Alissa Katelina Pili (born June 8, 2001) is an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player for the

Minnesota Lynx The Minnesota Lynx are an American professional basketball team based in Minneapolis, playing in the Western Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team won the WNBA title in 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2017. Founded pr ...

of the

Women's National Basketball Association The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is an American professional basketball league. It is composed of twelve teams, all based in the United States. The league was founded on April 22, 1996, as the women's counterpart to the Natio ...

(WNBA). She played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

for the

Utah Utes The Utah Utes are the intercollegiate athletics teams that represent the University of Utah, located in Salt Lake City. The athletic department is named after the Ute tribe of Native Americans. The men's basketball team is known as the Runnin' ...

and

USC Trojans The USC Trojans are the College athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Southern California (USC), located in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California. While the men's teams are nicknamed the ' ...

Early life

Pili was born in

Anchorage, Alaska Anchorage () is the largest city in the U.S. state of Alaska by population. With a population of 291,247 in 2020, it contains nearly 40% of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolitan area, which includes Anchorage and the neighboring Ma ...

, to Heather and Billy Pili and is of

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands (Manono Island, Manono an ...

n and Inupiaq descent. She played football as a lineman from third to eighth grade as the only girl in her league and started playing organized basketball at age eight.

High school

Pili attended

Dimond High School A. J. Dimond High School (DHS) is a public four-year high school in Anchorage, Alaska, and is a part of the Anchorage School District. It has been accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. Dimond serves students in the ...

in Anchorage. As a freshman, Pili helped her team to a runner-up finish at the Class 4A state tournament. She led Dimond to two state championships, set the Class 4A all-time scoring record and was a three-time Alaska

Gatorade Player of the Year The Gatorade Player of the Year awards are given annually to up and coming high school student-athletes in the United States. They are given for boys' baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine playe ...

. Pili won 13 state titles across all sports at Dimond, including four in

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

, four in

shot put The shot put is a track and field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. The shot put competition for men has been a part of the modern Olympics since their revival in 1896, and women's ...

, two in discus and one in

wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...

. In her final two years of high school, she was named

MaxPreps MaxPreps is an American website that specializes in coverage of American high school sports. The site is owned by Paramount Global and is a division of CBS Sports. Founded on August 1, 2002, the company has covered up to 29 sports, including b ...

Female High School Athlete of the Year for her success in multiple sports, joining

Missy Franklin Melissa Franklin Johnson (born May 10, 1995) is an American former competition swimmer and five-time Olympic gold medalist. She formerly held the world record in the 200-meter backstroke (long course). As a member of the U.S. national swim team ...

as the only two-time recipients of the award. Rated a five-star

recruit __NOTOC__ Recruit can refer to: Military * Military recruitment * Recruit training, in the military * ''Rekrut'' (English: Recruit), a military recruit or low rank in German-speaking countries * Seaman recruit Books *''Le Réquisitionnaire'' (En ...

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

, she committed to playing

for

USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses **South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...

College career

USC Trojans

Pili entered her freshman season at USC as the team's starting

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

. On February 23, 2020, she recorded a career-high 32 points and 12 rebounds in a 66–60 win over

Washington State Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...

. As a freshman, Pili averaged 16.3 points and eight rebounds per game, and was named

Pac-12 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

Freshman of the Year while making the All-Pac-12 Team. She missed the first 10 games of her sophomore season with an ankle injury. Pili averaged 11 points and 3.8 rebounds per game as a sophomore, earning All-Pac-12 honorable mention. In her junior season, she averaged 7.8 points and 4.5 rebounds per game, before entering the

transfer portal The NCAA transfer portal is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) application, database, and compliance tool launched on October 15, 2018, to manage and facilitate the process for student athletes seeking to transfer between member ...

Utah Utes

For her fourth year of college eligibility, Pili transferred to

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

for the 2023-24 season. Pili was named Pac-12 Player of the Year and earned All-Pac-12 honors after leading her team to a share of the conference regular season title. She was a second-team All-American selection by the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

and the

United States Basketball Writers Association The United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) was founded in 1956 by National Collegiate Athletic Association director Walter Byers to serve the interests of journalists who cover college basketball. Scholarships The USBWA annually awa ...

, and made the

Women's Basketball Coaches Association The Women's Basketball Coaches Association is an association of coaches of women's basketball teams at all levels. The organization was formed in 1981, with the goal of addressing the needs of women's basketball coaches. The mission of the WBCA ...

Coaches' All-America team. In her first season at Utah, she averaged 20.7 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game. Utah received an at-large bid to the 2024 NCAA tournament and reached the second round. South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said of Pili's 37-point game, "We can't stop her," after the Gamecocks beat the Utes in their December 10, 2023, Hall of Fame showcase game.

WNBA career

Pili was selected as the eighth pick of the

2024 WNBA draft The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)'s draft for the 2024 season, following the 2023–24 NCAA Division I women's basketball season, was held on April 15, 2024, the 29th draft in WNBA history. The draft took place at the Brooklyn ...

by the

. The Lynx welcomed Pili to the team with an event introducing her to local members of Indigenous and Polynesian communities, including the Minnesota Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan and former Vikings player

Esera Tuaolo Esera Tavai Tuaolo (born July 11, 1968), nicknamed "Mr. Aloha", is a former American professional football player. He was a defensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL) for 9 years. Football career He played college football at Oreg ...

. In the 2024 preseason, Pili scored 10 points with 2 assists and 3 rebounds in the Lynx game on May 8, 2024, against the Washington Mystics. Pili made her WNBA debut in the Lynx game against the Seattle Storm at Climate Pledge Arena on May 14, 2024. She played 10 minutes and had one rebound. In her second WNBA game, also against the Seattle Storm, on May 17, 2024, at Target Center, she scored her first points in the league, playing 9 minutes and bringing in 5 points and 2 rebounds. Pili became the 10th WNBA rookie to score "20+pts while shooting perfect from deep with 4 or more 3’s" in the May 31, 2024, Lynx "Native American heritage night" game against the Phoenix Mercury. In playing just over 15 minutes of the game off the bench, Pili put up 20 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 assists. She is also only the 4th WNBA rookie to score "20+ PTS and 4+ 3PM shooting 75+% from the field and perfect from three" and the only one of those four to do so coming off the bench.

Career statistics

WNBA

Regular season

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Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

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College

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2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

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, 19 , , 18 , , 19.3 , , 33.1 , , 22.4, , 82.2 , , 4.5 , , 0.8 , , 0.8 , , 0.3 , , 1.5 , , 7.8 , - !scope="row" style="text-align:center;",

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

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, 34 , , 34, , 28.6 , , 55.0, , 40.4 , , 82.0 , , 6.6 , , 2.4 , , 0.9 , , 0.8 , , 2.0 , , 21.4 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 128, , 122, , 26.5, , 51.9, , 34.4, , 80.7, , 6.1, , 1.7, , 1.0, , 0.7, , 2.0, , 16.9

Business interests

On June 7, 2024, Nike announced that Pili signed an endorsement deal with the company for its N7 collection that has an Indigenous focus. Proceeds from items in the collection benefit the N7 Fund "to provide sport and physical activity programming to kids in Native American and Aboriginal communities."

Personal life

In addition to her athletic success, Pili's Samoan and Indigenous heritage has made her a role model for others. Since college, she has attracted people with Samoan and Indigenous backgrounds to her games. Her mother, Heather Pili, said "It gives a lot of hope to all of the natives in America. It’s amazing to see. It’s hard to describe being in that environment and seeing the crowds that she’s drawing. It’s pretty emotional.” For the WNBA draft, Pili worked with designer Jason Vu on a dress that showcased her Samoan culture. The dress used Samoan designs on the skirt, which had a slit to highlight the tribal tattoos on her right leg. The dress also was one shouldered to also highlight the tribal tattoos on her left shoulder. During the draft, Pili was quoted as saying, "A lot of Indigenous and Polynesian girls don’t get to see that role model and I’m just so blessed to be in the position to be that for them...I’m representing them with pride, I had to include the tribal in my dress." More than 100 people of Samoan heritage attended Pili's first home game playing for the Minnesota Lynx to show their support for her. Her older brother,

Brandon Brandon may refer to: Names and people *Brandon (given name), a male given name * Brandon (surname), a surname with several different origins Places Australia *Brandon, a farm and 19th century homestead in Seaham, New South Wales *Brandon, Q ...

, played

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

for

as a

defensive lineman In gridiron football, a lineman is a player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage. The linemen of the team currently in possession of the ball are the offensive line, while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line. A numbe ...

, and currently plays for the

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team pla ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

References

External links

WNBA player pageAlissa Pili's personal web siteUSC Trojans bioUtah Utes bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pili, Alissa Living people American women's basketball players Basketball players from Alaska Sportspeople from Anchorage, Alaska American sportspeople of Samoan descent Forwards (basketball) Minnesota Lynx draft picks Minnesota Lynx players USC Trojans women's basketball players Utah Utes women's basketball players 2001 births All-American college women's basketball players