Diamond Johnson’s sparkling play shines a bright light on the Upshot League

GREENSBORO, NC — Diamond Johnson’s sparkling smile lit up the Novant Health Fieldhouse. Playing for the Greensboro Groove in the new Upshot League, Johnson’s infectious joy flashed consistently throughout morning shootaround, pregame warmups, in the cauldron of competition, and postgame following her squad’s 83-79 victory over the Jacksonville Waves on Saturday, June 13.

After spending a year playing professionally in China, Johnson looked at ease.

She was enthusiastically encouraging her teammates with high fives and fist pumps. During shootaround, there was Johnson standing next to her coaches, pointing out sets and identifying possible mismatches for later that day. She was one of the first players on the floor, about 95 minutes before tip-off, moving from spot to spot as a variety of deep jumpers and stepback shots splashed softly through the net like snowflakes as a miniature shower of sweat formed on her forehead.

When the full squad gathered for stretching, there was Johnson in the middle of everything trading jokes and laughing with teammates.

Savoring every second of her experience, Johnson, following her 12-point performance and dressed in all black, was among the last Groove players to depart the darkened arena and into the parking lot where the searing sun began dropping below the horizon, transforming the sky into a cotton-candy colored portrait.

It’s not the WNBA, which is ultimately her goal, but the Upshot League is a competitive women’s four team basketball league in its first year with franchises in the southeastern region of the country, offering a plethora of positive possibilities for the players.

“Being in China, there’s obviously a language barrier,” Johnson said to The IX Basketball following a Greensboro morning shootaround. “The food is different. In my first two weeks there, I got sick because I just wasn’t used to eating that kind of food. It was a very fast-paced league, and they worked extremely hard. That’s right up my alley. The playing style was very similar to the W and any other pro league that you’ll see. So, I think it prepared me to play in this league that I’m playing in now.”

Johnson is maximizing her chance by leading the Upshot League in scoring with a 17.5 points per game average through June 18. She’s also second in assists (3.4) and third in steals (1.9). The same astonishing array of sweet moves she showcased while playing for North Carolina State and Norfolk State during her collegiate career, Johnson is now unleashing against the competition in the Upshot League.

The same whirling, twirling, and gliding to the basket. The same piercing eyes. The same smooth mid-range shot. The same sticky-fingered defense. The same clutch 3-point shooting. The same silky passing that elevated Johnson into the 2025 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Player of the Year and helped Norfolk State win 30 games has been on display throughout the first month.

“My coaches and teammates put me in a position to score the ball,” Johnson said. “They put me in a position to make a play. We understand the goal because we’re all trying to win. We are pro-level athletes with experience on several teams, and we have a clear understanding of what we want to accomplish. So we all play together, we all flow together, and we know where the ball should go. Everybody on this team can do what they do: score the ball, rebound. It’s just about the opportunity that you take, and that’s how I’ve been successful.”

‘Dealer of dreams’

The power of a dream is that it demands everything before it gives anything.

Like a gravitational pull, dreams are the quiet voices that keep talking and make a person choose hardship over comfort, uncertainty over security, and sacrifice over ease.

It’s why players like Johnson, Jessica Timmons, Rennia Davis, Shyanne Sellers, and numerous others in the Upshot League wake before dawn, endure the pain, absorb the heartbreak, embrace the work, and keep showing up long after others quit. In the words of rapper Meek Mill from his iconic hit, “Dreams and Nightmares”, the players in this league “grind like that so they could shine like this.”

They all dream of playing in the WNBA and have come close to tasting it, as many in the Upshot League have participated in WNBA training camps, signed free-agent contracts, and played in regular season games.

“I don’t think (people) know that it’s a lot of talent here in this league,” Johnson said. “You got a lot of people that went to WNBA training camps, got waived, played in the W, and played overseas. It’s high-level here, and there’s a lot of talent in the league. … It’s a new league. Once you come watch a game, it would spark some people’s eyes, and make people want to come back and watch.”

One example is Davis, a Jacksonville native, who was waived by the Seattle Storm the day before the last cuts in May. Some of her family have never seen her play professionally because the 2021 first-round pick of the Minnesota Lynx has accumulated enough passport stamps to tell her life story without uttering a sentence. She’s played in Israel, Turkey, China, Poland, Mexico, France, and Australia. She was taken ninth overall in the draft after a sterling career at Tennessee.

Now, they get an opportunity every time they come to the arena to watch Davis play professionally in her hometown. It may not be the WNBA, but it’s still special to play in a place where players are surrounded by love and familiar faces.

The Upshot League was co-founded by Donna Orender and Zawyer Sports CEO, Andy Kaufmann. Women’s basketball legends Cheryl Miller, Ann Meyers Drysdale, and Tamika Catchings has also invested and provided leadership. Designed to offer paid opportunities for players and access, Upshot’s pillars include a foundation rooted in high-level talent, player opportunity, and community connection.

Taj McWilliams-Franklin, a two-time WNBA champion with Detroit and Minnesota and a six-time all-star, is the head of Upshot’s basketball operations. She says the league signals a generational shift in women’s sports and builds cultural momentum, solidifying its place as a rising hub for excellence.

“For us, it’s about the passion,” McWilliams-Franklin said to The IX Basketball. “We don’t have the million-dollar salaries. The W got it after 30 years. Our ownership raised the money with our investors to build the league as we have it now … Upshot is a dealer of dreams. The vision was to build a sustainable league full of players that want to be here and want the opportunity to be part of Upshot, but also an opportunity to be a professional women’s basketball player.”

Dreams are the promises people make to themselves when nobody is listening, arriving uninvited and unreasonable, asking for everything while promising nothing. Still, they keep saying yes to the dream in the way they endure bus trips to play grueling sets of back-to-back games, hustle after loose balls, attack the basket with ferocity, and compete across the globe for their one chance.

Those hardships of frustration witnessed by nobody, the silent tears, and sacrifices appreciated by even fewer become proof of the dream’s existence. Nobody willingly suffers for something they don’t believe in because beneath the scars and sacrifices lie stories of resilience, persistence, and possibility.

‘Loaded with talent’

In addition to Greensboro, the Upshot League features the Jacksonville Waves, Savannah Steel, and Charlotte Crown, franchises all with cool names and, in Greensboro’s case, an awesome mascot named “D.J.” Next year, Upshot will expand with franchises in Baltimore and Nashville. Every game is streamed live on its YouTube channel.

“We want players like Diamond Johnson, who got a training camp invite with the Minnesota Lynx, got waived, and now she’s here,” McWilliams-Franklin said. “She’s from an HBCU and can speak to that experience and how great those players are as well, who don’t get the publicity that the Division I and Division II players do, and some Division III players. We have just a gamut.”

This league matters because, even as the WNBA expands and creates developmental roster opportunities, there is still an overflow of quality talent and not enough roster spots. What’s special about Upshot is that conference affiliation doesn’t matter.

Johnson played in the MEAC. Harmoni Turner of Savannah was an Ivy League scoring force at Harvard. Turner also spent time in WNBA training camps in each of the last two years after being drafted by the Las Vegas Aces in 2025. Turner is averaging 12.1 points and 5.1 rebounds.

In her Upshot debut, Nicole Gwynn, who played at South Carolina State, Georgia Southern, and Queens before going to Morocco to continue her career, scored nine points to lead Charlotte to a victory over Greensboro on June 17.

Players like Charlotte’s Reigan Richardson (Duke), Asia Durr (Louisville), Timmons (NC State and Alabama), and Deja Kelly (UNC and Oregon) competed at Power Four programs. Kelly signed a training camp contract with the Aces and played in Athletes Unlimited. Durr was the second overall pick in the 2019 WNBA Draft and played for the Liberty.

This is just a snapshot.

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“Having this opportunity to play here in the States is a big deal,” Greensboro Groove head coach Janice Washington said. “They are close to where their families can travel, without having to get a passport to go watch them play overseas. Being able to play at such a high level is special. I mean, all these teams are loaded with talent. We’ve needed something like this for a while, and I think that over these last five to 10 years, people have really, really started to take notice of how talented the pool here stateside is, in terms of women’s basketball players.”

Washington, who played at Campbell, left her job coaching Division II Lincoln University last year to be part of the Upshot League. She saw the potential and was sold on the vision.

“When Taj called me, I was really, moved by what she talked about as the mission for this league,” Washington said. “Knowing that the vision that Taj and Donna and the leadership, the investors had put in place. Listening to how they were going to make it happen because one thing is to have the vision, but it is a totally different thing to be able to execute what that vision is. Having this roll out of this league be so phenomenal, and having all of these really talented players, really high-caliber athletes involved, and having so many phenomenal people to believe and invest in what it is that we’re doing, that’s what drew me to this.”

Timmons was also one of the last training camp cuts of the Indiana Fever after being drafted in the third round in April. While to many, her name may have been reduced to a scroll on ESPN’s bottom line or a quick announcement on television, for Timmons and her loved ones, that moment meant everything.

The scar on her knee was a constant reminder of the price for conquering a devastating new injury that forced her to miss a year at Alabama. Yet, she returned stronger and more determined.

During a four-game stretch from May 30-June 13, Timmons averaged 20.2 points per game. Timmons is happy to be reunited with Johnson, as they both played together at NC. State. If this were last year, Timmons knows what she and many other players would be doing.

“A lot of us would be back home, training to go play overseas,” Timmons said. “Playing in front of your crowd, playing in front of your family in the States, I think that’s just a huge opportunity for us to showcase our talent. I’ve known Diamond since high school, and we played together on Boo Williams (an AAU team). I always knew Diamond was a hidden gem, an amazing person, and a very talented player, no matter her size. She has a lot of heart, and I think she’s one of the best bucket getters in the entire nation, honestly. And very underrated.”

‘How you respond’

Johnson was the toast of the HBCU community following her sensational two-year run at Norfolk State. She consistently advocated for more top-tier women’s players to play for HBCUs. So when Johnson wasn’t drafted last year, there was disappointment. Then, a few days later, when she signed a free agent training camp contract with the Lynx, there was so much excitement in the HBCU community knowing that she was getting a chance.

She did the work. She stayed after practice. Impressed head coach Cheryl Reeve and assistant coach Lindsey Whalen. Unfortunately, she was still waived. It wasn’t an indication of her ability or character. She was caught in a numbers game. Still, the time with the Lynx proved valuable.

“It was really humbling,” Johnson said of being waived last year by the Lynx. “Obviously, once you get a gist of the ins and outs of the W and the pros in general, your time runs out. You can’t let that mess with your head. People get waived and cut every day, but it’s just about how you respond.”

Sellers knows that well.  

The Golden State Valkyries drafted the guard from Maryland in the second round of last year’s WNBA Draft. She’s been in three WNBA training camps over the last two years.

Yet, because of a posterior cruciate ligament sprain late in her senior year at Maryland, Sellers went from an almost lock to playing in the WNBA to proving she’s still able to compete at a high level. She played in Israel last year, which gave her the confidence and confirmation that she was close to her old self. Atlanta Dream head coach Karl Smesko told the Washington Post last year that Sellers is “a really talented player.”

Sellers has had some strong performances early in the season, such as a 21-point outing against Charlotte on May 21.

“I’m just super grateful for Upshot,” Sellers said. “Donna, Todd, they’ve all done a great job of just putting this league together and making it enjoyable. I mean, the way we live, everything from top to bottom is just great. My journey’s been a rough one, but I feel like the story’s not over. You’ve got to keep grinding. There are a lot of people who want to be in my position, want the opportunity to play in this league in America. I’m just grateful for it.”

The realization that the WNBA is a cutthroat business has made Sellers more determined than ever. It’s why every move has a purpose, and each offensive cut is run with more precision and intensity. Each player in this league competes with a boulder on their shoulder because they all believe they should be on a WNBA roster now.

‘Fully supported’

While the league does not publicly disclose exact individual player salaries, players are compensated, receive weekly stipends, and are provided with team housing, swag, and benefits. From speaking with players, it’s a solid package for the opportunity. Orender, who served as WNBA president from 2005–2010, told Front Office Sports that “contracts will be structured to allow (players) to leave midseason for the WNBA, if an opportunity arises.”

The big vision is to partner with the WNBA, as the NBA does with the G League. One reason the 34-game season runs simultaneously with the WNBA is that it aims to fill the gap when injuries or hardships occur during the WNBA season. The goal is for WNBA general managers to call up some players from the Upshot League to fill roster openings. McWilliams-Franklin enthusiastically shared that WNBA general managers and scouts are paying attention to the league.

Even though many players are battling for the same opportunity to earn a cherished WNBA roster spot, the camaraderie they’ve built as teammates and being where their feet are also has helped, especially since they are enduring the same challenges, questions, and thoughts.

“We’re fully supported here,” Timmons said. “If we ever need anything, we’re free to call our coaches. We have some of the nicest apartments we’re staying in right now. We travel to these games and stay in hotels with our teammates. We’re able to eat together, so everything we’re able to do is a huge opportunity and a source of gratitude for us, because we have a lot of people backing us up when it comes to the Upshot League. Shaq’s brother comes in, sits courtside, and gives us shoes. We have this gear on our body, so we’re just all thankful for that.”

Some players are signed to seven-day contracts, which are short-term agreements. After the seven days, a team or the league can decide whether to extend, convert, or release. They are normally used for injury replacement, roster depth, tryout/evaluation, or urgent availability.

Other players sign free-agent deals, usually meaning they are being signed as regular, available players who are not currently under contract with another team. The deal can be for the rest of the season, a defined term, or another negotiated period, and is more likely to include standard roster rights, salary terms, benefits, conduct provisions, and termination terms.

Currently, each of the four teams have 11 roster spots and two additional developmental spots.

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Johnson is one of the many elite players in this league playing at a high level. She’s benefited from a familiar voice in Greensboro assistant coach Trinese Fox. During Johnson’s last two years at Norfolk State, Fox was an assistant coach. Now, Johnson’s name is at the top of every scouting report just like it was when she was dominating for the Spartans.

“I think she’s probably one of the true three-level scorers that we have in this league,” Jacksonville head coach Jessica Bogia said of Johnson. “She can knock down the deep three, she can put it on the ground, like she’s got to pull up, she can finish at the rim, but her passing on top of that, so you got to play her for both those things, and you can’t just run her off the line, but I think she’s just getting started. Since her days at Neumann-Goretti, we’ve always known she was a star, and I’m glad she gets to showcase it right now. She definitely makes game planning every game a little tricky.”

McWilliams-Franklin is thrilled with being part of helping others fulfill their dreams and create additional women’s basketball opportunities to play in America. Her professional career spanned three decades and began before the WNBA was founded in 1997.

She was in the trenches when all the players had were each other and the love of the sport. Money was minuscule. Now, McWilliams’ sacrifice manifests in players scribbling signatures on posters during postgame autograph sessions for excited kids, healthy community support, and packed gyms of fans.

This work is personal for McWilliams-Franklin, who spoke passionately when reminiscing on her upbringing of being homeless for a period while growing up in Augusta, Georgia. It’s her why. Before committing full-time to Upshot, McWilliams-Franklin worked for the WNBA as Player Relations and Development Director. This role served as a bridge, helping players navigate life after hoops.

“For me, you talk about leaving a legacy,” McWilliams-Franklin said. “I think Candace Parker mentioned that on her podcast about leaving a legacy. How can I leave the best legacy? The points, the rebounds, all those scoring things that I had, they’ll disappear. Someone will pass it. I mean, A’ja Wilson’s broken everybody’s record, so I know my rebound and blocked shot, all those are going to be broken, but what’s going to remain?

“What are you giving? I mean, as basketball players, we take a lot, we take from the game, we take from the fans, the energy, take the money, and for me, what can I give back for everything they’ve given me? Now, I’m in a space to give someone else a dream they have and help facilitate what that looks like for them. It means quite a bit to me that words can’t explain. … Upshot is about the opportunity to play, the opportunity to grow and develop and be more than what people thought we were.”

‘Success and a lesson’

They are silent partners, the hoop dreams and the women, tethered for life. Dreams give their sacrifice meaning. Spending an extra hour shooting, lifting weights, and watching film provides the fuel that keeps them going, even when the sport snarls back, twists ankles, or stretches knee ligaments beyond their limits.

Backs are cracked. Ice bags melt. Tiny beads of water slide down plastic and pool on aching knees. The screech of sneakers mingles with the chorus of encouragement and groans of frustration. It’s the necessary rent of those dreams.

Just when any of them consider walking away, the game delivers a “hey big head” text and whispers sweet nothings to them because, after all, dreams demand endurance.

“The only words I can say are I am blessed,” Johnson said. “A lot of people say success and failure. I say it’s a success and a lesson. It’s a challenge. You’ve got to go through stuff to get to where you want to go. I had to go through a lot of things to get to where I’m at now, and if I had stopped, then obviously, y’all wouldn’t be seeing me, but you’ve got to keep pushing through if you really love this game. Or even if you just love whatever you do in life, you’ve just got to keep going. I know it’s probably very simple, but it means a lot, and you’ve got to remember why you’re in this position, and who helped you get to this position.”

Meanwhile, as the sounds of Michael Jackson, Notorious BIG, Survivor, and Jay Z blared during pregame warmups, fans wearing blue-and-green Groove gear and carrying colorful signs sat, took pictures, bought merchandise from the pop-up store at one end of the basket, and checked their phones. The faint scent of hot dogs, popcorn, and nachos wafted through the arena as players laughed, clapped, and prepared.

During rousing player introductions, smoke billowed to the roof from black machines situated on the floor as each member of the Greensboro starting five made theatrical entrances through the haze and onto the court. Emerging through a tunnel of outstretched hands constructed on trust, sweat, and shared dreams in a darkened facility, players transformed it into a stage.

While fans cheered the Groove players running through the smoke, what they couldn’t see were the lonely moments sitting glumly in airports after being waived, crushing fatigue, numerous setbacks, and the determination that dominated their imaginations, carrying them to this moment.

The dream of playing professional basketball in America is a reality for every player in this league, yet beneath the surface lies the ultimate aspiration of earning a WNBA roster spot. In an odd irony, these women have already proved they belonged, yet they are still being asked to prove themselves again.

It’s why the suffering becomes an investment in something bigger than themselves.

During this journey, perspective has also become a gift, especially as they play the game, they’ve dedicated their lives to. Playing professional basketball in America is a significant victory and not a consolation prize. Just three years, there was only one chance to play professionally in America and that was in the WNBA. Now, there’s Athletes Unlimited, Unrivaled, and Upshot, all with different functions, but the same goal of creating more professional women’s basketball opportunities in the United States.

“Staying grounded and being thankful no matter what happens because a lot of people will wish to be in this position,” Timmons said. “There are a lot of people going through a lot of harder things, and all I have to do as a basketball player is just to go out there and compete. We have people in the army fighting for this country. So, I mean, I’m just here playing basketball, so I think that’s not even as hard as anybody else. So, I’m very thankful for that.”

Meanwhile, Johnson is one of many quality players shining a light on the Upshot League, giving the fledgling circuit instant credibility with their talent, toughness, and tenacity. Nights like this following a Greensboro victory, fans lingering for photos, with Johnson’s radiant smile cutting through the dim arena are part of building something new and exciting.

She’s done it before.

When Johnson thinks of her road, she’s forever grateful for her two years at Norfolk State, where she was part of a program that won 30 games as a senior. The IX wrote an in-depth feature of the Spartans’ successful campaign. She remains in a group chat with all her former teammates, still has her apartment in Norfolk, and travels back often during her off days.

“That was one of my best experiences of my life,” Johnson said of her time at Norfolk State. “It was very special. The stuff that we did on and off the court, I mean, that’s a bond that you can never break. … One of my goals when I decided to transfer there was to shine light on those smaller schools. I’m just glad people are deciding to give HBCUs the chances. You never know what your experience is going to be like.”

From Norfolk State to Greensboro, the stage has changed, but the mission hasn’t: keep shining, keep elevating, keep giving people something to believe in. The journey may be unfinished, but the joy is unmistakable because Johnson keeps showing up with a smile regardless of the cost of those dreams.