Kate Martin embraces her new role — role player — with the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces

When Kate Martin stepped foot in the Las Vegas Aces practice facility, the veterans had a simple message:

Just be yourself.

“They said, ‘You were drafted here for a reason. You don’t have to be anybody else, you don’t have to show out,’” Martin said in a zoom call Monday, after it was announced she had made the final 12-player roster with the two-time defending WNBA champions.

“They said, ‘Control the controllables. Attitude and effort, every day.’”

The Aces open regular-season play Tuesday — 9 p.m. (CT), ESPN — at home against the Phoenix Mercury, and Martin will be a part of it.

She understands her role, and she embraces it.

“There are amazing players, star players, Olympic players on this roster,” Martin said. “My role is to be a role player, someone who is going to support her teammates every day.”

That’s part of being Kate Martin. Being the consummate teammate.

She was cool with being the second, third, fourth option during her collegiate career at the University of Iowa. She had no issue with allowing Caitlin Clark to be the alpha female.

Martin was part of the Iowa program for six seasons (2018-24). She redshirted the 2018-19 season because of a knee injury, then opted for an extra season of eligibility allowed by the NCAA due to COVID-19.

In 2023 and 2024, Martin was a starter on the Hawkeyes’ NCAA national runner-up squads.

The national final was April 7. The WNBA Draft was eight days later. Martin was projected as a possible third-round pick and a long shot to make the roster.

Instead, the Aces plucked her up midway through Round 2. And she stuck.

Stuck like glue, you could say.

“My motivation was coming in, working hard every day. Once I stepped in the facility, I knew there were great people, a championship culture,” Martin said. “From that moment on, I wanted to be a part of this. I was going to give myself the best opportunity to make the final roster.”

She learned her fate last week.

“Coach (Becky) Hammon called me into her office. They had a secret camera there, and I didn’t know it,” Martin said.

“She had a stern look. I was shaking in my boots. She told me not to be nervous. I cried, I was so excited. When you come to a team like this, back-to-back world champions, you don’t know what your odds are going to be, so I was really proud of myself.”

Back here in Iowa, everybody’s eyes and ears are tuned into the Indiana Fever, who selected Clark as the top pick in the Draft.

The Aces, meanwhile, are a true Iowa melting pot.

There’s Kiah Stokes, former Linn-Mar prep, now in her ninth year in the league. And there’s Megan Gustafson, former Hawkeye and 2019 national player of the year.

Gustafson and Martin spent one year together at Iowa, when the former was leading the Hawkeyes to the Elite Eight and the latter was rehabbing.

“It’s been unreal having Megan here,” Martin said. “She’s been through the highs and lows throughout her professional career, and she has come out on the other side, so her perspective is amazing to me.

“To bounce things off of her ... if I need help with a play, if maybe I’m having a bad practice ... she’s been through it.”

Now, Martin’s going through it.

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“It’s definitely a transition,” she said. “These are grown women. The physicality and speed of the game, everybody is faster and stronger.

“I feel lucky, extremely excited, to get to continue playing the game that I love.”

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com