Longtime WNBA forward Kara Braxton, who won two championships with the Detroit Shock, died Sunday, the league and her former team confirmed.
She is 43 years old. Further details of her death were unclear.
Braxton spent a decade in the NBA after dominating at the University of Georgia, where she was SEC Rookie of the Year as a freshman. The Shock drafted her seventh overall in 2005, and she spent her first five full seasons in the league. She also helped them win two WNBA championships, the first in 2006 and the second in 2008.
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Braxton also earned her only All-Star selection during the 2007 campaign. She averaged 6.7 points and 5.4 rebounds that season. That summer, the Shock also made it to the Finals, where they lost to the Phoenix Mercury.
In 2010, after the Shock moved to Tulsa, Braxton was traded to Phoenix. A year later, she was also transferred to the New York Liberty, where she spent the final four seasons before leaving after the 2014 season. Braxton played a total of 297 games in his career, averaging 7.6 points and 4.7 rebounds per game. She also won two Polish league championships and was awarded the Chinese League MVP in 2010.
Braxton returned to Georgia to complete his studies and officially graduate in 2024.
Braxton’s oldest son, Jelani Thurman, is a tight end who spent the past three seasons at Ohio State. He also won a national championship with the Buckeyes in 2024 before transferring to North Carolina. After retiring from basketball in 2019, Braxton worked at Nike for several years before moving back to the Atlanta area. She was also preceded in death by her husband, Jarvis Jackson, and infant son, Jream.
