UConn legend and WNBA's all-time leading rebounder Tina Charles announces retirement
Tina Charles, the WNBA’s all-time leading rebounder, is retiring from the league, the eight-time All-Star announced Tuesday on social media.
Charles, who had 4,262 rebounds in her career, also finished as the league’s No. 2 all-time scorer behind Diana Taurasi. The 15-year veteran scored 8,396 points in the regular season.
“Today, I officially announce my retirement from basketball. Fifteen years at the professional level and a lifetime of love for this game,” Charles wrote in her post. “I’ve experienced the highest highs and the lowest lows, and I’m thankful for all of it. Through it all, I learned how to show up. When doubt got loud and narratives were written about me, I kept showing up. That’s the New Yorker in me, where resilience is built, not talked about.”
Charles was the No. 1 pick by the Connecticut Sun in 2010 after helping the UConn Huskies win consecutive NCAA championships in 2009 and 2010. She was the AP Player of the Year in 2010.
She played with the Sun until 2013 before a blockbuster trade sent her home to New York.
“I’d say since the 2009 season at Connecticut, Tina Charles has been one of the best basketball players in the world,” UConn women’s basketball head coach Geno Auriemma said. “That’s a long, long time to be at the top of your game. Winning National Championships, Olympic gold medals, World Cup medals, she’s had a huge impact on every team she’s ever played on. I’m proud of her because it’s a Hall of Fame career and I look forward to seeing her at her Hall of Fame ceremonies.”
Charles starred in her hometown through the 2019 season. She sat out the WNBA bubble season the next year before playing in Washington, Phoenix, Seattle and Atlanta. Charles came back to Connecticut last season and started 42 games while averaging 16.3 points and 5.8 rebounds.
The 37-year-old center helped the U.S. win three Olympic gold medals as well as three World Cup championships. She earned WNBA MVP honors in 2012 and was the league’s top scorer in two seasons. The one thing Charles never had a chance to do was play in a WNBA Finals.
“This game gave me everything, and I’ll miss it deeply,” Charles said. “But my mom always taught me, don’t stop at what you’ve done, keep going toward what you still see. And I still see so much. There are still dreams in my heart waiting to be lived, and I can’t wait to share that journey with you all.”
Besides her impact on the court, Charles has left a lasting one off of it, helping to save countless lives for more than a decade with her charity — Hopey’s Heart Foundation. She’s donated 500 AEDs (automated external defibrillators) through the organization that started in 2013 and is named in honor of her aunt.
It’s dedicated to curbing deaths in the United States from sudden cardiac arrest. The organization works to ensure schools and public places have lifesaving equipment such as defibrillators on hand.
Charles said that before she started the foundation she didn’t realize how common and deadly sudden cardiac arrest could be until she read about Wes Leonard, a high school basketball player who suffered a heart attack and died after basketball practice in 2011.
And when her aunt died a few years later from organ failure, Charles committed herself to helping to solve the problem.
In 2017, when Charles was playing for the New York Liberty, she was surprised by the team by a man who was saved by one of the AEDs that the star had donated.
“Beyond her extraordinary accomplishments, Tina has represented the very best of the WNBA throughout her career,” WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in a statement. “Through her leadership and dedication to giving back — including her work with her Hopey’s Heart Foundation — she has made a meaningful impact far beyond the game, earning the Dawn Staley Community Leadership Award twice.
“Her legacy will be defined not only by her excellence on the court, but by the standard she set as a leader, a teammate, and a champion for the communities she touched.”
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