The Connecticut Sun reportedly are signing veteran center Tina Charles, according to Alexa Philippou of ESPN.
Tina Charles was the No. 1 overall pick in 2010 by the Sun, and she is returning to the team that she started her WNBA career with. Charles won the MVP award in 2012 with the Sun. She is an eight-time WNBA All-Star, nine-time All-NBA player, and three-time Olympian.
Charles is entering her age 36 season, and will be a key veteran for the Sun after the departures of players like Alyssa Thomas, DeWanna Bonner and DiJonai Carrington, among others. Not to mention, Stephanie White left for the Indiana Fever head coaching job as well.
When it comes to Charles' career, she has a decorative one, despite not being able to win a WNBA title. After four seasons with the Sun, Charles joined the New York Liberty in 2014, and stayed through the 2019 season. She finished top three in the MVP voting in the first three seasons she played with the Liberty. Charles did not play in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. She then spent a season with the Washington Mystics in 2021, finishing fifth in the MVP voting. In 2022, Charles played with the Phoenix Mercury and Seattle Storm. In 2023, she did not play in the WNBA, but she returned with the Atlanta Dream in 2024.
On top of it being a homecoming from a professional standpoint, it is a return to the state in which Charles played college basketball. She played four years at the UConn women's basketball program, winning two national titles and the national player of the year award in the 2009-10 season.
Charles is undoubtedly in the back end of her WNBA career, so it will be interesting to see how many more years she plays past 2025, if she does so at all. It would be a fitting end if she finished her WNBA career where it started.