SAN FRANCISCO — Kayla Thornton is not one to brag about individual honors.
The 32-year old Valkyries forward and El Paso native carries herself with a laid back, southern humbleness that keeps the focus on her team rather than herself.
But when she learned she was going to be an All-Star for the first time in her 10th WNBA season, she couldn’t help but reflect on how far she’s come.
“It’s a blessing,” Thornton told the Bay Area News Group. “I never really thought about being an All-Star, but I always tell people that the credit always goes out to my teammates and my coaches. To be an All-Star for the first time is a great honor and I’m happy to be representing the Valkyries.”
When Thornton steps onto the court at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on Saturday she will be representing a team picked by superstar Caitlin Clark. The All-Star game tips off at 5:30 p.m. and will be broadcast on ABC.
Thornton is the seventh undrafted player to make the All-Star game since the league added the midseason showcase in 1999 and first player from an expansion team to be invited since 2006.
Despite being two games under .500, the Valkyries have become one of the league’s best stories this season. The expansion team has exceeded expectations and is in contention to make the playoffs at the halfway point largely due to Thornton’s career year.
The 6-foot-2 Thornton has started all 22 games for the Valkyries, averaging 14 points and seven rebounds. She leads the Valkyries in double-doubles with four and is often tasked with guarding the opposing team’s best player.
Prior to this year, Thornton was known as a high-energy role player that could do a bit of everything. She thrived in that role with the last season, helping the New York Liberty capture the title.
Thornton has made the biggest leap of her career since coming out of Texas El-Paso in 2014 as she has become the Valkyries’ go-to scoring option and unquestioned leader in the locker room.
“When you come from a small place like El Paso, things like this are such a blessing,” Thornton said. “It has a special place in my heart because it means you can do anything. You don’t have to be from some of the bigger schools, but it just means it takes a lot of preparation and hard work.”
Despite thriving at Irvin High School in El Paso, Thornton was overlooked by every four-year school but one.
Her competitive spirit caught the eye of UTEP coach Keith Adams, who convinced Thornton that basketball was her future even though she also starred in track and field.
Thornton signed with UTEP to play basketball.
“I was watching her with her high school team and she went up and grabbed a rebound and I could hear her hands pop on the ball, like it was just this aggressive, strong, great rebound,” Adams told the Bay Area News Group. “From there I just went, ‘Oh gosh, I gotta get this girl.’”
Even after a storied career at UTEP, Thornton went undrafted in 2014. She signed with the Washington Mystics as a free agent only to get waived a day before the season started.
But it was moments like those that helped shape Thornton’s career.
“Her resilience in this thing has been amazing,” Adams said. “She’s a tough girl. She’s a resilient girl and her love for the game makes her unstoppable. She just keeps going.”
In stints with Washington, Dallas and New York, Thornton established herself as an all-around player. She made a name for herself as someone who brings instant energy whenever she checks into a game.
Thornton was a vital piece to the Liberty’s championship run as a shooter and rebounder off the bench. She led the Liberty’s second unit, averaging 5.5 points and 2.6 rebounds per game while playing behind perennial All-Star Breanna Stewart.
“One thing I learned being in New York last year, having so many vets and having superstars and great players on our team, we were all selfless,” Thornton said before the season. “That’s how we were able to win a championship.
“I’ll always stay ready, so I don’t have to get ready. … That mentality, it all just worked out for me in the end.”
Before the season, there were questions around who would fill the role as the Valkyries’ go-to player. Golden State entered the season with a team full of solid role players and young prospects, but no bonafide star.
It was clear after the first few games that Thornton was going to take on the mantle of being the Valkyries’ lead player.
After struggling in the Valkyries’ season opener against the Los Angeles Sparks on May 16, Thornton scored in double figures in her next 14 games.
Her breakout performance came against the Seattle Storm, when she dropped 22 points and hauled in 12 rebounds to lead the Valkyries to a decisive win. Against Chicago Sky star Angel Reese, Thornton had a career game as she scored 29 points on 8-of-15 shooting, including 4-of-7 from beyond the 3-point arc.
“What I love from KT is that she’s just being herself,” Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase said. “Her work ethic is one of the top in the league. She comes super early to games and practices, which means she’s sacrificing a lot of time with family and friends to be intentional about how she prepares. That’s something I see consistently.”
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Before this year, Thornton was hardly a focus on any team’s scouting report. But with every game, opposing coaching staffs have actively tried to stifle Thornton as the Valkyries are 8-2 when she scores at least 15 points.
“She was on a team that had a lot of firepower in New York. She was playing behind Breanna Stewart and they had a really good team,” Seattle coach Noelle Quinn said. “You think about the opportunity, not that she wasn’t capable of doing that in those other stops, but the frame of mind she’s in and the minutes she has to play with her team can boost her confidence.
“She’s got them playing really good basketball.”
Regardless of how the rest of Thornton’s career plays out, she’ll be forever etched in the Valkyries’ record books.
She scored the first basket in franchise history when she hit a turnaround jumper at the top of the key over Sparks star Kelsey Plum in the season opener. She was the franchise’s first player to record a double-double and win Western Conference player of the week.
And on Saturday, she’ll be the first to represent the Valkyries at an All-Star game.