ve met so far and everything they’ve scheduled here.”

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