Acting career can wait for Aces’ veteran guard
Veteran point guard Sydney Colson returned from Poland last week, content with the decision to end her basketball career and pursue a different passion.
That is, until the Aces called last weekend inquiring about her services.
“Other times in my career when I had been working hard to get on a team, it didn’t always happen,” Colson said. “I was at place where I was at peace with moving onto another career … God can be really funny in that way.”
Colson, 29, signed with the Aces on Monday and joined the team at training camp Tuesday. She played for the franchise in San Antonio from 2015 to 2017, but was cut last year during Las Vegas’ training camp and played two games for the Minnesota Lynx.
She arrived in her native Texas last week after spending the offseason overseas and had not heard from a WNBA team. But the Aces cut two players last weekend and wanted a veteran point guard to compete in camp.
“In my heart, the way things were going over the past few seasons for me, I was like, maybe this isn’t what God has in store for me,” said Colson, who has career averages of 3.5 points and 2.2 assists. “I still don’t know what will happen, but it’s another opportunity.”
Colson was the starting point guard on Texas A&M’s national championship team in 2011. She was selected by the Connecticut Sun in the second round of the 2011 WNBA draft and traded to the New York Liberty, for whom she played 16 games as a rookie. She was out of the league from 2012 to 2014 before signing with San Antonio in 2015.
Bill Laimbeer, the Aces’ coach and president of basketball operations, brought Colson to training camp last season but cut her days before the season opener. She played sparingly for the Lynx and was content to focus on her other passion — acting — after enduring the rigors of another year abroad.
Laimbeer had other ideas.
“She’s fast. She’s quick, smart. I want smart players on this basketball team” he said. “The lead guards that I had aren’t as quick as she is, or as point guard-ish as she is. It gives us something that we don’t have right now.”
Colson said she’s grateful for the opportunity and joked that it felt like “a week” that she’s been gone. She still plans to pursue acting after basketball and makes videos recreationally that she posts to Instagram.
But the next phase of her life can wait awhile.
“I think that I’m given the opportunity for a reason,” she said. “Maybe I’m here to impact one person, even if I don’t make the team. Maybe I can mentor somebody, show them how to be more vocal, lead a little better and be a good teammate. I’ll be happy with that.”
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Contact reporter Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon on Twitter.