“Actually I am from New York, so I used to go to Liberty games growing up. I was a ball girl couple of times,” a sentimental Celeste Taylor recollected her childhood memories of her favorite sport and her brush with W, after being drafted by the Indiana Fever. However, contrary to expectations, her stay with the Fever was short-lived. She ended up entering the transfer portal twice and played for three teams as a rookie.

Taylor was drafted in the second round as a 15th overall pick and played five games for the Fever before being waived off on June 25. While she would have hoped for an extended run with fellow rookie Caitlin Clark, she went on to play against her during stints with Phoenix Mercury and Connecticut Suns.

On Friday at freelance writer Łukasz Muniowski’s podcast, Taylor shared her views on having an uncertain time with the Fever and whether it affected her. “Yeah, I think as a rookie you know you come in, and you’re just trying to find your role. You’re trying to find your spot especially if you’re not like you know a household name like Caitlin Clark or Angel Reese or Kamilla (Cardoso), like you’re trying to find your place,” Taylor stated as part of the Swish Appeal interview.

The WNBA was lit up by rookies such as Clark, Reese, and Cardoso, who broke several records and brought mainstream attention to the league. But for Taylor, the season was a learning curve.

“You’re trying to find your spot, and so when I was in Indiana I was just trying to navigate my whole rookie year. You know you go into something and you’re excited, but you still have a focus of making the team, and so Indiana had a different situation where we had 13 players on a roster for a certain amount of time. Somebody was injured, so one person always had to go since the beginning,” she explained.

Though it is mandated that a franchise can have only 12 players, the Fever’s star Damiris Dantas had visa issues and a family emergency, which forced her to miss the camp, including the first week. After that, she suffered a right knee injury, so the franchise temporarily suspended her contract, opening up a spot. However, when she recovered, Taylor had to be cut off to accommodate Dantas.

Taylor averaged just 3.2 minutes on the court, which wasn’t a significant time and ended up with only three points. But instead of taking it personally, shared the rationale behind the management’s decision.

She added, “So obviously you know was the rookie, so I understood that at some point it could have been me. But I got positive feedback, um, from the coaches and the GM, and so it wasn’t really a lot for them to tell me. So just a positive feedback of them you know telling me you you’ve done everything we asked you to. You know there’s only 144 spots so it’s really up to them who they decide to keep and who they decide to have in their program and it’s not a knock on me.”

Once the Fever waived Taylor, she signed a 7-day contract with the Phoenix Mercury on July 12. But this time, too, the situation didn’t work out and her contract wasn’t renewed. Next, the FIBA Under-19 World Cup gold medallist got a spot with the Connecticut Sun, signing with them on August 16. But the same story repeated itself.

During the interview, she mentioned, “A lot of people do take it, like, a confidence thing. And it kills your confidence. But me personally, I felt like I belonged. I knew I belonged, and so I think you have to have that and you have to consistently have that fight and that hunger in you to know that you belong somewhere in order to get back there.” And she was proved right, eventually.

After playing two games for the Sun and barely taking to the court, her 7-day contract wasn’t renewed. While that could have been the end to her W story, fortunately, the Mercury recognized her worth.

Taylor signed a 7-day contract with Mercury again before renewing it to get a third contract with the team. Eventually, the team noticed her efforts and gave her a full-season contract. This time, she took the court in 15 games, starting in 4 of them. Although she wasn’t the chief scorer, she gave a glimpse of her potential and made some crucial passes, averaging more than 20 minutes per game.

“Phoenix was giving me I guess better feedback in a sense… And like you know people saw me play more with Phoenix. So I felt already comfortable within that organization. And with the girls and with the coaches, and so ultimately you know I ended up getting a… a rest of the season contract with Phoenix and you know it’s been great,” Taylor added.

During her first short stint with the Mercury, she ended up playing four games and one of those clashes came against her former teammate Caitlin Clark.

Caitlin Clark described playing against Taylor as “weird”

Immediately after signing with the Mercury, Taulor lined up to face her former team Indiana Fever. Even though Mercury ended up losing to Fever, Taylor got significant game time and finished with one point, three rebounds, five assists, and two steals in 21 minutes.

In the postgame press conference, Clark talked about playing against Taylor for the first time in the league. She said, “Yeah, it’s kinda weird. I’m happy for her, though. She’s a tremendous player. Obviously, a tremendous person. I had so much fun when she was here with us in Indy. She was a heck of a teammate. I think that’s a great person to sign.”

Meanwhile, Taylor has signed with WNBL side Sydney Flames in the off-season and will hope to perform well and become a core starter for the Mercury when she comes back next season.