Aussie Watch: Opal 'closes chapter' on WNBA career

Bec Allen has enjoyed great success during her hoops career, both in Australia and abroad.

From starting in the WNBL with Dandenong in 2010-11, Allen, who attended the Australian Institute from 2010-2012, went on to chalk up 103 games across seven seasons with the Pumas, Bulleen, Melbourne and South East Queensland.

During this time, Allen made her WNBA debut with the New York Liberty during the 2015 campaign.

This was the first of 11 incredible seasons Allen spent in the WNBA, with eight, including the current season, coming with the Liberty.

As well as this, the now 33-year-old spent one season each with Connecticut, Phoenix and Chicago, to amass 289 games (and counting).

But her time in the United States is coming to an end, with the Nunawading junior recently announcing that the 2026 WNBA season would be her last.

"I just feel like this is my moment of closing a beautiful chapter," Allen said via the Under the Spotlight podcast.

"I'd like to close everything at once, when I am done.

"That's me sort of making that decision [to retire from the WNBA] and having that peace within it as well.

"For me, it's nice to know and feel peace with the decision of it."

As decorated as her career has been, including winning one silver and two bronze FIBA World Cup medals with the Opals, it has been one of adversity and resilience.

This included season-ending right knee cartilage injury in 2015 with New York, rib fractures and a partial lung collapse at the 2022 World Cup and a hamstring injury that ruled her out of the 2024 Olympic Games and impacted her WNBA campaign with Phoenix.

Allen also recently dealt with a broken nose but continued to play for New York by wearing a clear face mask, highlighting her strength and toughness.

Throughout all this, Allen, who helped the Liberty win the 2026 WNBA Commissioner's Cup, has developed mechanisms to get through anything life threw at her.

"For me, it's [been about] making sure that you always find joy within it. That's actually the number one thing because the minute you lose that, it becomes really hard," she said.

"It becomes too much of a grind and then you question, why am I even doing it?

"You are going to go through those ebbs and flows, and there's gonna be so many highs, there's going to be lows, and sometimes the lows do really outweigh the highs in different moments, but it's like, why am I doing it and why was it fun?

"Finding that fun side, and finding that joy within it [are important]. The joy changes too for whatever it may be in that moment.

"Whether it's a part of a rehab, [and you weigh up] what are the good moments from that?

"It doesn't necessarily mean the workouts you are doing specifically, it can be what you're doing away from it too.

"That joy and balance is everything. It's important, not just in sport, but also in life.

"That's why studies have been important to me, my friendships, my family, good food and basketball, and really good coffee. That's been my balance.

"When you realise it, life is pretty simple in that way, and I think we overcomplicate it in so many ways."

During her career, Allen has also spent time in Slovakia (Good Angels Košice), France (ASVEL Féminin), Poland (Arka Gdynia), Spain (Valencia) and Turkey (Fenerbahçe).