Aerial Powers in ATL is “Like That” » Winsidr

Aerial Powers is really like that.

No, really. Just ask her. 

Because when looking at what she brings to a team and a city, in order to do justice to all her entire impact, it would take hours.

Bringing the energy? She’s like that.

Standing up for her teammates? She’s like that.

Adding a spark off the bench? She’s like that.

Advocating for her mom in a way that is bigger than basketball?

Yeah, she’s definitely like that.

See, Powers’ current chapter of her story has her in Atlanta, Ga., but becoming “like that” starts with growing up in Detroit, Mich.

In the Beginning

Powers grew up surrounded by basketball. Everywhere she went, she had a ball with her. Anytime someone was playing ball, she wanted to play. She knew from a young age what she wanted her career to be — a professional basketball player

“I’ve always had a love for basketball. I literally would bring my basketball and shoes with me everywhere because anytime I saw a group of people playing, I’d say ‘Dad, let’s go hoop’ and he’d say ‘OK, let’s go do it,’” said Powers. “It’s always been a passion of mine. I thank God I have the parents that I do because when my dad took that sport on, he knew nothing about it. Now look at where I am.”

It’s important to note that Powers’ dad, Juan, wasn’t a basketball guy. No. He was a boxer, which is what his daughter loved before turning to basketball. But with the interest that Ariel Powers showed in basketball at a young age, her dad learned the sport so that he could help her with her future craft.

“I love that man. He’s my best friend,” Powers said. “My dad saw that I had a love for basketball, and he didn’t know anything about basketball. He’s definitely a girl’s dad, and I’m so blessed to be able to call my dad my dad, you know?”

Powers had a late start to her basketball career – at least compared to many players who are Division I athletes. Though she was always playing basketball at a competitive level, it wasn’t until the 8th grade when Powers started to play AAU ball, but it was enough to get her a scholarship to play for her home state Michigan State Spartans.

“The one thing about Aerial is the first thing you notice is her energy,” said longtime former Michigan State Head Coach Suzy Merchant on recruiting Powers. “That and her athleticism showed through. That’s the X factor on top of the talent she has. She’s infectious. I knew that she would be such a great addition as a basketball player, but also the energy and enthusiasm – I say those are leadership traits, and she has them. I wanted to coach her.”

For Powers, it wasn’t just that Michigan State was close to home, but it was an experience at a football game that convinced her it was the place for her given the energy of the crowd matched the energy that she brings to everything that she does.

“I went up there, and one of my first visits that was very memorable is when Kirk Cousins threw the Hail Mary to defeat Wisconsin,” Powers remembered. “At one point, Coach Merchant had the student section yelling my name as a way to welcome me.”

With both the women’s and men’s basketball programs in attendance for the game–the men sitting behind the women, according to Powers–she said that a four-time NBA champ actually helped her out during the chaos after the Spartans won and the fans rushed the field. 

“Actually, Draymond (Green) saved me, as he literally saw me about to get trampled, and he grabbed me up and then helped me to the field,” Powers recalled. “And we were all on the field, all the basketball players, yeah, we were all going crazy. Everybody’s on the field. And then I (said), ‘Man, I want to go here.’ Not too long after that, I committed.”

Powers went on to start 94 of her 96 games in East Lansing, averaging 18.9 points per game over her three-year career, and earning All-Big Ten honors as a freshman. She became a staple for Michigan State on both sides of the ball, as well as bringing her energy to each and every practice and game, according to Merchant.

Powers and Merchant were so close that the relationship carries over to this day. Per Merchant, Powers told her that she has to come to a game in Atlanta, because it reminds her of an overseas soccer audience.

“Aerial comes back and lives with us when she trains in the offseason. We are really close. My sons absolutely loves her, and they play video games and basketball with her,” Merchant said, describing who Powers is off of the court. 

Their relationship is so close that Merchant watched Powers’ dog, Apollo, while she was overseas playing in China.

“Tell her that I’m mad at her for taking Apollo from me,” Merchant said, with a laugh. “I told her that ‘You’re going to have to steal this dog back from me out of my hands.’”

“That kind of lets you know what kind of person she is. Because, like, you said, you’re not gonna let anybody watch your dog.” Powers said. “And she watched my dog for weeks, like, weeks and weeks and weeks. My dog got accustomed to her, he loves her, follows her everywhere she’s sending me pictures while I’m overseas. I thank God that he put her in my life.”

Life in the W

Powers was drafted No. 5 overall by the Dallas Wings – the highest a Michigan State player has ever been taken. She made an immediate impact off the bench for the Wings, earning Second-Team Sixth Player of the Year accolades in her rookie season.

And while she scored in double-digits for the Wings off the bench in 2016 and 2017, she was traded to Washington during the 2018 season, where she played nine games for the Mystics as part of their second unit.

Little did she know, she was in line for a championship season the following year.

“She was a big reason for the title,” said her Washington teammate Shatori Walker-Kimbrough. “Our bench had attitude. We had attitude. Emma Meesseman was our Finals MVP, and she came off the bench. We had an attitude that we were better than the other team’s bench. We knew the better we were, the better it would make our team.”

During that Finals run, Powers earned Second-Team Sixth Player of the Year accolades, and finished No. 7 in Most Improved Player voting with 11.4 points per game and 51.8 eFG%. Against Connecticut in the Finals, Powers had two double-digit scoring performances off the bench, scoring a team-high 15 points in Game 4.

AP smiled when she talked about that 2019 season, especially as she was preparing to face the Mystics in Atlanta on Tuesday, June 11.

“There’s a lot of love on that side, but you know when we get between these lines, that love has got to go. I’m so excited to be here in this atmosphere in Atlanta.”

AP was a big fan favorite in Washington. When the Dream faced the Mystics in the Nation’s Capital earlier this season, she received a huge ovation from the Mystic faithful. 

But that’s how AP is. Just ask those in Minnesota, who were able to watch her play for three years.

“Obviously with the Big Ten, I was a little bit closer to the action,” said Cheryl Reeve, the Minnesota Lynx coach when Minnesota signed Powers to a contract in 2021. “AP has a way of playing the game that’s just fun to watch, and I don’t mean her skill set, I mean the energy she gives to it. You see great joy when Aerial plays the game, so you enjoy watching someone play.”

Facing Adversity

In her first two seasons with the Lynx, Powers was playing a career high in minutes per game (22.1 and 26.9), as well as averaging the most points per game (13.4 and 14.4) that she has in her career. 

But in 2023, that changed, as AP’s minutes per game dipped from 26.9 per game to 9.8, playing in just half of Minnesota’s games.

What happened?

“God, doesn’t need anything that you can’t handle,” Powers said of her tenure ending in Minnesota. “God has put me in a better situation with where I’m at now in Atlanta.”

Powers was a free agent after the 2023 season. She was readying to head over to Beijing to play for the Beijing Great Wall of the WCBA until WNBA free agency opened up. 

But before she was able to go over there, Powers’ mom, Cecilia, suffered a life-altering brain tumor.

“Just a few days after our weekly workout sessions, I found my mother in bed, unable to move or speak. “Hey mom, are you okay?” She looked at me with a facial expression I had never seen before. She tried to speak, but spit filled her mouth,” Powers wrote in the description of the GoFundMe she put together to help her mom.

Cecilia Powers had a “tumor the size of baseball, occupying almost the entire left side of her brain, explaining why her entire right side wasn’t functioning,” according to the post.

“The fact that I was able to even walk in and see her, because my dad was at work. He wouldn’t have been back for a while. I usually am not even home,” Powers explained, recounting the experience. “I happen to not be overseas at that moment, right? It was just all like a part of God’s plan, because who knows what would have happened if I wasn’t there.”

Shortly after her mom’s surgery, Powers was preparing to go over to Beijing. She said if it wasn’t for where her mom was at physically in her recovery at the time, she wouldn’t have gone over. 

“I was cooking her meals, making sure she had everything she needed, helping her up and down the steps, like helping her do her rehab, you know,” Powers explained, with tears in her eyes. “I know what it’s like to go through an injury. I know it’s, mentally, physically, emotionally, I’m not going to get back to this person.

“So a couple weeks went by, I didn’t leave it or get the call even until she was basically walking. She was walking by herself, where I was like, ‘OK, she’s good. That’s all that matters is she’s good’” 

Powers said that her mom, who is six months out from the surgery, is doing well and is up and walking. And she has a bunch of people in her corner — including Merchant. 

“I’m super close with her mom,” said Merchant. “It takes a village. But if you have Team Powers as your village to start, you’re in a good place.”

2024 and Beyond

With the tumultuous 2023 in the rearview, Powers was ready to focus on 2024 and what that meant for her as a professional and as a person. Enter Atlanta. The Dream, specifically, who were looking to bring in some veterans to build off of last season’s playoff appearance in hopes of making a deeper run.

The Dream enlisted the help of Powers, Jordin Canada, and the “OG” Tina Charles.

“I’m so excited to be here in this atmosphere in Atlanta,” Powers said. “I’ve played against them, but now to be on this side, the love is massive. I didn’t expect it to be so welcoming. I knew it would be, but it’s 100x better than I thought.”

And it didn’t take long for the Atlanta fans and community to take to her. Before the fourth quarter of every home game, the video board plays a video of Powers talking to the crowd, telling them “It’s time to show them how we do it in the A. Let’s go!”

And honestly, that’s tame.

Each time Powers takes to the court at the Gateway Center Arena in College Park, she pumps up the crowd who, in return, cheers for her as much as any other player on the court.

It’s the energy that she brings to the team and the city that stands out the most.

“I love it. I feed off of it. Whether it’s my teammates, the coaching staff. I love home games. We have our own energy,” Powers said about the Atlanta crowds. “For me … they are paying the bills. You feel me? If they are going to come to see a show, we are going to give them a show. And there’s a certain type of energy when you have those fans and you can tell they just want us to win. 

“I felt that when I brought a title to Washington in 2019, it hadn’t had one. It was so massive. Just thinking about bringing one here makes me not even be able to sleep at night before games. Seriously.”

And that’s the goal of the Dream. That’s the goal of the other 11 teams within the league, too, of course. But the veteran leadership can help the Dream to that, but it hasn’t been a totally smooth road in 2024.

Powers and Charles have had to learn a new system, which sees the Dream playing inside-out a lot, resulting in a lot of stagnation on offense and standing around. Per Hunter Cruse, at The Next Hoops, Atlanta takes a different approach, averaging only 14.3 PnR possessions per game, the lowest mark of any WNBA team since the 3-31 Tulsa Shock in 2011, according to Synergy Sports.

See Also

As for Canada, she made her long-awaited debut Sunday, June 23, against the New York Liberty after missing time due to a hand injury.

And then there’s the off-the-court chemistry that needs to be built.

On each WNBA jersey, there’s a tag on them that says 1/144, which highlights the 144 roster spots that are available in the WNBA – which will grow over the next two years with expansion taking place in the Bay Area and Toronto, respectively.

So the competition is fierce for spots, yes, but the players also know each other on some levels.

But there’s more to building team chemistry than by just knowing each other a bit.

For Powers, that’s video games.

On June 3, Powers hosted a Twitch stream that saw Rhyne Howard, Allisha Gray, and Naz Hillmon pull up, which she saw as a way to build that chemistry with her new teammates.

“You saw that? It was amazing. My teammates have been so supportive of me,” Powers said. “The start of this season, trying to learn their system, learning my teammates, learning the coaching staff. Everyone has been so supportive from the coaching staff to the players that it was so amazing to have them on my Twitch stream because that was the first time that I had a group of people on my Twitch stream. And how amazing is it that it was my own teammates.

“It literally … that meant the world to me. Streaming is part of my life and video games are part of my life, so the fact that they even took interest literally warmed my heart. Even Rhyne brought over gifts to help me do a giveaway. That right there was just … I was about to almost cry because that was big for me. It meant a lot.”

She actually went back to Michigan State in 2022 to share her love of gaming, including with Merchant’s sons. 

When it comes to using gaming as a way to connect with her teammates, Walker-Kimbrough wasn’t surprised to see the love and support from the other Dream players.

“She’s one of the most contagious players that I’ve ever played with. The energy that she brings — whether she is making shots or missing shots -– she’s a dog,” Walker-Kimbrough said. “There are a lot of people who are dogs, but there are a lot of people who are dogs who aren’t contagious. For her, she’s giving you confidence. Her own confidence is radiant where I’m like ‘OK, I’m big dog, too.’”

And perhaps no moment encapsulated that more than when the Las Vegas Aces came to town.

It was Friday night, May 31, 2024 in College Park, just outside of Atlanta. The Dream were hosting the defending back-to-back champs, the Las Vegas Aces. With 2:33 left in the game, the Aces were ready for a side-inbound. 

Jackie Young, of Las Vegas, says something to Powers—or maybe Powers says something first—and while the other eight players are readying for the inbounds play, Powers and Young are jawing back and forth.

Powers repeats the line “I’m really like that” after Young allegedly told her she wasn’t really like that.

The Dream won the game — holding on to the lead the rest of the way after the exchanging of words.

“AP is high energy. We know that. We knew that getting in, and we thought today, she really came out…[and]changed the momentum of the game with that energy,” said Dream Head Coach Tanisha Wright following the game.

Whatever “that” is, Powers is. On the court. As a leader. As a daughter. As a professional. Hell, as a gamer or boxer. As a competitor.

She is like that.

To Walker-Kimbrough, “she’s a dog.”

To Merchant, “she’s a winner. She wins at everything in life.”

To Powers herself, “I’m me.”

“People also get confused when they meet me off the court, like, I’m not like that, but on the court between the lines, like, it’s just a different tenacity. I say, ‘I’m like that,’” Powers explained. “That doesn’t just mean getting buckets. I’m like that. On defense, I’m like that. I’m a competitor.

“I’m just a competitor, as someone that loves to win, and I’ll do anything to win like it doesn’t matter if I need to be a person that’s locked down on defense, or I gotta get the crowd hyped, I gotta get my teammates hyped. That’s just me. That’s just who I am.”

And when you see the offseason acquisitions that took place this offseason, it’s Skylar Diggins-Smith, Nneka Ogwumike, Natasha Cloud, and others who are the headliners. But perhaps the most valuable to their team is Powers.

But being slept on isn’t anything that she isn’t used to. 

Because yeah, she really is like that, too.