{"id":829838,"date":"2026-05-29T10:25:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T10:25:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/829838\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T10:25:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T10:25:21","slug":"fort-worth-native-returns-with-defending-wnba-champions-amid-career-best-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/829838\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Worth native returns with defending WNBA champions amid career-best year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chennedy Carter started her WNBA journey in Texas, a Fort Worth native who starred at Mansfield Timberview<\/a> before embarking on a successful college career with Texas A&M.<\/p>\n

That helped her become the No. 4 pick in the 2020 WNBA draft.<\/p>\n

Now playing for the defending WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces, Carter started her career with the Dream and spent two seasons in Atlanta before joining the Los Angeles Sparks and Chicago Sky for a season each and playing overseas in the 2025 season.<\/p>\n

Carter\u2019s journey wasn\u2019t straightforward. The 5-foot-9 guard got suspended by the Dream for conduct detrimental to the team<\/a> before being traded and failing to earn second contracts from the Sparks and Sky.<\/p>\n

She talked Thursday before the Aces lost to the Dallas Wings<\/a> about what she would tell a player dealing with a similarly tough journey.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would just say focus on, you know, what feeds you,\u201d Carter said. \u201cAt the end of the day, I started focusing on what was putting money in my pocket. A crib in L.A., the car that I just purchased, so I just focused on the things that were keeping me happy and keeping my life together.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it wasn\u2019t the WNBA, it was playing abroad, and that was able to keep me afloat and keep me really pushed all the way over to this point. I mean, I didn\u2019t even have to play this year if I didn\u2019t want to. So, really, it\u2019s just focusing on your journey and your story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carter had major success last season with Wuhan Shengfan in China, and she talked about how she\u2019s used that to help the Aces this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what people don\u2019t understand is overseas, I faced like three, four or five defenders,\u201d she said. \u201cSo you\u2019re coming here talking to me about WNBA schemes, it\u2019s like almost I laugh at it, because I\u2019ve been dealing with, three and four and five people for four months, playing every other day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carter said it didn\u2019t hurt to play with A\u2019Ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young, three of the league\u2019s best players, on the team that has won three of the past four WNBA championships, coached by Becky Hammon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The results this season have been the best of Carter\u2019s career. Through seven games entering Thursday, she is averaging 20.0 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game on 66% shooting from the field.<\/p>\n

Over the past five games she\u2019s kicked it up another notch, with Kelsey Plum, Wilson and Caitlin Clark the only players in the WNBA averaging more than her 22 points per game.<\/p>\n

She said it was in part the Aces\u2019 belief in her that has helped her have such a strong start.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s more so just my story, being out, things I guess not really going the way I want them to go,\u201d Carter said. \u201cSo, I guess being with a team that hand-selected me to be here, we just gonna show everybody, it\u2019s personal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been amazing. Becky\u2019s really had my back. She\u2019s been in my corner, and she lets me know that I\u2019m truly allowed to be me. Good days, bad days, so that makes me feel comfortable, like I\u2019m not walking on eggshells, you know what I mean? A lot of situations I\u2019ve had to walk on eggshells, so that\u2019s been unfair to me. So this is way easier, way comfortable, I can play. Teammates support me, no jealousy here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hammon complimented Carter\u2019s downhill scoring, calling her one of the league\u2019s best.<\/p>\n

\u201cPoints off the bench is something that we kind of bring it in waves. Each person\u2019s got to deal with Chelsea, [Wilson] and Jackie out there,\u201d Hammon said. \u201cChennedy is unique in the way that she attacks the game, approaches the rim. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s quite anybody like her, honestly, in the world the way she can get downhill and finish and get in traffic. But the other thing that we\u2019ve been really working on is she\u2019s a pretty willing passer, too, so that paint and spray, she\u2019s deadly if she gets two feet in that paint.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carter has helped the Aces jump out to a 4-2 start and the team hopes she\u2019ll be a key cog for them in their quest to win their second straight championship and their fourth in five seasons.<\/p>\n

Game notes<\/p>\n

Carter looked at home at College Park Center on Thursday, getting her game started with a jumper right beyond the free-throw line, and finished with 14 points with a rebound and a steal in her team\u2019s 95-87 loss.<\/p>\n

In the first half, Carter made her first five shots and was the first player in double figures for either team, and her defensive effort was frenetic with a steal and multiple deflections, with the guard coming out of seemingly nowhere to either take the ball or break up a pass on multiple occasions.<\/p>\n

Rangers \u25b6<\/p>\n