MELBOURNE (Paulo Kennedy’s View from Downunder) - I had the great opportunity to spend half an hour chatting with Leilani Mitchell this week to produce this story for the WNBL.

Her tale is almost a fairy tale, the American-born girl with an Aussie mum who desperately wanted her only daughter to experience her home country.

Sadly, Ellie passed away before she had the chance to see it, but as a tribute to her mother and closest friend, Leilani not only headed Downunder but made the national team and stood on the dais at Turkey 2014.

"It was something I wanted to but I didn’t know if it was possible," Mitchell said.

Some five years after her mother lost her battle with breast cancer, Leilani’s emotions still come to the surface when speaking of her memory.

But it seems this newfound connection with Ellie’s indigenous homeland is rekindling positive feelings too, with the reason for her commitment to the Opals always present during the world championship campaign.

"I had written in a journal that a friend had given me just to keep track of my thoughts and how things were going, to have the memories to look back on," she said.

"Heading over for the worlds I had written in it, ‘You work so hard and do all these things and at the end of the day you do it for yourself, but for your family as well, and your loved ones’.

"I was just wishing she could be there for that but I knew she was always in my heart and more so playing for Australia because that’s where she was born and raised.

"I wish I could have done it all with her here but I know she’s proud of me.”

Leilani’s efforts are a unifying force for her entire family.

"My brothers all support me, they're some of my biggest fans. Sometimes they know more about my team than I do," she laughed. 

"One of my brothers, his wife makes fun of him biggest he sort of stalks me and knows everything, knows the schedule before I do – it’s funny."

Leilani’s father Dennis was in Turkey for the World Championship, something Mitchell simply described as “awesome”.

"He was just proud, no matter what he’s always proud of what I'm doing, so it was just great he could come," she said. 

"He doesn’t travel much internationally so he was a bit lost out in Turkey, which is very foreign and very different from even other European countries, but he was alright."

Of course, come semi-final time, the WNBA veteran had to face off against another family of hers, the USA outfit representing the country of birth, but she didn’t get too much grief from her “other” compatriots.

"They were real nice, they were just asking how I liked it in Australia and how things were going," she said.

But despite a fast start, her new family – the Opals – couldn’t quite get the job done.

"It’s kind of left a bittersweet taste in our mouths," she said.

"We knew we could have done better, but then also I think we’re looking forward to the next match-up with them because we were without Lizzy (Cambage) and Lauren (Jackson) and some other players that will probably be in the mix."

But that couldn’t spoil the experience of representing the country that was her mother’s and has now become her own, an experience that meant so much the 29-year-old passed up her 2014 WNBA contract.

"We ended up bringing home a medal which I don’t think a lot of people thought we would with the injuries we had to deal with," she said.

"We had a camp every couple of weeks and we toured, and I think perhaps people don’t realise how much work we put into it.

"The best thing about our team was we had everyone from one-to-12 come in and contribute."

With Australia now ingrained, and loving life in the Harbour City playing for the Sydney Uni Flames, Mitchell has her eyes set on one more big prize.

"I thinking going from WNBA to over here and representing Australia at the worlds, I guess my ultimate goal and the biggest thing I have left is to play at the Olympics," she said.

"It’s every athlete’s dream to play in an Olympics. It’s still a way away but it’s something you’ve got to consistently and constantly work on striving for that goal."

This fairytale might still have the happy ending it deserves.

Paulo Kennedy

FIBA

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