LACHINE — A Montreal woman has become only the second Montrealer to make the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), overcoming incredible obstacles en route to a blossoming basketball career.
Watch below: A video profiling basketball player Nirra Fields. (CREDIT: YouTube/UCLA Women’s Basketball):
Nirra Fields, a shooting guard from Lachine, finished her college career at UCLA as the team’s fourth-leading scorer in the 2015-16 season, collecting 1,867 points.
Recently, the Phoenix Mercury player revealed she made the team’s 12-player roster.
“When I heard the news that I’d made the WNBA, I was so excited,” she said.
“I’ve wanted to make the WNBA since I was a kid.”
None of this could have been possible without the efforts of her mother Faith Fields, who single-handedly raised seven children.
“I sometimes forget how hard it was,” Faith Fields told Global News from her home in Lachine.
“As life is, you just take every day as it comes.”
A lot of Fields’ career has been about being at the right place at the right time.
A 5’9″ player, she was first noticed at LaSalle Senior Elementary School by Otis Delaney, the principal.
“She basically ran circles around the boys. She really stood out,” he said.
“More than just being a basketball player, she’s a nice person.”
Delaney got Fields noticed by DJ Sports, a recreational sports league in Montreal.
As she progressed there, she was noticed by former Los Angeles Lakers coach Mike Brown.
Fields ended up staying with Brown and his family while she was playing alongside his daughter at a major high school in Ohio.
When Brown took the Lakers job, she moved with him and played for Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, California.
“It all happened so fast,” Fields said. “I got lucky.”
While under the wing of a major NBA coach and starting for a high school powerhouse, she appeared on UCLA’s radar.
She’s now one course shy of a Bachelor’s degree and is finishing as the Bruins’ fourth-leading scorer.
Fields’ mother said her daughter learned the value of hard work.
“She really wasn’t coddled,” she said.
“I think that’s where Nirra said ‘listen, if I need to do something, or be someone, I really have to work.'”