Copper Turning to Gold
Superstardom did not come quickly or easily for Rutgers alumna Kahleah Copper, who is debuting on the U.S. women’s basketball Olympic team in her ninth season of pro basketball.
Kahleah Copper speeds up the length of the court dribbling the WNBA’s trademark oatmeal-and-orange colored ball, her ballhandling smooth as silk. With a split step at the free throw line, she freezes a Washington Mystics defender and drives around for a delicate layup to expand the Phoenix Mercury’s lead in the fourth quarter.
It’s a lead her team won’t relinquish. Copper goes 7 for 11 shooting in the second half, including making the final basket to give her 22 points for the game and sealing the Mercury’s win in the daytime game in Capitol One Arena in Washington, D.C., on July 15.
Copper—a North Philadelphia native who is third in all-time scoring on the Scarlet Knight’s women’s basketball program—has developed into a top scorer in the WNBA. Her 23.2 points per game average ranks second in the league.
Her success led to her selection to the U.S. women’s Olympic basketball team—one of the most dominant teams in Olympic history, earning seven straight gold medals dating back to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
The superstardom she makes look natural didn’t come easy. Copper, who turns 30 in late August, played limited minutes in her first four pro seasons. In 2020, her time on court and scoring increased, and in 2021 she led her previous team, the Chicago Sky, to a WNBA championship while earning the finals’ most valuable player award.
She previously had ranked winning a championship and earning the final MVP award as her number one accomplishment, but now she says her selection to the 2024 Olympic team in June has taken the top spot.
“For it to happen to me in year nine, it’s so special,” she said in an interview after the Olympic team was announced in June. “It’s definitely number one.”
Copper choked up with emotion when talking about how long and how hard she has worked on “her process” to arrive as one of the best players in the game.
“Y’all don’t see what it takes—how many nights—you prepare so long for this,” she said.
Copper is joined by fellow Phoenix Mercury players and WNBA legends Brittney Griner and Diana Taurasi on the U.S. women’s basketball Olympic team. Their first game in Paris is 3 p.m. ET on Monday July 29 against Japan. (How to watch).
Close to Home
A primary reason the highly recruited Copper chose to attend Rutgers after finishing high school was to stay close to her mother in Philadelphia who was going through treatment for breast cancer, she told the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2022. Her mother was declared cancer free in 2015, and Copper since has been an advocate for early detection. Her grandmother and great-grandmother also battled breast cancer.
Copper was an immediate standout, playing under legendary head coach C. Vivian Stringer and leading the team in scoring her final three collegiate seasons. She finished her Rutgers career with 1,872 career points—behind only Sue Wicks and Cappie Pondexter (who won gold with the Olympic team in Beijing in 2008).
Copper, who earned a degree in criminal justice in 2016, returned to Rutgers for part of the 2023-2024 season to serve as director of athletic culture and professional development for the women’s basketball program during the WNBA offseason.
"My blood runs Scarlet,” Copper said when named to the position with Rutgers women’s basketball, adding that the program “is so important to me."
Coquese Washington, Rutgers women’s head basketball coach, says she is thrilled to see Copper in the Olympics.
"We are so excited for Kahleah and realize what an amazing accomplishment this is," Washington said. "Rutgers alums have always been impactful in the sport of women's basketball and Kahleah is making sure this influence continues for many years to come."
WE ARE YOU is an ongoing series of stories about the people who embody Rutgers University’s unwavering commitment to academic excellence, building community, and the common good.
