Mercury sign eight-time All-Star Tina Charles to one-year deal
The Phoenix Suns currently hold the best record in the NBA at 41-10, but they're certainly not the only professional basketball team in "The Valley" making headlines lately.
One day after acquiring one-time All-Star Diamond DeShields in a three-team trade with the Chicago Sky and Indiana Fever, the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury made arguably the biggest free agent signing of the offseason thus far.
Following four stellar seasons of college basketball at UConn, Charles was selected first overall by the Connecticut Sun in the 2010 WNBA Draft. After a Rookie of the Year campaign in which she averaged 15.5 points, 1.7 blocks and a still career-high 11.7 rebounds per game, the center made her first All-Star team during her second season in the league in 2011.
During that season, Charles averaged 17.6 points, 11.0 rebounds and a career-best 1.8 blocks per contest and helped the Sun reach the postseason for the first time in three years. Behind an MVP season from Charles, Connecticut advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2012, before they went on a four-year hiatus from the playoffs.
Charles made her second All-Star team in 2013, which was her final season with the Sun, before she was traded to the New York Liberty in April 2014. The 33-year-old spent the next six seasons with the Liberty, earning five more All-Star nods among numerous other honors.
The Jamaica, N.Y. native was traded to the Washington Mystics in April 2020, but amid the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, Charles was medically excused from the shortened season. In 2021, she led the league in scoring with a career-high 23.4 points per game and made her eighth All-Star team.
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