After 15 years in the WNBA, Swin Cash ready to cap legendary career

For someone who competes with so much passion, who still pursues rebounds with such gusto, whose playing style is so synonymous with blue-collar effort, Liberty forward Swin Cash has one verb attached to her that just doesn't seem to fit.

That would be "stroll."

As in, what she does when it's time to leave the hotel for the bus to go to a game, or a practice, or the airport.

"It's amazing how close she can get to the exact time we're supposed to leave without being late," Cash's former teammate/now assistant coach Katie Smith said, laughing. "She literally gets out of the hotel, gets on the bus, and it's strolling. She is never in a rush. I couldn't plan it if I wanted to."

Seattle's Sue Bird, also a former teammate of Cash's in college, the WNBA, and with the U.S. national team, has asked her about it.

"It's like, 'This is annoying; why do you do it?' She says, 'I don't like sitting on the bus before we leave,'" Bird said. "And you say, 'All right, I can't really argue that.'

"I think that's Swin. It might not make sense to you, but when you ask her about it, she's going to have a simple, concise answer. She's always going to be there on time and get the job done, but she's going to do it her way."

Cash, the No. 2 pick behind Bird in the 2002 WNBA draft after they'd helped lead UConn to a perfect record as seniors, will be doing things her way for the remainder of New York's season. And then she will retire after 15 years in the WNBA.

"At the beginning of the season, my mind wasn't so much on it," Cash said of her career coming to a conclusion. "September was forever. But then you're like, 'Oh, crap. It's that time, already?'

"So I have had my moments. It's like, 'This is really happening.' I don't question the time of it happening, but you just don't think it's ever going to end."

Cash will be honored in a retirement ceremony Wednesday at Madison Square Garden after the Liberty face Bird's Storm. Bird jokingly lamented that she'll only have five minutes to speak, which isn't nearly enough time for her to run through her catalogue of funny Swin stories.

But it will be long enough for her to express her admiration for her friend.

"There are a few people I would consider my favorite teammates," said Bird, who gave a touching and humorous tribute speech at former Seattle center Lauren Jackson's retirement ceremony in July. "If I had a top three, it would probably be Lauren, Diana [Taurasi] and Swin. Swin and I just clicked."

Cash will say goodbye to her playing career, which began when she was a kid in the Pittsburgh suburb of McKeesport, Pennsylvania, and which, at times, took every bit of her resolve and stamina to continue. Cash wrote about the challenges she faced -- serious injuries, a cancerous tumor in her kidney, relationship difficulties, the huge disappointment of not being picked for the 2008 Olympic team -- in her 2013 book, "Humble Journey: More Precious Than Gold."

"There was about a four-year span that was very difficult," Cash recalled of the period from around 2004 to 2008, which included the end of her stay in Detroit, the team that drafted her, and the start of her time in Seattle, where she was traded. "I had to question if it was worth it. I was evaluating my health, and it was making me wonder if I should walk away. But my family, my faith, and my competitiveness were what helped me get back."

Cash was a key to Detroit winning WNBA titles in 2003 and 2006. But her relationship with then-Shock coach Bill Laimbeer went sour, and a fresh start elsewhere was what she needed. Yet now she's going to finish her career playing for Laimbeer in New York. What repaired their bond?

"Time. Clichés are clichés for a reason: Time heals all wounds," Laimbeer said. "Everybody grows. It was just a difference of opinion in Detroit on where we were going and how we were going to do things. We had a team of very strong-willed people, the coaches and the players. For various reasons, it just didn't work out.

"I take nothing personally; and she ended up in a really good spot. She got to play with Sue, and she won there."

Cash won her third WNBA title with Seattle in 2010. She was traded to Chicago in 2012, and also got another opportunity that year with the Olympic team, winning her second gold medal. A 2014 trade sent her to Atlanta, but during that season she was dealt again, this time to New York.

She's still hopeful of getting one more championship, which would be the Liberty's first.

"But if it's not to happen, I hope they still hunger for that and understand how hard it is to get there," Cash said. "That's one of the things that I can leave with them. I think you value each championship, but the more you get, the more you value them because you understand better how much it takes to do it."

As good a player as Cash has been, Laimbeer wonders whether she will have an even bigger impact after she retires. Cash will continue to expand on her broadcasting career and pursue other interests. She has long been involved in the players' union and hopes to continue working to improve the WNBA and players' salaries.

"I don't know if that chapter's been written yet," Laimbeer said when asked what Cash will be most remembered for. "I think there's an opportunity for her to be even more known off the court than on the court.

"There's no one more competitive than her, with the drive that she has of playing at a certain level. Her work ethic got her the most out of what a 'tweener' can get."

At 6-foot-1, Cash came to the WNBA as an undersized power forward. She averaged 15.9 PPG in her first three seasons in Detroit, but back and knee injuries took a toll. Cash didn't score at quite that level again in her career, but she became a very dependable cog for every team she was with. She averaged 13.8 points and 6.0 rebounds for Seattle in its 2010 title season, and by that time, she was playing a different position, too.

"She's one of the few players I can think of who successfully made the jump from the 4 to the 3," Bird said of Cash's move to small forward/wing. "It's not easy to do that. But again, it comes back to if Swin wanted to do something, she did it her way no matter what anybody else said. And it worked out."

Cash, who turns 37 later this month, has been very driven to succeed from the time she was an inquisitive, ambitious child. She was asked what she might say to that little girl she once was, dreaming such big dreams.

Cash really gave thought to this imaginary scenario.

"I would tell her that it's OK to be different and to speak your mind," Cash said. "That standing up and believing in something will work out for you in the end. I would tell her, 'Everything in your environment and where you're from will help give you the character to become the woman you're going to be someday. So continue to embrace all the things around you. And never lose the compassion for other people that you have.'

"I'd say she should strive for progress, not perfection. Basketball will open many doors for you, but a lot of things will never turn out perfect. But if you stand on faith and integrity, you will be just fine."