Opal on why 'it means everything' to be glittering Jewel

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Australian Opals point guard Steph Reid has revealed that “it means everything” to be Tasmania’s Jewel in the Crown of the expansion WNBL franchise’s first season.

Reid, 30, started for the Opals in their injury-riddled 89-66 quarter-final loss to Spain at the 2026 FIBA Women’s World Cup last week.

The 1.68m (5’6”) point guard was Tasmania’s first marquee signing on June 1, 2026.

"It means everything to not only just come back to Australia, but to start a franchise and be the marquee player for that franchise,” Reid told basketball.com.au in an exclusive interview.

“It's just not an opportunity that you get as a player very often.

"For them to trust me with coming in and being a leader in that environment and creating the culture of the club, it means absolutely everything, and I won't take a moment of that for granted.

"We want to win. We're not coming in just to be the new team. We want to make an impact in our first season.

"It's amazing just going to schools (in Tasmania) and seeing the engagement, and all the kids know who we are, which just for a women's basketball team in general is super rare."

The Jewels hit the floor for their first WNBL contest at the pre-season Townsville Tip-Off on Friday, September 18, 2026 against the Adelaide Lightning at 6pm at the Murray Sporting Complex.

All nine WNBL clubs will be in Townsville, but WNBA stars such as Isobel Borlase (Atlanta Dream and Bendigo Spirit), Jade Melbourne (Seattle Storm and Bendigo Spirit) and Nyadiew Puoch (Portland Fire and Canberra Capitals) will still be in the US.

Reid won a WNBL championship with the Townsville Fire in 2023 before moving to Europe to play for Sopron Basket in Hungary. She spent four years at Buffalo in NCAA Division 1 women’s basketball between 2014 and 2018.

"I'm absolutely loving (being home)” she said.

“I did very much enjoy my time overseas, but just being home closer to my family, playing this last NBL1 season with Sandringham, I've absolutely been loving life.

“I feel like at the moment I'm in the best physical and mental state that I've been in in a very long time, and I definitely put that to being home.

"Towards the end, I was in Poland and then midseason I went to China, and it was kind of around that time that I was like, maybe the WNBL is somewhere that I want to be.

"The opportunity with Tassie presented itself. It's just time for me to come home and play in another environment, a different type of challenge, a different type of excitement, but just somewhere I know I'm valued, and I can really work hard and improve my game."

Reid said Tasmanian basketball fans were more than ready for another tilt at the WNBL, 30 years after the Islanders played their last game in 1996.

"You ask who the Tasmania Jewels are and every kid in grade one puts their hand up,” Reid shared.

“And some of them go, 'Oh, it's the female JackJumpers.' I'm like, you know what? That counts. I'll take it, because we're a female basketball team, and that's frigging cool.

"The buzz is amazing, just the way that the community is getting behind us already. Already sold like 2,500 memberships.

“It's actually unreal, and I can't wait to get down there and get it underway and really grow it year by year."

Reid went into the 2026 FIBA World Cup full of optimism, while also reflecting on how she became one of the 12 best women’s basketballers in Australia.

"I probably imagined it a million times,” she revealed.

“Did I know I was going to get there? Probably not, but I've always really believed in myself, and I've almost been delusional in that belief. I think you have to be, in order to be successful, especially at 5'6".

"Was it realistic at the time? I don't know. Eighteen-year-old me didn't even have a college offer until three days before my Year 12 exams. Imagining myself going to a World Cup and being a marquee player of a WNBL franchise felt like a pretty big reach.

"I have genuinely always believed in myself, and I've worked really frigging hard to be here. It's just a testament to a long time of working really, really hard over an extremely long course of time.

"It has been one hell of a grind, so I'm definitely grateful to be where I am.

"I just hope that my message and my story can inspire young athletes that no matter when you bloom, you can achieve your goals.

“It's really frigging cool to go through everything I've been through and still be here, regardless of the pathway."