Tina Charles, WNBA’s career rebound and field goal leader, retires after 14 seasons
In late March, Tina Charles traveled to China to play in a best-of-five sequence with Henan Phoenix, a Chinese girls’s basketball membership seeking to transfer into its league’s high tier. Through 4 video games, Charles, 37, averaged 22 factors and eight boards whereas enjoying 29 minutes a recreation. Henan gained, and Charles celebrated with teammates earlier than boarding a flight again to New York.
Through the festivities, merriment and jet lag, Charles additionally felt one thing completely different — a real sense of readability.
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She had gone into that decisive Game 4 understanding it could possibly be her final basketball recreation she performed. She placed on and took off her uniform that day understanding it could possibly be the ultimate time she ever did that. Ultimately, it was.
After a storied career that included 14 seasons within the WNBA, two nationwide championships at UConn, three Olympic gold medals and lots of of video games abroad, Charles’ remaining factors got here in a small gymnasium in central China.
Charles advised TheAthletic she has retired from skilled basketball and is at peace with transferring away from the hardwood.
“I’m very grateful for the career that I’ve been able to have, the experiences I was able to have,” Charles mentioned. “I gave everything to this game, and the game gave me everything that I needed to become who I am. So now, it’s just time to apply that same standard of what I held myself to on the court to what’s next.”
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Charles is taken into account one of many WNBA’s silent megastars, essentially the most gifted participant who by no means gained a WNBA title. She leaves as one of many preeminent — and one of many final — back-to-the-basketball posts who additionally revolutionized her personal recreation, increasing her vary to the 3-point line after making an attempt simply 17 3s by way of the primary six seasons of her career.
She retires atop the WNBA leaderboard in career rebounds (4,262) and field objectives made (3,364), and second in factors scored (8,396). Charles, an eight-time All-Star who’s undoubtedly headed to the Hall of Fame sometime, led the league in scoring twice throughout his career and was named the 2012 MVP. She was most just lately a first-team all-league participant in 2017. She was nonetheless thought of a free-agent possibility throughout this offseason cycle, though the chance of being a right away influence participant has diminished.
Charles was the No. 1 decide within the 2010 WNBA Draft, after main UConn to NCAA Tournament titles in 2009 and 2010 to cap undefeated seasons. In 2010, as a rookie with the Connecticut Sunshe led them in factors and rebounds. She spent 4 seasons there earlier than transferring to the New York Libertyher hometown staff, in 2014. In 2020, New York traded Charles to the Washington Mysticsand she then journeyed to 4 groups throughout 5 seasons, culminating with a return to the Sun final season.
It was a brand new position for her, and finally, a clarifying season. As she did as a rookie with the Sun, she led Connecticut in scoring final season. But in 2025, her place and the house she occupied had modified.
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“Playing around the younger players gave me perspective,” mentioned Charles, who averaged 17.8 factors and 9 rebounds per recreation throughout her WNBA career. “They pushed me in a different way. It wasn’t just about competing, it was about adapting and learning and understanding where I fit in a new version of the game. It’s like they brought the energy, I brought the experience, and somewhere in that I was able to gain clarity. It’s just a full circle moment — you remember when you were in their shoes, when you were them, and you recognize when it’s their time to grow into the space you once held.”
The ideas of retirement started to final season for Charles. She nonetheless opted to play in Athletes Unlimited this previous offseason and journey to China for the sequence with Henan. Even in July, on an episode of Sue Bird’s podcast, Charles mentioned, although with fun, that she thought of retirement “every day.”
“When you do the things that nobody sees, you’re going in to go work out, to strengthen your body and do all those little things — that started to escape me. I always showed up, but just the intention and why I’m doing it, it started to feel like work versus like what it used to,” Charles advised TheAthletic. “Once that started creeping in, that’s when I knew, like, all right, I’ll see if I want to give this a go this summer.”
But after that journey to China, Charles knew it was the correct time to retire. Charles — who was born and raised in Queens and attended Christ the King Regional High School — will proceed to reside in New York whereas bouncing between residence bases in Connecticut and Jamaica, the place she feels a deep connection to her mom’s birthplace.
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Charles is presently incomes her grasp’s diploma in sports activities administration at UConn, and sees herself presumably working in a entrance workplace of the WNBA or NBA, or for a university staff. This previous semester, she labored as a graduate assistant for UConn athletics’ chief working officer, studying about income share, title, picture and likeness, scheduling and operations.
Charles has additionally based and owns 78 Brewing Co., named for the Huskies’ 78-game win streak throughout his junior and senior seasons, becoming a member of lower than one % of Black-owned American breweries. She will even proceed her involvement with Hopey’s Heart Foundation, a non-profit she based in 2013 that has positioned greater than 500 free automated exterior defibrillators (AEDs) in faculties and communities.
“I’ve always had an entrepreneurship spirit. I’ve always had the mindset, and this chapter allows me to grow more into it,” Charles mentioned. “I’ve never wanted to stay in one version of myself.”
Charles mentioned she’s wanting ahead to this subsequent stage of her career and life. After 20 years — between the WNBA, abroad play and UConn — of year-round basketball, she’s excited to mirror on her career and spend time together with her household and buddies.
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The WNBA Charles leaves is way completely different from the one she joined in 2010. She earned a rookie wage of $45,827. The No. 1 decide this season, fellow UConn alum Azzi Fudd, will earn $500,000. The WNBA’s development, represented by its groundbreaking collective bargaining agreementhas been vital as salaries, advantages, franchise valuations and tv offers have skyrocketed. Although Charles finally will not be part of this subsequent iteration of the league, she’s pleased with the half she performed in getting girls’s basketball thus far.
“If I’ve done anything, I hope it’s that I made the path a little clearer and a little wider for the next generation,” Charles mentioned. “Just having a tiny thing to do with that since entering the league in 2010 — making the league more exciting, expanding players’ minds to what they should be doing actively while playing off the court, and how to use the platform of the WNBA to elevate their beliefs and their dreams and their business aspirations; how to impact someone with just your kindness and just with your work. So, I think for me, that’s what legacy is.”
This article initially appeared in TheAthletic.
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