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The Los Angeles Sparks have signed Liatu King to a rest-of-season hardship contract, the team announced on Tuesday.
A third-round Sparks selection in the 2025 WNBA Draft, Los Angeles waived King before the start of the season. They brought her back in response to a rash of early-season injuries. Though Cameron Brink is expected to be ready relatively soon, Rae Burrell and Rickea Jackson have both gone down for the Sparks over their first two games.
Burrell is out 6-8 weeks with a leg injury that she sustained in the Sparks' season-opener against the Golden State Valkyries on Friday. Jackson collided with Alanna Smith of the Minnesota Lynx in the team's second game and is day-to-day.
King came to the Sparks from Notre Dame, where she played her last season of college basketball. She averaged a double-double (11.5 points, 10.4 rebounds) in her lone season with the Irish. Before that, she played four seasons at Pitt, evolving into a double-double machine over her career. In her final season with the Panthers, she posted 18.7 points and 10.3 rebounds per game and in her last two seasons of college overall, shot better than 52 percent from the field.
As effective as King is inside, she doesn't have much of an outside game to speak of. She's also turnover prone and not a great foul shooter. The good news for King, if she wants to make a career in the WNBA, is that those are all deficiencies that she can improve on.
It's important to note that just because King's contract has the words “rest of season” in it, that doesn't mean she will be with the Sparks the rest of the way. When Jackson returns, whenever that may be, the Sparks will no longer be eligible for the hardship. The team will likely waive King at that point, barring some other unforeseen injury.
