Former WPIAL greats enjoying stellar WNBA careers
WASHINGTON, D.C. — It’s widely known that Western Pennsylvania is heralded as football country, primarily based on several athletes who have become world renowned on the gridiron.
Two former WPIAL female athletes have bucked the trend, and are now earning their living as professional basketball players. Namely, Tanisha Wright, of West Mifflin High School and Shatori Walker-Kimbrough of Hopewell.
Wright has just completed her 15th WNBA season and will reportedly retire this fall. She currently plays for the New York Liberty. Walker-Kimbrough, at 24, is a two-year player currently vowing for the 2019 WNBA title with her Washington Mystics squad. The Mystics face tthe Connecticut Sun on Sunday during the best-of-five game championship series.
A year ago, the Mystics were swept in the title series by the Seattle Storm.
In a recent interview, Wright, 35, said while she has contemplated retirement, she still enjoys the game immensely. “Even at this point, it’s still enjoyable,” she said.
Both ladies share similar backgrounds when it comes to developing their hoop games. Wright was raised in a public housing community in Whitaker. called Monview Heights. There she competed against some of the most talented guys in her neighborhood. She still remains close to her hometown church, Morningstar Baptist Church, where she annually provides book bags and other gifts to needy youths.
Former New Pittsburgh Courier Sports Editor, Eddie Jefferies, recalls Wright as a smart, scrappy player in middle and high school ranks. “Even then, you could tell she had a winning drive in her soul,” he said. He also recalls her legendary 51-point playoff effort against Blackhawk. Like Walker-Kimbrough, Wright also enjoyed a stellar Big Ten career as one of Penn State’s all-time best.
Walker-Kimbrough enjoyed a four-year career with the Maryland Terrapins before being drafted No. 6, overall in the 2017 WNBA draft.
When asked how a 6-0 slightly-built young lady learned high-level basketball skills in her hometown of Aliquippa. — where football rules — Walker-Kimbrough vividly recalls her mother reciting a story about her toddler girl wearing a dress, dribbling a basketball outside of her church, Triedstone Baptist Church on Sunday mornings.
During a recent interview, Walker-Kimbrough reflected, “I’ve enjoyed the game, since age 3, and mostly played with the best boys in my neighborhood to hone my skills.”
The court dubbed “The Dump,” on Griffith Street behind her Mount Vernon public housing community, is where she earned her stripes and a toughness that has propelled her. She also plays in Budapest, Hungary during the offseason.
While Aliquippa has birthed gridiron greats like Mike Ditka, Tony Dorsett, Ty Law and Darrelle Revis, Walker-Kimbrough has become Quiptown’s top-ranked female athlete. She starred at track, volleyball and hoops at neighboring Hopewell.
She credits good genes, family and civic pride as characteristics that have ignited her success.
“My mother (Andrea Kimbrough) is my biggest hero,” she said. “She sacrificed to make sure I was always at practice, and so much more.”
Her father, Vance Walker, is a former star Aliquippa athlete and was a standout college basketball player at Waynesburg. Her uncle, Craedel Kimbrough, owns a workout facility in Aliquippa and her mother’s uncle, the late Mike Kimbrough, was the heralded blocking fullback for Dorsett at Hopewell.
Though she failed to cop an NCAA title while at Maryland, Walker-Kimbrough is more than hopeful that 2019 is her year for helping the Mystics capture their first-ever WNBA crown.
While both women are aware of one another, a time-gap in their careers has impacted their becoming fast friends. “I definitely consider her as a role model,” Walker-Kimbrough said of her more senior Western Pa. counterpart.
Wright earned a WNBA title in 2010 while playing for the Seattle Storm.