WNBA player Isabelle Harrison is one of 11 siblings—and was thrilled to be able to play basketball with her sister in March. Harrison, 30, shared a picture of herself wearing a black one-piece workout outfit and Nikes, smiling as she flashed the peace sign. “LAST DAY, BEST DAY for @auprohoops season 3 . FINALLY ( it’s been awhile) playing basketball again alongside my sister has been one of my favorite gifts from God. MY FAMILY CAME IN FROM JERSEY TO WATCH IS PLAY!! 🥹💗I’ll always keep this memory close to my heart 💗” she captioned the post. Here’s what Harrison’s wellness routine looks like.
Harrison eliminated red meat and dairy from her diet after being diagnosed with an autoimmune issue. Many of her siblings have lupus. “I was scared because I was perfectly normal and healthy,” she told Las Vegas Review-Journal. “You change your whole lifestyle when something like that happens because it affects more than what it used to. You change a lot of your habits and stuff. I’m still learning. When I first got sick, I didn’t know if I’d be able to travel, if I’d be able to take long days and practices. It was scary, but my family was so encouraging. You can still live a normal life. You can still do the things you did before.”
Harrison loves anything to do with skincare. “My mom has taught me to do it from a very early age. She’s in her mid-60s and her skin is flawless,” she told The Next. “Thank God I got blessed with a little bit of that. Not so much. But she just taught me from an early age to take care of my skin. The first thing people see is your face. So she told me to make sure I took care of that. Skincare is important for black women because I often think that black women don’t really have products for their skin.”
Harrison is excited for the future. “I’m at a space now, with opportunities off the court, that I’m able to show [my life and career are bigger than just basketball],” she told Andscape. “Basketball is always going to be my first love, no matter what. I’m slowly just trying to find that balance.”
Harrison is passionate about social justice issues. “I’ve been posting and sharing information on my platform that a lot of people didn’t expect me to do because of my platform, which is so crazy to me,” she told The Next. “I’ve had people reach out to me and say they are glad I was saying something (about the racial unrest) which blows my mind why I wouldn’t but I guess there’s situations where sometimes they feel like high profile people, players, celebrities, athletes, whatever don’t use their platform to speak about real things. I just never wanted to be in that category.”
Harrison was inspired to play by her older brother. “I was a really active kid, but I stayed with basketball because my older brother [David Harrison] played in the NBA,” she told Office Magazine. “And I was obsessed with him. Wherever he was going, I wanted to be there. When he would be in the news or stuff in Nashville I was like, he is my first hero. Before I really got into women’s basketball, I saw this first example from my family.”