Natasha Mack already knows she’s going to cry when she hears her name called in Thursday night’s WNBA Draft.

It will be a dream come true for the girl who wrote in the third grade: “I want to be a famous basketball player.”

“I’m so excited. This is my dream,” says Mack. “I’ve dreamed of this since I was in the third grade. It still feels unreal that this is really happening.”

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But it’s also a dream she almost threw away.

“In high school I gave up on it a little bit,” Mack says. “I let other people get in my head. I had someone very, very close to me get in my head as well, telling me I should do this, I should do that: ‘Basketball is not going to take you anywhere.’

“So, I started to believe it, and that played a big factor in my life.”

A huge factor, in fact. One that took her on a journey from college to working in a poultry plant to junior college star to a standout at Oklahoma State to a top WNBA prospect. The Athletic’s Chantel Jennings has predicted Mack will go early in the first round.

It’s a journey that has been filled with ups and downs, highs and lows and life lessons that now — on the other side of it all — she fully embraces.

“My journey brought out me — the real me — the person I was meant to be,” Mack says. “Once you cut the dead weight, you start being happy and living for you.”

After a successful high school career in her native Lufkin, Texas, Mack, a four-star prospect with plenty of suitors, chose to play at Houston.

It turned out to be a short-lived experience. Growing tensions at home, friends in her ear and a burned-out feeling from playing basketball around the clock all contributed to Mack pushing pause on the sport she had played since she was 3.

“I was thinking I was done. I didn’t have the love for it. I didn’t feel it,” Mack says.

So she walked away from basketball and got a job at a Pilgrim’s Pride chicken warehouse plant back home. She would wake up and spend her days shearing the wings off of chicken. A serious detour from basketball stardom.

“When I first arrived — the smell is awful — when you drive up, you’re like, ‘Ooh. I know I’m here from the smell.’ It was just … ugh,” Mack says. “The process was long, cold … my feet would be moist and wet.”

Mack thought she would blend into the background, but her 6-foot-4 height wouldn’t allow it. Her co-workers mentioned it often and peppered her with questions: “You’re so tall. You don’t play basketball?”

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Mack’s response: “No. It’s not me.” They encouraged her: “You can get back in. It’s not too late.”

“I was like, nah,” Mack says. “I was just there, day by day, living and going through the motions. Sometimes I would go to a park and play pickup ball, but it wasn’t the same.”

Until she met coach Randy McKelvey of the Angelina College Lady Runners, a small community college in Lufkin. Mack would attend the games and was spotted by McKelvey.

“He hit me up about playing ball, but at first I said no, I don’t want to do it,” Mack says. “But then that same night I was like, ‘Do I really want to be in this plant forever when I could be doing something I love all over again and also get an education while I’m doing it?'”

So she hit him back and let him know she was ready to sign. “That same day he pulled up to my job, and on my break, I signed my letter to play. In my chicken coat, boots and all.”

Challenges at home during her high school years resulted in Mack moving in with her grandmother and not speaking with her mom, Bonnie Lee, for two years. Reconciliation began when Lee texted her daughter in 2017 to tell her she was getting remarried.

“I reached out to invite her to my wedding. I was scared. I didn’t know if she would respond,” Lee says. “I was always trying to fix everything, and I was like, ‘Lord, what did I do wrong as her mom?’ I went to church and said, ‘I give up.’ The pastor said, ‘No, you can’t give up.’

“So I just gave it to God, and He worked it out.”

Mack responded, “I’ll be there.”

The two mended their relationship, with Lee helping Mack prepare to return to basketball. “She said, ‘Mom, I signed a scholarship to play at AC,’ and it blew my mind,” Lee says. Mack asked to move back home, and Lee said yes: “As long as you are doing positive things, I will sacrifice, I will help, I will go broke for you.”

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Mack returned to basketball and started herself on the path to the first round. She left Angelina College as the program’s all-time leading scorer and rebounder, and during her sophomore year — averaging 24 points and 11.6 rebounds per game — helped lead the school to the NJCAA National Tournament for the first time in program history.

Oklahoma State University and the national spotlight soon followed.

The Mack Attack hit college basketball, and her defensive skills shined brightly night after night and helped OSU to a 19-9 record and the second round of the NCAA Tournament this season. In addition to the WBCA NCAA Division I Defensive Player of the Year Award, she was also named the Big 12 defensive player of the year and was a unanimous Big 12 All-Defensive Team and first-team all-league selection. Her 112 blocks (4.0 per game) led the country and broke her own single-season school record. Her 9.2 defensive rebounds were fourth in the country, and she was second nationally with 19 double-doubles.

Mack was also a finalist for the Katrina McClain Award, which is given to the nation’s top power forward, and a third-team All-American by The Athletic.

“This season really meant a lot to me,” Mack says. “The success, the chemistry, the love we all have for each other. Through the ups and downs, when people doubted us, we took it to heart. We were very competitive and did our best. My success is my team’s success. They were with me all the way.”

Coach Jim Littell calls Mack a “generational player. I’ve had people ask how I will replace her. You don’t replace someone like Tash. She’s a huge impact player on and off the floor. She’s an incredible young lady. She comes into the gym every day with a smile on her face. This is year 44 for me, and I don’t think I’ve ever coached a better teammate than Tash. She was incredible with her teammates and always deferred talking about herself and instead mentioned her teammates.”

As she waits to hear her name called Thursday night, Mack credits her mother for her sacrifices and struggles and can’t help but look back over her journey and the lessons learned.

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“My journey — just the whole thing — I learned a great deal from that. I came a long way from immaturity to maturity,” Mack says. “I made that change, that full 360-degree change, in everything. Now I’m trying to be the best person I can be, the best teammate. Anything coaches ask me to do I try to do.

“It’s a learning process. I don’t regret anything from that. I learn not to let anyone else control you or put their limits on you.”

And that old chicken plant?

When Mack is home, like she is this week, awaiting draft night, she drives past it and reminisces.

“I drive by like, wow, this was really me, my head down, just going day in and day out,” she says. “It’s good to look back and see how far you came.”

(Top photo: Sue Ogrocki / Associated Press)

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