Katie Bussey’s global basketball journey has taken her from Alamosa, Colorado to Bozeman, Montana, from Amsterdam to Stockholm and even to Yekaterinburg, Russia. All along the way, she has dedicated herself to adapting to her surroundings and diversifying herself culturally while never losing her love of the game.
The former Montana State star who finished her career as the Big Sky Conference’s all-time leader in made 3-pointers has used basketball to travel the globe. The experience has peaked recently as her Lulea Basket Club recently won its third straight Swedish National Championships. Basketball has also led the Centennial State native to competitions that include some of the greatest players in the world.
Last winter, Lulea played in the Euro Cup, an experience that let Bussey see Russia, Turkey, Hungary and the Czech Republic. In preparation for the international competition, Lulea Basket played an exhibition game in Yekaterinburg, the home of the famed women’s basketball team UMMC Ekaterinburg. Last season’s Russian and Euroleague champions feature some of the game’s greatest players, both past and present. Former UConn star Diana Taurasi and former Baylor center Brittney Griner are currently staring for the Russian club. Other women’s basketball legends like Cappie Pondexter, Candace Parker and Sue Bird have played for Ekaterinburg in the past.
“We lost our first exhibition so we didn’t get to play against them but we got to watch their second game, which was amazing,” Bussey said in an interview earlier this month. “Those are pretty much the best players in the world playing there. It was cool to see where they play and how they were treated by fans and the type of environment they get to play in is pretty awesome. We didn’t really get to talk to them either but they get personal drivers, every player. Their apartments are crazy. It’s a different world.”
It is certainly a different world, even in comparison to professional basketball in America. The WNBA’s league maximum salary is $107,000. Taurasi makes $1.5 million annually for UMMC Ekaterinburg. After leading the Phoenix Mercury to the 2014 WNBA title, Taurasi’s Russian club paid her to skip the 2015 WNBA season.
While Bussey’s wealth and prestige might not compare to the superstars she observed during her travels last season, she has attained a level of fame and security in her three years in Sweden. In her first professional season in the spring of 2013, Bussey led the ProBuild Lions to the national championship of the Netherlands. She signed with Lulea Basket the following year and has since reached the point where basketball is her full-time job. She lives just outside Amsterdam in the off-season, an element that makes training a challenge but she is just happy to have basketball as her sole occupation.
Former MSU guard Katie Bussey
“It’s more teams and just a more professional setting,” Bussey said. “In Sweden, we have the best club there and they can afford to pay us. We have nine full-time basketball players, so there were nine of us who could practice twice a day. We don’t have to work or do anything else. In Holland, I was the only one who was paid full time. The rest of the team had to have a job full time or they study. Sweden is just more professional.”
During her career at Montana State, Bussey set numerous records on her way to three All-Big Sky honors and an All-America nod her senior season. During that senior year in 2012, she poured in a MSU and Big Sky Conference record 41 points at Idaho State. In 2012, Bussey drilled 72 3-pointers, giving her 254 in her career, 16 more than the record set by Chelsey Warburton of Weber State. Bussey finished her career with 1,710 points, the second-most in MSU history.
The transition from Montana State to Holland was a stark one at first for Bussey.
“Coming from college to Holland, it is a different mentality toward sports,” Bussey said. “In college, your practices are very intense and controlled and you practice every day, you weight train, you have treatment available. Here, all of the fitness and weight training, I did on my own by myself. We only practiced four times a week to play a game once a week. That was very different and I had a lot of free time. Going from college, where you have a planner that has every hour of the day filled pretty much to coming here, you have every hour of the day free. That was a very big transition for me from the first year.”
During her first season of pro ball in Holland, Bussey paced the Lions to a 27-10 overall mark, while averaging 21 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.5 steals per game. In playoff action, the native of Alamosa, Colo., averaged 19.9 points, 5.6 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.7 steals, en route to being named Player of the Year, Guard of the Year and Important Player of the Year.
Last season in Sweden, Bussey averaged 13.9 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.4 steals in 29.1 minutes per game. She shot 46.3 percent from beyond the arc and made almost three 3-point shots per contest.
“In the first season, it was a little tough because a lot of it was one-on-one and that was something I wasn’t really used to,” Bussey said. “Coming from college, I was pretty much just a shooter. I had to be a little bit more creative playing one-on-one and understanding when I had mismatches. In Sweden, I just had a higher level of teammates too and players who have played at a very high level so we could do more ball screen action. I play with players who are smart. That transition from Holland to Sweden was much different and a lot more fun because I got to play more of the game that I enjoy, which is more of a team game.”
Bussey is the only American on her team but she has found the transition to European life to be interesting and easy. She has strived to “have the ability to adapt to new cultures and to understand more than just the American way.” She has learned to speak a bit of Dutch and the various dialects used in the region but hasn’t immersed herself completely in learning a new language, although her English now has a tint of a Scandinavian accent to it.
Former MSU guard Katie Bussey
“Being able to immerse yourself in the culture, it helps the fans connect more with us,” Bussey said. “I had a lot of fans in Sweden who really want me to go back. It’s cool to think you have fans. It makes the experience more worthwhile for sure.”
“Katie has really jumped off because she has the perfect personality for an import player to really make an impact in a club program,” said Montana State head coach Tricia Binford, a former WNBA and Australian professional player who keeps up with Bussey mainly using social media and texting. “Katie is a great example. You couldn’t ask for better role models for young girls as far as what you are capable of if you put your passion into something.”
During her time in Bozeman, Binford always raved about Bussey’s love of the game. Now that one of her most successful pupils is thriving on a professional level, Binford still sees the fire inside of Bussey.
“As far as every kid I’ve ever coached in this program, I don’t know if anyone can live up to Katie’s passion for the game,” Binford said. “Katie is absolutely 100 percent, if you are to describe a true love of the game, she has it. That’s probably why Katie and I connected so well as player and coach.
“She’s a gamer. She’s a kid who keeps getting better and better.I don’t know where I heard this myth or if this is even a myth but I keep hearing you don’t hit your peak performance until you are 28 for women (Bussey is 26). I felt like when I played, that’s really where I hit my best performance. I really feel like Katie is on the tip of the iceberg.”
While abroad, Bussey has learned to appreciate the little things, like avoiding the materialistic desire that often consume Americans to a love of riding her bike, a former of transportation she says dominates Holland. Bussey only makes it home to Colorado twice a year at the most. Being so far away from her family has taught her to cherish her time with them.
At times, Bussey says she misses America, particularly Colorado and Montana. In the off-season, Bussey signed a one-year deal to stay with Lulea Basket to much fanfare of the fan base. She has not put a definitive timeline on her basketball career, but Bussey says she is satisfied for now continuing her global journey that has provided such worldly experiences already.
“At this point, I just take it year by year,” Bussey said. “I will never sign a contract for longer than one season. I don’t know how I’m going to feel or think about it by the end of every season. For now, I plan to keep playing because I don’t think I’ve reached the highest level of basketball yet. I just turned 26 so I can see myself playing until at least 30.
“It’s something that I am valuing the opportunity I still have to play because I know it’s not for a lot of people a chance they get. I’m enjoying it and taking it year by year and seeing what comes next.”
Photos courtesy of Montana State Athletics. All Rights Reserved.
