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It’s one of those flawless Florida days, when the temperature is in the Goldilocks zone and the sun is cashmere soft, its hue shifting through the afternoon from lily yellow to haze gold. The glass block façade of the William H. Turner School in North Miami reflects this light in a thousand eighties-era squiggles, while the building’s pink and teal accents frame the Magic City-ness of the scene. Central in this vignette stands Satou Sabally, the 26-year-old WNBA star raised in Germany who played from 2020 to 2024 with the Dallas Wings, in a Y-3 outfit consisting of a silky black outsize jacket and roomy snap-closure trousers. Adidas’s tri-stripe trademark flanks her left leg, the high-contrast bands cutting a slope against the gridded wall behind her. (Y-3 is Adidas’s longstanding collaborative line with the Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto). Sabally is at ease, smiling between shots; the big fit, and the Floridian environs, are “definitely a vibe,” she says.
She has good reason to be happy: We’ve met just before the announcement of her new team, now confirmed to be the Phoenix Mercury. And, a week prior, Sabally signed with Adidas as their newest athlete partner.
“I could not be more honored to join the Phoenix Mercury,” says Sabally, speaking exclusively with Vogue about the news. “This is truly a legendary organization and I’m humbled to follow in the footsteps of the many iconic players that have put on the Mercury uniform. I'm so incredibly motivated by the way ownership and the entire organization invests in its players. We get to practice in the best facilities and it's clear that everyone who is a part of this team is totally committed to delivering a title to this city. I'm excited to play in front of Phoenix’s fans and do everything I can to contribute to this winning culture.” Then, she continues: “I’m joining a team where I feel like I can get better and still develop my game. I’m looking for happiness—and performance.”
Sabally, who is 6’4”, has had a remarkable career thus far. Her basketball roots go back to her childhood in Berlin. (Her mother is German, her father is Gambian, and Sabally was actually born in New York, but left the U.S. at a young age). She was first scouted as an adolescent, and by her late teens was playing for the Oregon Ducks out in the Pacific Northwest. There, she was named an All-American and won the NCAA’s Cheryl Miller Award, which is bestowed to the best Division 1 small forward in the country. Sabally would become the WNBA’s second draft pick overall in 2020, going to the Dallas Wings. She struggled with injuries early on, but hit her stride in 2023. That year, she was a WNBA All-Star Game starter and won the league’s Most Improved Player Award. Her nickname is “Unicorn,” given the rareness of her versatility. She produced all of this while also being on the German national team, and in 2024, she says her proudest moment was competing for her home country at the Paris Olympics.
“I needed surgery beforehand, and I didn’t even know if I’d be able to participate,” Sabally says of the Games. “Within five months, I just had this amazing rehab, and I was really able to lean on the people around me. Friends of mine moved to L.A. to help me do this intensive rehab for 10 weeks. It was the whole process that made it so special, getting to that moment of standing on the court in Paris.”
Community and camaraderie is important to the athlete—especially being in the States, away from most of her family, who still live in Europe. “I’m very 50/50 introvert and extrovert,” says Sabally. “That’s my assessment. I like to just sit on my couch in silence or listening to music—Quavo, Tems, and my all time favorite is Adele—but I also get my energy from my friends. They just charge me up. I don’t usually talk about basketball with them, but even if I do, I don’t know—it frees my mind. Friends make me feel like a normal person. I don’t need to be the strong personality that’s always out on the court.”
Candace Parker, the former WNBA megastar and now president of Adidas Women’s Basketball, recognizes and echoes Sabally’s sentiment. “For her, and for us, it’s about relationships,” Parker says. “Satou and I had a candid conversation early on, saying, like, yes, I’m here for you professionally, but also for you personally. And she responded to that. She said, ‘I want to lean on you for that.’ That stuck out to me.”
The Adidas link-up–athletics notwithstanding, nor the added synergy that both Sabally and the company are German–aligns with Sabally’s stylistic interests, which are prominent. In fact, over at GQ, readers once voted her as the most stylish player in the WNBA. At this point in our day, Sabally has changed from her Y-3 ensemble into earthen-gray performance gear; she’s about to film scenes for an Adidas global basketball shoot. Even with sportswear on, she carries the look with a cool candor, imbuing it with runway confidence.
“I do care about fashion,” she says. “I love a good moment. Sometimes, I like to be playing around a little bit and look a little girly. Other times I’m representing a little bit more masc. I play with it!” She calls her wardrobe her “armor,” and cites Glenn Martens’ work at Diesel as a current favorite, as well as Willy Chavarria and Fear of God. Of course, as well: “Its every athlete’s dream to have their own Adidas shoe.” (This feels very much within the realm of possibility at some point, as I sneak a glance at a brand rep who is trying to hide a grin.)
We move inside, to the school’s retro gymnasium. The same pastel paint and glass blocks are featured here, distorting the tall palm trees outside. Players including Aliyah Boston and Nneka Ogwumike—also featured in the Adidas shoot—are mingling, while crewmen move around screens and scaffolding. Professional women’s basketball has seen a major surge in popularity over the past year—think Caitlin Clark’s ascent, Angel Reese’s turning pro, and Jonquel Jones’s MVP-earning performance in at the 2024 Championships—and the energy in the room is, if placated by the Florida warmth, palpable regarding what’s to come.
“I want the WNBA to be the number one thing people tune into,” says Sabally when asked where she sees the league five years down the line. “I want for players to have generational wealth through their performances. We’re continuing to lay such a strong and important foundation for future women in this sport. I want you to see every single WNBA game on TV, and I want the access to be broader. I want it everywhere, and for that to be normalized—because that’s how high our level of play is. We’re the standard.”
Underscoring that, Sabally is vocal about combined players’ rights and advancements. She’s a Co-Chair of the WNBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
“I’m right there at the table fighting for us,” she says. “It’s really important for us players to unionize and know our power, and to also know that this can be a player’s league. Teams and organizations need to cater more to the players and really listen to their needs. And the investment has to be there; the standards have to shift.” Sabally cites certain teams not having proper training facilities, or some being penalized for certain expenses—like chartering flights—when others can’t or won’t. She wants higher thresholds to be set league-wide.
Sabally, in all of this, is primed and eager to embark on her new course with the Mercury (especially after keeping her skills sharp in Miami, where she played in Unrivaled, a new 3-on-3 basketball league founded by the players Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart). The 2025 WNBA season starts on May 16; until then, Sabally will work on finding a new house and relocating to Phoenix, her CBA responsibilities, and pre-season training.
How does she calibrate everything?
“Having grace,” she says with a soft smile. “You have to have grace with your progress.”
Sabally was styled by Natasha Hester in these film photographs.