Sami Whitcomb is in rare air.
In a tick over 12 months, the 37-year-old guard has made her Olympic debut and won a bronze medal, dominated the WNBL and claimed its MVP award in a canter, helped deliver Bendigo Spitit a championship and earned Grand Final MVP honours in the process.
Traded from Seattle to Phoenix in the offseason, Whitcomb will now play for a third WNBA title when the Mercury take on Las Vegas Aces in the best-of-five finals series which tips off on Saturday.
Timing in sport, like in life, is everything and Whitcomb says for the first time in her W career, which began as a 28-year-old rookie in 2017, everything has come together in the desert.
"The belief from the beginning coupled with the opportunity, I'm not sure I've ever had both in such equal measures in the WNBA," she told ESPN.
"I think in places, I've had belief but not a lot of opportunity or I've had more opportunity but maybe it wasn't quite paired with the belief.
"The feeling valued, and what I can bring, and here it's all of it x10 even when I'm not making shots or earlier in the season when it wasn't going my way it wasn't 'Oh hang on, let's play her less now' they just kept riding with me, believing in me and telling me to shoot.
"I don't understand why that isn't adopted more by coaching staffs because to me it's so obvious that's the only way you'll get the most out of people."
So, is self-belief high for Whitcomb?
"Probably, I'd be lying if I said that isn't true. I think I always do [believe in my ability] but the problem with me is it's so wavering and fickle. I feel like I could have a great stretch of playing well but I'll have one bad game and I'll hang on to that and that will erase weeks of confident play for me," she reveals.
"Over the last 12 months, I haven't let the bad impact me as much, I've been a little bit less up and down, a little kinder to myself with the bad and looked for the good more and tried to have a little more grace with myself. I think that's helped me be a little bit steadier in my play, I'm still not as consistent as I'd like to be, I'm never going to be perfect but I think it's allowed me to bounce back a little better and be a little more steady."
Undrafted in 2010, Whitcomb waited seven years for her crack at the WNBA but success was almost instant, winning a title in just her second year with Seattle Storm in 2018.
She played a key role in her second title in 2020 but missed the finale. She watched from hotel quarantine in Sydney after returning to Australia during Covid to be at the birth of her first child, Nash, who she shares with partner, Kate.
Whitcomb's always hung on to some wise words from one of the game's greatest, Sue Bird.
"When we won that championship in the bubble, she'd had an incredible career that spanned lots of championships and getting there but not winning it and she'd say 'You just never know -- it's so hard to get here and if you experience one early in your career you think there'll be so many more opportunities but then a decade can go by'.
"It's so so hard for so many reasons -- you have to be healthy, there's luck that goes into it. It's not always because you're the best team or you're a great roster, so many factors play into it.
"I honestly wasn't sure I'd get to be part of this again, certainly not at 37. I feel so grateful that I'm part of this team, I got to come here in the moment they were creating this roster and imagining what could be and that I've got to be part of the bigger picture."
Whitcomb spoke to ESPN from the Jonas Brothers concert in Arizona. It would be irrelevant if not for the group rescheduling their concert on Sunday once the Mercury pushed their semifinal series to a deciding game 5 back on their home court.
It was a big deal because it wasn't always this way.
"In 2021, Disney On Ice was actually scheduled to be here and they moved the Phoenix playoff game, it was a single elimination game, to Grand Canyon College for Disney on Ice," Whitcomb explains.
"I'm not suggesting Disney on Ice isn't important but give me a break, there is no way that's happening in any male sports.
"So, I feel like it's pretty incredible that the Jonas Brothers moved it, they did a shout out to us on their socials in support, incredible that our owner stepped in and wasn't going to let us not have our home court advantage with our X factor (home crowd).
"Now we're here at the Jonas Brothers concert, they gave us tickets, because we won."
A third title for a Californian-born shooting guard who made Australia home and has won and done it all? Fit for a Disney fairytale.