Abby Meyers ’22 Is Crushing It In International Basketball

In two professional basketball seasons overseas, Abby Meyers ’22 has already won two domestic titles, one European championship, and an MVP award. Her trophies are overflowing her bookshelf. “I don’t know where to put them all,” she admitted, now back home in Bethesda, Maryland.

The 2022 Ivy League Player of the Year spent a graduate season at Maryland, where she was named second team All-Big Ten. Then the Dallas Wings selected her 11th overall in the 2023 WNBA Draft, and she ended up playing in nine games that season on short-term contracts with the Washington Mystics.

After those contracts ended, Meyers headed overseas. She hoped international basketball would help her reach her full potential on the court, as well as introduce her to different countries and cultures.

Meyers signed with the London Lions for 2023-24, joining a roster that also featured WNBA players Temi Fagbenle, Megan Gustafson, and Karlie Samuelson. Meyers averaged 10.8 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 2.1 assists in 19.6 minutes per game. The Lions won championships in the Women’s British Basketball League and the EuroCup, which is the second-highest level of European competition.

But amid financial challenges, the Lions’ ownership announced the team wouldn’t compete in Europe in 2024-25. So Meyers joined Maccabi Bnot Ashdod in Israel, where she also has citizenship. There, she faced the “good pressure” of being the go-to player, whereas in England, she was more of a role player.

In May, Ashdod won the Israeli League title, and Meyers was named league MVP after averaging 17.4 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 3.8 assists in 36.7 minutes per game.

“It seems like everything that she's touching is turning to gold,” says Shatori Walker-Kimbrough, Meyers’ former Mystics teammate and a former Ashdod player.

“I felt like I checked off every single goal of mine that I could reach in Israel,” Meyers says about the eight-month season.

She added, “It’s definitely great when you’re on a great team, you’re winning, and you love the people. So I feel like I got the best combination … the past two years professionally, and I know that it’s … rare to find. But whenever I come into a team, the first thing I try to bring is a smile and good energy.”

Tim Nodelman

In Israel, Meyers was playing against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war. Before signing with Ashdod, she talked to coaches and players in Israel about what life was like, and she says she felt safe while she was there. However, she did experience six or seven sirens signaling for people to go to the nearest bomb shelter, including once while she was trying to cook chicken.

When the season ended, Meyers’ twin sister Livy met her in Israel, and then they went to Nepal for a 12-day, roughly 100-mile hiking tour around several Himalayan mountains. The tour took them nearly 17,000 feet above sea level.

For Meyers, the highlight was a moment that felt straight out of National Geographic. While walking to a monastery, they came across dozens of yaks, including a baby that their guide estimated had been born only five minutes prior.

Meyers returned to the U.S. after the trip, and before she’d even beaten jet lag, she was back in the gym to prepare for her next overseas season, which will be with Perfumerías Avenida in Spain. Avenida competed in EuroLeague, the top European competition, last season. Meyers says she chose Avenida because she wants to keep pushing herself in top international leagues and hopefully earn another WNBA contract someday.

“One [reason] why I know that I still want to keep playing basketball professionally is because I can’t really go a week without it,” Meyers says. “I have an itch to be back on the court, have fun, and play.”