From sacked to WNBA DPOY: Inside the trip to Poland that re-ignited Alanna Smith’s career

Alanna Smith had every dream ripped from her three years ago, and was close to calling quits on basketball. So she left home and the US for Europe, and the Aussie says, it changed everything.

Aussie WNBA cult hero Alanna Smith has opened up on the fitness transformation that catapulted her into the league’s upper echelon - admitting shifting her focus to the “controllables” in her life has changed her entire career.

The 193cm Minnesota Lynx star revealed that she nearly walked away from her career three years ago after losing her WNBA contract and then missing out on a home World Cup with the Australian team.

But after some serious soul searching she rediscovered her sense of fun with hoops and rededicated herself to a strength and fitness regime that has reaped benefits, including being named the WNBA’s Co-Defensive Player of the Year this past season.

“I lift five days a week, I’m getting back on court a little bit, but the majority of what I do is strength training,” Smith told Code Sports, revealing she uses a mix of cross training, pilates and yoga.

Alanna Smith is the WNBA CO-DPOY for 2025. Picture: David Berding/Getty Images

“You put the time and effort in and then you see your body changing and you can see how strong you’re getting which is really cool until you walk around and you’re like the hulk out here.

“But I play sports for a living, so I remind myself, you’re not a petite girl and never will be,” she laughed.

Immersing herself into games like pickleball has become both a new-found passion and a therapeutic task: “hitting a ball with a bat as hard as I can, there’s just something about it.”

It’s a completely different approach compared to her early career years, where she was coming off a college experience of managing her training schedule with studies and a party scene several nights a week as an early 20-year-old attending Stanford University.

“Not only do you see the physical results but I feel so much better, I recover quicker, I haven’t had problems with injuries, touch wood, for a while,” Smith said from a cafe in Melbourne while back home for the off-season.

“It’s a little bit like getting older and your body doesn’t bounce back as fast as you used to.

“In basketball there’s a lot of things that you can’t control, looking after my body is controllable for me.”

But it wasn’t always an easy path for the Melbourne-raised superstar.

Rewind to 2022, Smith was left questioning if playing basketball was really her calling after she experienced her “worst career year on paper.”

She had just been axed by Indiana Fever and then lost her spot on the Australian national team ahead of a home World Cup in Sydney.

Once the chaos of a full calendar year of basketball went quiet, Smith had hit a crossroads.

However, as she entered her period of reflection, she decided she “had more to give”.

But it wasn’t going to be at home in Australia or at her home away from home in the US - a country 13,853 kms away sounded like the perfect place to retreat and rejuvenate.

“I went to the middle of nowhere in Poland with one of my best friends (Chantel Horvat) and had the time of my life,” Smith said.

Alanna Smith and Chantel Horvat playing in Poland

“We were in a very small city with not much to do, we just had such a good time and I started playing some of my best basketball immediately.

“I spent so much of my early years of my professional career just fighting to prove myself. What I need to do to play, trying to get feedback and just feeling so stressed and a lot of pressure all the time.

“And so those moments of being cut were actually a blessing in disguise because it forced me to just just go and have some fun.”

Fast forward to 2025, Smith was the backbone of the Minnesota Lynx’ top-ranked defence this year, finishing second in combined steals and blocks (135) and set the club record for blocks in a season (80).

Ironic for someone who recently found out that the Fever “cut me because of my defence.”

Napheesa Collier went nuclear on the WNBA's commissioner.

How did Smith follow the biggest call out in WNBA’s history?

When teammate and WNBA superstar Napheesa Collier fronted the media for her end of season exit interview at the end of September, no one - not even her teammates - could have anticipated what was going to happen next.

Collier’s six-minute statement blasting the league’s commissioner and leadership sent a shock through the entire WNBA system.

Journalists instantly started typing away, reporting the story that one of the league’s best had just fired a shot at the top executives.

So when Smith entered the room, ready to talk about her stellar season, no one noticed.

“I was right after her,” Smith said, “I was actually scheduled before her but I had a physical that went a little bit longer, so she took my spot.

“I was like, ‘god damn it,’ I had to enter the room after she dropped that bomb.

“Everyone is in there furiously scribbling and I was like, ‘hello? Does anyone want to hear what I have to say?””

The WNBA and the Players Association’s one-month extension to lock in the next CBA is set to expire on November 30 and Smith says Collier’s moment “was a big tide change” and shifted the negotiation power back into the player’s hands.

And the Aussie appreciates how the wider public and WNBA fans received the message.

“All of us were like, holy crap, that was huge,” Smith said.

“Obviously we’re in support of what she said too. We kind of had the power but that was a moment where the players essentially really took hold of it.

“It could have gone one or two ways, so I’m ecstatic that people rallied behind her and I think it speaks to who she is as a person too, just the reputation that she has.”

What is ‘Unrivaled’ and why are so many WNBA players participating?

WNBA superstars Collier and New York Liberty’s Breanna Stewart launched their own two-month 3x3 basketball competition in Miami to fill the off-season gap, Unrivaled.

In just its second year, the league has already conquered some of the key issues its counterpart, the WNBA, has been battling; compensation and sponsorship.

And it’s attracted the biggest names, including Smith and fellow Aussies Ezi Magbegor and Bec Allen for the tournament starting in January.

For Smith, Unrivaled presents the opportunity to remain front of mind on the international scene, especially if you’re one without a WNBA contract for next year as Smith remains.

“It’s not only a really cool developmental opportunity, it’s also a great way to stay in markets, to stay in the US,” Smith said.

“Then a chance to make a bit of money too. They’re paying their players extremely well, as they should be, people do see the value in women’s sports and basketball.

Ezi Magbegor and.... Picture: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

Bec Allen will play Unrivaled.

“They’ve done an incredible job of setting up the league, advertising it and getting amazing investors and sponsors, that’s why they’re able to do what they do.”

Significant salary packages, a short eight-week season and the opportunity to play alongside the best are just some of the main attractions to the competition.

And Smith - who has inside access playing alongside founder Collier in Minnesota - says a key benefit is showing the WNBA powerbrokers that the sky is the limit when women are backed in.

“I think that was a big point of contention for Unrivaled, to say look what we can do in such a short amount of time with these players,” the Lynx star said.

“It just puts the power back into the player’s hands a little bit because you can use Unrivaled as an example.

“You put time and investment into the game, this is how players can be compensated for it.”

Also: “I mean, it’s Miami.”

“I’ve never been to Miami, I’m ready to be a menace out there.”

Originally published as From sacked to WNBA DPOY: Inside the trip to Poland that re-ignited Alanna Smith’s career