WNBA career
In the 2001 WNBA Draft, Nolan was selected by her home state team, Detroit Shock in the first round (sixth overall). She has been nicknamed "Tweety", and is well known by fans for her amazing vertical leap.
Nolan also helped the Detroit Shock win their first championship in 2003. In 2006, she won another championship with Detroit and was named MVP of the 2006 WNBA Finals.
In 2008, she helped the Shock win their third WNBA Championship. In 2007, 2008 and 2009, she was named the Detroit Shock Player of the Year in voting by members of the Detroit Sports Broadcasters Association.
The Detroit Shock were a Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) team based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. They were the 2003, 2006, and 2008 WNBA champions.
Diana Lorena Taurasi is an American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Mercury of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), and is considered to be one of the greatest women basketball players of all time. She was drafted by Phoenix first overall in the 2004 WNBA draft. Taurasi has won the WNBA Rookie of the Year Award (2004), three WNBA championships, a historic five Olympic gold medals, one WNBA Most Valuable Player Award (2009), two WNBA Finals MVP Awards, five scoring titles, and three FIBA World Cups. She has also been selected to ten WNBA All-Star teams and fourteen All-WNBA teams. In 2011, she was voted by fans as one of the WNBA's Top 15 Players of All Time, and was named by the league to its 20th and 25th anniversary teams, respectively the WNBA Top 20@20 in 2016 and The W25 in 2021. Also in 2021, she was selected by fans as the league's greatest player of all time. On June 18, 2017, Taurasi became the WNBA all-time leading scorer and on June 27, 2021, became the first player to surpass 9,000 points. Her penchant for scoring in crucial situations has earned her the nickname "White Mamba", coined by Kobe Bryant. Taurasi is one of 11 women to win an Olympic gold medal, an NCAA Championship, a FIBA World Cup gold and a WNBA Championship.
Elena Viktorovna Baranova is a retired Russian professional basketball player. She is a former Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) player, where she became the first player from Europe in 1997 WNBA inaugural season, the first All-Star from Russia in 2001 and played for the New York Liberty until the 2005 season.
Swintayla Marie "Swin" Cash Canal is an American former professional basketball player who played professionally for 15 seasons in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She currently serves as vice president of basketball operations and team development for the New Orleans Pelicans. A prolific scorer and rebounder, as well as a capable ball handler and defender, she helped lead the University of Connecticut women's basketball team to national titles in 2000 and 2002. In her second WNBA season, she led the Detroit Shock to their first ever WNBA title. In 2015, she was named a studio analyst for MSG Networks covering the New York Knicks pre-games and post-games as well as the weekly coaches show. In 2017, Cash was named the Director of franchise development for the New York Liberty. Cash was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on September 9, 2022.
Kara Marie Lawson is the head coach of the Duke Blue Devils women's basketball team. She is a former American professional women's basketball player in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and a basketball television analyst for ESPN and the Washington Wizards. Lawson primarily played as a shooting guard. She won a gold medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China, a championship with the Sacramento Monarchs in the 2005 WNBA Finals, and coached the United States women's national 3x3 team to gold in the 2020 Summer Olympics. Lawson retired from the WNBA in 2015 to focus on her broadcasting career. She began her coaching career as an assistant coach for the Boston Celtics of the NBA in 2019.
Flint Northern High School was a public secondary school located in Flint, Michigan. The original building "#1" was built in 1928 and demolished in the 1980s, after being the home of the Flint Academy. It was one of the high schools in the Flint Community Schools district along with Flint Northwestern High School and Flint Southwestern Academy. It was closed in 2013 and reopened as Northern Academy. The Flint school board finally closed the school completely in 2014.
Ann Hilde Willy Wauters is a Belgian former professional basketball player and coach, currently serving as an assistant coach for the Chicago Sky in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She played for numerous American and European professional teams, including the Cleveland Rockers, US Valenciennes Olympic, and the San Antonio Silver Stars. She won four EuroLeague championships and one WNBA Finals during her career. Her primary position was center.
Cappie Marie Pondexter is an American former professional basketball player. She was born in Oceanside, California and raised in Chicago, Illinois. Pondexter is known for her scrappy play, quick crossovers and midrange jumpshot. In 2011, she was voted in by fans as one of the Top 15 players in Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) history.
Ebony Vernice Hoffman is a former professional basketball player and a current assistant coach for the Seattle Storm. She played and won the championship with Fenerbahçe İstanbul in Turkey. She currently plays for Beşiktaş İstanbul in Turkey. She also played for Polisportiva Ares Ribera in Italy and TEO Vilnius in Lithuania, Ramat Hasharon in Israel.
Candice Dana Wiggins is an American former professional basketball player. Wiggins played college basketball at Stanford University, where she graduated as the all-time leading scorer in Stanford and Pac-10 women's basketball history. Throughout her playing career, Wiggins played for the Minnesota Lynx, Tulsa Shock, Los Angeles Sparks and New York Liberty of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and has played overseas in Spain and Greece. Wiggins has won a WNBA championship (2011) and a WNBA Sixth Woman of the Year (2008).
The 2008 WNBA season was the 11th for the Detroit Shock, an American women's professional basketball team. The Shock attempted to return to the WNBA Finals for the third consecutive year. They won the WNBA Finals for the third time in franchise history. During the finals, Katie Smith averaged a team high 21.7 points per game to be named WNBA Finals MVP. Similar to Kevin Garnett with the 2008 Boston Celtics, Taj McWilliams-Franklin won her first championship after 10 years in the league.
Alexandria "Allie" Quigley is an American and Hungarian professional basketball player for the Chicago Sky of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA).
James Wade, known as Coco, is an American-French basketball head coach for the Chicago Sky of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Wade won the WNBA's Coach of the Year and Executive of the Year awards in 2019 and 2022 respectively, and led the Sky to their first WNBA Championship in 2021.
The Tulsa Shock were a professional basketball team based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, playing in the Western Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team was founded in Detroit, Michigan before the 1998 WNBA season began; the team moved to Tulsa before the 2010 season. The team was owned by Tulsa Pro Hoops LLC, which is led by Bill Cameron and David Box. On July 20, 2015, Cameron announced that the franchise would move to Arlington, Texas for the 2016 WNBA season, rebranding as the Dallas Wings.
BC Ekaterinburg is a Russian women's basketball team based in Yekaterinburg competing in the Russian Premier League, and until February 2022 in FIBA Europe's EuroLeague Women. In reaction to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, in February 2022 EuroLeague Women suspended all Russian clubs, including UMMC.
Kayla Danielle Pedersen is an American basketball forward who is currently a free agent. She was selected 7th overall in the 2011 WNBA Draft. She was selected for the 2006 State Farm Holiday Classic all-tournament as a senior at Red Mountain High School in Arizona. After attending high school she went to Stanford University, where she had a highly successful career. She has a brother who is younger "Kyle Pedersen" who is a successful Science teacher at Gilbert HighSchool.
Alba Torrens Salom is a Spanish female basketball player at the small forward position who plays for UMMC Ekaterinburg. Winner of six EuroLeague titles with three clubs and eight medals with the Spanish senior team, she is considered one of the best European players of the 2010s. After the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, she left the Russian team UMMC Ekaterinburg.
Emma Meesseman is a Belgian professional basketball player for Fenerbahçe of the EuroLeague Women and the Chicago Sky of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). After playing basketball in Belgium, Meesseman was drafted by the Washington Mystics with the 19th overall pick in the second round of the 2013 WNBA draft. She has also played for the Belgian international team and several European professional teams. She was named the 2011 FIBA Europe Young Women's Player of the Year and the 2019 WNBA Finals MVP. Meesseman studied physical education at Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
The Dallas Wings are an American basketball team based in Arlington, Texas. The Wings play in the Western Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team is owned by a group which is led by chairman Bill Cameron. Greg Bibb is president and CEO. Brad Hilsabeck joined the Dallas Wings ownership group in March 2019 with the acquisition of Mark Yancey’s interest in the Wings.
Olaf Lange is an assistant coach for New York Liberty in the WNBA and for the Australian Opals National Team.
