Basketball player Mackenzie Holmes of Gorham signs one of the bobbleheads that were given away Thursday at Hadlock Field, where the Sea Dogs were playing Somerset. Drew Bonifant photo

Mackenzie Holmes has played in front of sellout crowds, on televised broadcasts, and while being the subject of national media attention.

But as she signed autographs for fans – and a bobblehead of her likeness – at Hadlock Field, the Gorham native and WNBA player said fame still takes her by surprise.

Holmes was the featured guest Thursday during the Portland Sea Dogs’ “Women in Sports Night.” She gave a Q&A for fans and threw out the first pitch, while the first 1,000 fans were treated to a bobblehead of Holmes in her No. 5 Gorham High School uniform.

It was the latest Maine return for the Indiana University star and Seattle Storm draftee, who in the course of her basketball career has evolved into a celebrity back home.

“It’s unreal,” she said. “It’s very special, especially being that kid that grew up going to Sea Dogs games. … I wasn’t even expecting that many people at the panel either. Small things like that, they mean so much to me. I couldn’t have dreamt it in my wildest dreams.”

Wearing a personalized Sea Dogs No. 54 jersey – her number at Indiana – Holmes smiled when asked what she thought of the bobblehead’s accuracy.

“I think it looks good,” she said. “They ran a couple of dry runs by me at first, and there were a couple of things that I was like ‘Can we change this,’ and they were very understanding.”

There was one question along the way with that Holmes wrestled.

“I couldn’t figure out if I wanted my hair up or down. That was really the biggest thing,” she said. “But I like it.”

Holmes fielded and answered questions about her past, present and future in the sport. She’s three months removed from surgery on her left knee, which forced her to miss games on and off during her college career, as well as the entire 2024 WNBA season.

She declined to go into specifics about her injury or surgery, but said the recovery is going well, and that she’s been in touch with the Storm about her progress.

“This is a pretty unique surgery, there’s really no timetable for me. There’s like a range. Hopefully by month eight or nine, I’ll be cleared to start contact sports again,” she said. “That’ll put me at January, which gives me a lot of time (for the 2025 season).

“Hopefully, if things go as planned, that’s the timetable I’m looking at. I’m just trying to take it day by day, because it’s a very slow process right now. I can’t run or jump for another three months.”

Holmes said it’s the longest she’s gone without being able to play basketball. Filling time has been a challenge.

“I do a lot of stationary biking, a lot of ball handling, a lot of form shooting,” she said. “I’ve started reading this summer, I tried to pick up crocheting. It did not go well at all, I quit after about a week. … Watching movies, literally anything I can think of.”

Still, she sees a bright side.

“I think it’s been good for me,” Holmes said. “I’ve always been on the go, so just to kind of have some time being stationary and a little bit stagnant, I don’t think is the worst thing in the world for me.”

Holmes announced in April, after her college season ended and before the WNBA Draft, that she would get surgery. She was aware that it could hurt her draft prospects, but wanted to be straightforward with suitors.

“It wasn’t easy at all, making that decision,” she said. “The last thing I want to do is get drafted by a team and be like ‘By the way, I’m not going to be around this season.’ … I wanted to be as transparent as possible, and hopefully a team would honor that.”

The Storm did, taking her in the third round with the 26th overall pick.

“Everyone asked me after the draft, ‘Did you know (you’d be taken)?'” she said. “I found out when everybody else found out, when it popped up on the bottom of my screen during a commercial break.”

But she was excited by the news. And though her pro debut has had to wait, that excitement hasn’t faded.

“It was a dream come true,” she said. “I visited Seattle back in May before my surgery, and Jewell Loyd, Skylar Diggins, Nneka Ogwumike were all in the locker room, and I was like ‘Wait a second.’ That’s kind of when it set in for me.

“And then they played the Phoenix Mercury, so I saw Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner and all these people. I’m like ‘Holy crap. I’m going to be playing against these people.'”

When she makes her return, she’ll enter a league that has been riding a wave of popularity.

“It’s a really exciting time to be a women’s basketball player, or just a female athlete in general,” she said. “Playing in the WNBA has always been a dream, no matter what the popularity of it looked like. If I get that opportunity next year, I’ll be so grateful.”