2x WNBA Champ Kara Braxton D!es at 43

Kara Braxton

2x WNBA Champ Kara Braxton D!es at 43

Very sad news. Two-time WNBA champion Kara Braxton has died at the age of 43.

Braxton, a 6-foot-6 center-forward, won WNBA titles with the Detroit Shock in 2006 and 2008.

No cause of death has been given.

“It is with profound sadness that we mourn the passing of 2x WNBA Champion Kara Braxton,” the WNBA said in a statement Sunday. “Our thoughts are with her family, friends, and former teammates at this time.”

Braxton played at Georgia from 2001 to 2004 and was named SEC Freshman of the Year in 2002. She was selected No. 7 overall by Detroit in the 2005 WNBA draft and made the league’s All-Rookie Team in her first season.

She was named a WNBA All-Star in 2007 and averaged 7.6 points and 4.7 rebounds across a 10-year career. After the Shock relocated to Tulsa in 2010, Braxton spent part of that season there before being traded to the Phoenix Mercury. During the 2011 season, she was traded to the New York Liberty and finished her WNBA career with New York in 2014.

Braxton is survived by her son, Jelani Thurman, a college football tight end who played the past three years at Ohio State and transferred to North Carolina in January. We send our condolences to her family & friends.