Back in 2010, the Connecticut Sun selected Tina Charles No. 1 overall in the WNBA draft. In four seasons she became a star, as she was the WNBA rookie of the year in 2010 and the WNBA MVP in 2012.
But, after four seasons with the Sun, she was traded to the New York Liberty, a move designed to give the Sun more draft picks. In 2025, she finally came back home. The Sun signed her as a free agent and, as Charles typically does, had a great season.
The 36-year-old star led Connecticut with 16.3 points per game, along with 5.8 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 0.8 steals and 0.4 blocks per game. After 14 seasons in the league, she remains one of its top players and along the way she reached several career milestones that put her among the top players in WNBA history, per Sun PR on X (formerly Twitter).
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Foremost among her achievements was becoming just the fourth player in WNBA history to score more than 8.000 points for her career. She is now second all-time in scoring with 8.396 points, behind only Diana Taurasi, who scored 10,646 points in her career.
While she’s not first in points, she ended the season first in WNBA history in field goals made, offensive rebounds, and games played, becoming the league’s all-time leader in each category. Even with five seasons in Connecticut, she became the franchise’s all-time leader in double-doubles.
Charles scored 700 points, which set a new franchise record for most points in a single season. She led or co-led the team in scoring 21 times, rebounding 15 times, and field goals made 23 times. She posted 15 games with 20 or more points, scored in double figures in 35 games, and recorded seven double-doubles.
Charles is a free agent, and she should have plenty of teams that want to talk to her once the WNBA and the WNBA Players Association agree a deal on a new collective bargaining agreement. The two sides were unable to do so before the Oct. 31 deadline, but the two sides agreed to a 30-day extension to negotiate.
The Sun is also dealing with potential ownership issues. The Mohegan Tribe, which owns the team, has entertained majority and minority ownership offers from a current NBA minority team owner, a former owner of the Milwaukee Bucks and the league, which intended to pass the team to Houston. The state of Connecticut wants to keep the team in the state, to the point where it is willing to invest part of its pension fund in the franchise.