Cameron Brink shares post-surgery photo alongside longtime boyfriend (and dog) after LA Sparks rookie’s season-ending knee injury

Cameron Brink is officially on the mend.

The injured Los Angeles Sparks rookie shared a post-surgery photo on Instagram after repairing the ACL in his left knee.

“So much change, yet so much joy,” the 6-foot-3 Instagram sensation wrote in the caption of the post, which also featured her longtime boyfriend, Ben Felter, and his dog, Olive.

The Sparks will have to play without Brink for the rest of the year due to her injury, which also forced her off the U.S. Olympic 3×3 team. She was replaced by Sparks teammate Dearica Hamby.

Brink met Felter while both were attending Stanford. Felter was a member of the Cardinal’s rowing team, while she was the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year and a national champion on the basketball team.

Brink continued to use crutches after the surgery while her boyfriend carried their dog, Olive.

A few months earlier, Felter revealed on Instagram that the couple had been together for three years.

“Three years together, a day to celebrate the soul that makes me whole,” he wrote in the caption of a romantic photo of the couple.

Felter has an impressive resume, according to his LinkedIn page. Most recently, he worked at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab (SAIL) after earning a Master of Science degree in his hometown of Palo Alto.

And, according to his Stanford rowing bio page, Felter is a three-time Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll selection.

The upbeat tone of the Instagram post stands in stark contrast to her injury from earlier this month.

Brink had to be helped off the court in the first quarter of the Sparks’ 79-70 loss to Connecticut on June 18. Brink played less than four minutes and fouled out before getting injured.

Once on the sidelines, the No. 2 overall draft pick limped to the locker room, but was forced to stop because of pain. Two Sparks staff members lifted Brink off her feet and carried her to the locker room.

Brink had to be helped off the field during the Sparks’ loss to Connecticut on June 18.

A few months earlier, Felter revealed on Instagram that the couple had been together for three years.

Brink included a few photos of herself with her dog, whom she named “Olive.”

“You never think it will happen to you. And despite all the hard work, sometimes it does. It’s hard to understand but I know it will only make me stronger,” Brink wrote in an Instagram post.

“I will not derail and I will continue to love this life. I am not defined by basketball, but it is something I love deeply and I will work every day to get back to it. It is not a goodbye to basketball, it’s just a see you later I’m always very grateful for your thoughts and prayers.

Brink, 22, entered the game averaging 8.1 points, 5.7 rebounds and 2.5 blocks in her first season in Los Angeles (4-11). She is tied with A’ja Wilson for the second most blocks in the WNBA.

“With the exception of the 2019 season, I’ve lost a starter to injury every year I’ve been a head coach in this league,” Curt Miller said. “You just have to have the next person’s mentality and rally around them.”

This is the second consecutive time at the Olympics that the American team will have to replace one of its original players. Katie Lou Samuelson missed the Tokyo 2021 Games after catching COVID just before the Olympics. She was replaced by Jackie Young, who helped the team win a gold medal.