Eight times the stars of the WNBA and the Olympian triple, Tina Charles, signed a one -year agreement with the Connecticut Sun as a free agent on Sunday.
With this decision, Charles returned to the franchise which drafted his n ° 1 in total in 2010, where she spent the first four seasons of her career and won the MVP of the League in 2012.
“Today marks an incredible moment in the history of our team when we welcome one of the greatest players to have honored the WNBA again,” said Sun Managing Director Morgan Tuck, in a press release . “Tina not only helped define the success of this franchise during her first years, but she also put the bar of excellence, on and off the field. Her passion, her leadership and her dedication to the game left An incredible brand on our league, and we could not be more excited to go back to the team where it all started.
“This is a full circle moment that strengthens our foundation and inspires the next generation of players and fans. We are extremely excited for this next chapter in the history of Connecticut Sun with Tina in a solar uniform.”
Charles, a selection of nine times All-WNBA and a entirely defensive team choice three times, has an average of 17.9 points and 9.3 rebounds per match on his career. She is at the top of the league’s career rebound list with 4,014 boards and is second by scoring with 7,696 points behind the only former UCONN star, Diana Taurasi.
Twice champion in Uconn and former national player of the year, Charles is widely considered one of the best players in the history of women’s basketball. She won three Olympic gold medals in London (2012), Rio de Janeiro (2016) and Tokyo (2021) with USA Basketball and was appointed to the WNBA 25th anniversary team in 2021.
After starting his professional career in Connecticut, Charles spent his next six seasons of the WNBA with the New York Liberty before stays with the mystics of Washington, Phoenix Mercury, Seattle Storm and more recently at the Atlanta Dream in 2024.
Charles joins a Sun New-Look team who gave all his five start in all in the off-season: Brionna Jones (Atlanta) and Dewanna Bonner (Indiana) left as free-restriction agents, Alyssa Thomas was designated as a player Basically and exchanged Phoenix, Alyssa Thomas and Ty Harris and Dijonai Carrington were exchanged in Dallas. The team also recently hired coach Rachid Meziane to replace Stephanie White, who left for fever.
The sun, which still has Marina Mabrey under contract, acquired Natasha Cloud, Jacy Sheldon and the choice n ° 8 in 2025 in the trade with four teams which sent Thomas to Phoenix. Connecticut also received Rebecca Allen in the agreement, but sources confirmed to ESPN on Saturday that there is another business that should occur that would send Allen in the sky of Chicago for Lindsay Allen and the rights to Nikolina Milic.
Charles was exchanged from Connecticut before the 2014 draft of his hometown team, The Liberty, an agreement which finally led to the Sun to write Thomas fourth in the general classification.