Julie Vanloo stood outside Barclays Center two hours before tipoff of the Los Angeles Sparks' game against the New York Liberty on Thursday.
She was waiting to clear waivers and join her new team. Vanloo had a long journey, paying for her own flight overnight from San Francisco after getting cut by the Golden State Valkyries on Tuesday.
It takes 48 hours for players to clear waivers, and she knew from her agent that the Sparks were interested.
So she made the trek across the country to be with Los Angeles. When the clock struck 5, Sparks general manager Raegan Pebley called her new player and came upstairs to escort her into the arena.
"I was just sitting there watching the clock go very slow, and I just was waiting until that moment at 5 for that phone call to say," Vanloo said after the Sparks lost to New York 89-79. "Anything for the dream. I don't mind that. I could have stayed there another hour."
It has been a roller coaster week for the 32-year-old, who helped Belgium win the EuroBasket title. She skipped the celebration in Belgium to fly back to San Francisco to rejoin the Valkyries but was waived an hour after her arrival. She said after Thursday night's game that she holds no ill will toward Golden State, but she wishes the team had called her instead of having her make the long trip from Europe to the West Coast to cut her.
"I'm not here to throw stones at Golden State," Vanloo said. "If you're with your family and friends, it's a whole different story, and not literally being alone on the other side of the world trying to figure things out."
Vanloo said she has been overwhelmed by everything that has happened in the past week. She hasn't had time to process anything. She credits her family for teaching her resiliency.
"I come from a family where we just keep going. Like, my mom lost her parents when she was 18 to a car crash. So she always says if nobody died, we can keep going," Vanloo said. "And then my dad, he was an alcoholic for a very long time, and he's been sober for 20 years.
"So the Vanloo family, we just keep going. We don't sit down and be petty about it. We just keep going."
The Sparks were happy to add her, giving the team another talented guard.
"I'm so happy, so excited for her," said Sparks guard Julie Allemand, who played on the Belgium team with Vanloo. "First of all, happy to have her in the team. She's going to help us a lot, but happy for her because, like, the last days were crazy for her."
Allemand said she had been talking to her friend all week and had hoped the Sparks would pick her up after she was cut. Allemand was texting with Vanloo in the final minutes leading up to her joining the team.
"It was crazy because, like, we were in the locker room and we were waiting for her," Allemand said. "Like she was waiting outside."
Sparks first-year coach Lynne Roberts was thrilled to get Vanloo. In the preseason, she torched the Sparks for four fast 3-pointers.
"When we heard that the Valkyries had waived her, I immediately said to our GM, 'Let's see if we can get her,'" Roberts said.
Vanloo played only two minutes in the loss, but her time will increase as she gets used to her new team.
Another member of the Belgian national team who is expected to return to the WNBA soon is forward Emma Meesseman. She played seven seasons with the Washington Mystics and was the WNBA Finals MVP in 2019. She last played in the WNBA in 2022 with the Chicago Sky. Meesseman was the MVP of EuroBasket, averaging 19.2 points, 9.2 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 2.3 steals and 1.8 blocks per game.
ESPN's Michael Voepel and The Associated Press contributed to this report.