Cameron Brink’s WNBA Aspirations Started With Her Mom’s Nike Career

While working as a product line manager at the apparel company, her mother introduced her to the league and its biggest names.

Cameron Brink / Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

Cameron Brink is quick to credit her parents—at least in part—with her love for and dedication to basketball. In a conversation with SI Lifestyle last fall, the former Stanford standout attributed her parents’ college basketball careers with introducing her to the sport. And though she initially tried to resist her destiny, their past and passion eventually brought her around.

It was her mom, too, who really introduced her to the WNBA. As a product line manager at Nike, Michelle Bain-Brink “worked on Dawn Staley’s signature shoe and worked with Tamika Catchings and Jenn Rizzotti,” Brink revealed during a press conference at the 2024 WNBA Draft.

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Hearing their names and subsequently following their careers in the league gave the Los Angeles Sparks player “so much admiration for these women,” she stated. It was an appreciation that Brink never saw “reciprocated by the public” or in the media.

She couldn’t understand it. “There were a lot of times where I was just dumbfounded by the negativity,” she said of the narratives surrounding the WNBA and its players when she was growing up.

Now, in 2024, she sees that things are starting to change. As she heads to the WNBA for her rookie season, Brink has noticed “a positive switch” in the dialogue. With names like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and, of course, her own dominating sports media in a way that women’s names rarely have, the tides definitely seem to be turning. The New Jersey native just hopes that “we can keep that momentum going.”