"To be one of the 11 is a huge honor and a big achievement because it is ridiculously hard to make a team this season," said Lehning, who was selected 25th overall in the 2009 WNBA Draft in April. "You get here at the start of camp and there's 14 of you, you look around and think, 'who in the world are you going to cut?'" Now the 5-foot-9 guard faces a new set of challenges rarely seen in any aspect of her basketball career — as a backup in an unfamiliar city with new teammates, a new coaching staff and a new set of responsibilities.
"It's very different," said Lehning, who opened the season on Saturday night with two rebounds in the Dream's 87-86 win over the Indiana Fever in Atlanta. "I didn't know where to go, what to do or how to get around. It was an adjustment going from Sublette to Manhattan, and then getting here andseeing the six lanes of traffic and trying to adjust to a whole new environment, has been a challenge.
Making the transition a little bit easier was having former Wildcats teammate Marlies Gipson with her during much of camp. Gipson, who earned an invite as undrafted free agent, spent two weeks the with the team before being waived on May 28 following the Dream's preseason game in which she scored five points off the bench.
"It was so nice to be able to have Marlies here at the beginning," Lehning said. "It was a level of comfort going in together.
I'm not used to the environment.
I'm not used to even being in a position like this, so for me to have Marlies... we actually grew close together." Lehning made the condensed roster of 11 over WNBA veteran Ivory Latta, who was waived this week. A year ago Latta averaged more than seven points and two assists a game for the Dream — a decision Atlanta head coach Marynell Meadors doesn't regret.
"She does a lot for her teammates," Meadors said of Lehning on Friday. "You watch her play and she sets her teammates up extremely well. She makes the right pass. She makes the right decisions." Going into the draft, the knock, if any, on Lehning was that she might have lacked the speed and quickness for the next level. Meadors hasn't seen it.
"I haven't seen it as an issue," she said. "What I have seen with her is whatever she lacks in speed, she makes up for with her court-sense... she's just a crafty little player. She just finds a way to get things done.
And that's on both ends of the court.
"I like the way she handles herself and the way she ran the team throughout college. She was high on our list during the 2009 draft, but I never dreamed that she would make it to 25.
When she was available, I said, 'we don't have a choice, it's got to be Shalee.'" At K-State Lehning accounted for 1,189 points, 914 rebounds and 800 assists as the floor leader, an All-American career that prompted her number to be raised to the rafters of Bramlage Coliseum during her senior season.
In Atlanta, though Lehning will still have the duties of running point, it will be off the bench, behind six-year veteran Nikki Teasley, who played at North Carolina.
"I'm excited for this role," Lehning said. "Every good team has players who understand their role. It doesn't matter to me how much I'm playing. I'm doing what I love and as long as my team wins and we're having fun doing it, that's what matters.
I'm all about team. Even if I can be one of those players who goes to practice every day and makes my team better, then that's my role. Or if I can come in and provide a few good minutes here and there, then that's what I'm going to do.
"A lot of good players had to sit on the bench at some point in life. Every team has to have somebody to do it, so I will do it and be there waiting for my opportunity." Meadors said Lehning will be counted on though, a lot.
"She's going to play a lot of minutes. I can tell you that," she said. "She's backing up a veteran player. I just think that I can't play Nicki for 30 or 35 minutes because she's a veteran and is going to need rest. I have no hesitation going to the bench for Shalee." Now teammates with seasoned WNBA stars Chamique Holdsclaw and Michelle Snow, Lehning said she loves the role the point guards play in the Dream offense — despite the elevated physicality and speed of the game.
"You go from high school to college and its that too," she said. "It's just so physical.
Everyone is so tough, so strong, but everyone is so quick too.
One thing this team does is put a lot of power in the point guard's hands. We're in complete charge of the offenses, we make calls and we're basically running the show." Lehning posted three assists and a steal in nine minutes during the Dream's 76-73 preseason win over the Connecticut Sun on May 27 — a moment she will never forget.
"I was awestruck for sure." She said. "I was nervous before the game, but once I ran onto the floor, all the nerves disappeared.
It was a dream come true, since I was little kid. Even if I didn't make the team, I didn't care, because I was going to enjoy this opportunity. I didn't care about minutes. I was able to get my feet wet and see what it's like in a professional game."
