For the Connecticut Sun, a season defined by injuries, losses and the impending end of an era in their home territory was about more than what happened on the court. Despite their 11-33 record and young, inexperienced roster, the bonds the teammates built were strong and lasting.
All season long, the Sun found ways to make memories together, whether that meant filming TikToks, live-streaming on social media or cooking meals for one another. Through the highs and lows of a difficult season, those moments offered a reminder that the team’s identity extended beyond the basketball court.
Navigating an injury-plagued season
This season came with big challenges right from the start. It was the franchise’s final season in Connecticut and the players felt pressure to put the best product possible out on the floor. The Sun were also the second-youngest team (average age of 24.57), right behind the Washington Mystics (average age of 23.92).
On top of those two factors, injuries overshadowed their season, with veteran center Brittney Griner sidelined for a good chunk of her time in Connecticut.
“These girls are a lot of fun. There’s never a shortage of laughter. That’s for sure. But yeah, you learn a lot your rookie season, and with the craziness of how our season went, from different amounts of injuries to games. It was a roller coaster,” Sun forward Raegan Beers told reporters during her exit interview.
Beers credited the teammates who shared the paint with her this season, Sun forward Aaliyah Edwards, Griner and Sun center Olivia Nelson-Ododa in particular. Edwards gave Beers her flowers and reflected on taking on an increased role this season.
“This season I was really challenged with the task from coach and from my teammates to just be more of a vocal leader, especially since we had such a young roster … Shout out Reagan [Beers] too. She took on a lot of load in a short period of time, when we were down a lot of bigs, and I’m just super proud of her, because it’s not easy as a rookie being thrown into the fire, thrown into the pit with such short notice,” Edwards told reporters during her exit interview.
Griner started the season emphasizing her future dreams to be a head coach, and the Sun offered her an opportunity to contribute to the team’s player development. Throughout the season, Griner sat on the bench and coached up her teammates, especially Beers, who she offered tips to help elevate her game inside the paint.
“I’ve seen her growth and her confidence on the court, from the beginning. You see the steps where [she’s] hesitant, like should I do this? Should I not do this? She didn’t want to use her body the way we needed her to use it. She was like, I guess nervous to do it. We were like, ‘no, like what? No, you are amazing,’” Griner told reporters during her exit interview.
Rookie guard Ashlon Jackson credited her veterans for helping her get through some of the mental challenges of the season.
“Without BG, Liv [Nelson-Ododa], this year, I don’t even know where I would be,” Jackson told reporters during exit interviews. “They helped me so much, and I’m the type of player like, if I have a bad game, okay, cool, it’s part of the game. If I have a few bad games, or if I think I’m doing bad … I can tend to either get down on myself or just I don’t know. But the game is mental, 90% of it is at least, and just being able to really lean on them and have them in my ear saying, ‘bro, you’re a rookie, essentially, you’re a freshman in college.’
“‘Like, relax’,” she continued. “‘You have a million people who want to be in your spot right now. Let’s play your game. You’ve been playing it since you were little,’ and yeah, that’s really just what I leaned on this year for sure, and being able to give myself grace in the areas where I can to improve it.”
The relentlessness of this group shined through during the last game of the season, when the rookie class scored nearly half of the team’s total points.
“I think we’re such a young core. Most of us are still on a rookie contract, and we’re like, ‘let’s just do it,’ you know. And everybody just wants to grow together. And I think with that, we’re all nitpicking each other and hearing each other out and getting feedback from one another,” Sun forward Diamond Miller told reporters during exit interviews.
Growing amid the struggles
At the start of the season, guard/forward Kennedy Burke hadn’t been in a leadership role before, but as the second-oldest player on the roster, the coaching staff had high expectations for her.
“Being a vet has taught me that being a vocal leader to young players in the league, especially rookies, is really important. But also at the same time that you can also learn from the rookies as well. I feel like the rookies that we have taught me a lot. That no matter how young, how old you are in the league, that you could always have a voice. I think throughout the entire season, I did say that I was working on it, and I feel like I have, but there’s still room to grow,” Burke told reporters during exit interviews.
Similar to Burke, guard Saniya Rivers had to find her voice. She is only a second-year player but she was forced to take on a leadership role and embraced it.
“I didn’t have a choice. You know what I mean?” Rivers told reporters during exit interviews. “It’s just like we didn’t have too many vets on this team. We were all basically still learning and growing together. Obviously, it’s my second year, still on rookie contract, but we had fresh rookies who had never been in the league before. So, I remember the coaches coming to me like, ‘Yo, you got to be a little more vocal this season.’ I’m like, ‘Me? Like I’m a rookie too. Like what? What do you mean?’ I just embraced it, embraced the challenge.
“I really turned a new leaf as far as vocalizing and holding people accountable,” Rivers continued. “I think it’s hard because I’m such a nice person, and telling people, especially my friends and my teammates, about themselves. Sometimes it would get a little tricky, but I think that’s the beauty about this team. It’s just that we can hold each other accountable, and we can do a TikTok the next five minutes. I think we just know it’s for the betterment of each other and the betterment of the team.”
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Beers came into the league unused to sitting on the bench. She was the star of the team for both Oregon State (2022-2024) and Oklahoma (2024-2026). And her biggest challenge while adjusting to the WNBA was not exerting her physicality, but rather, learning how to use her strength to her advantage.
She found herself getting in foul trouble quickly when she entered the game. She also began to see more minutes towards the end of the season with Griner and Nelson-Ododa both out.
“It’s a physical game, and so trying to figure out when to use my physicality, how to use my physicality, was a big area that I think I got better at and have plenty of room to grow in for sure,” Beers said. “But there are little moments where you could see improvement, and I felt improvement, and I got feedback that I was improving a little bit here and there … And again, having people like BG and Liv and Aaliyah, to be able to just remind me that it’s okay. It’s okay to be physical. That’s part of the game. You just gotta figure out how to use it.”
Diamond Miller, like Beers, gained a lot of confidence this season. Miller was selected second overall in the 2023 WNBA draft by the Minnesota Lynx, where she started 32 games. Last season, she was traded to the Dallas Wings before being traded to the Connecticut Sun this most recent offseason.
Miller said she “really tried to find” herself this season and, whatever that may be, playing that way on the court. She particularly gained more confidence in her 3-point shot.
“I think my confidence has been shown a lot more this season,” Miller said. “You can see it during the screaming, the competitiveness of my nature, but that’s how I play, and that’s how I wish I could have shown for the last couple of seasons. But it is what it is. I’m happy I got to show it this year, and it was just a taste to me, and I’m just really excited to keep tasting what I could be in the W and in my career because when I’m on, it’s really beautiful to watch … I definitely took a step in the right direction on being a consistent three-point shooter and just being confident in my shot.”
Connecticut’s coaching staff instilled trust in Miller and she started every game except one this season, which she missed due to injury.
Beyond the basketball court
The Connecticut Sun’s locker-room culture helped the team navigate the highs and lows of the season. The off-court memories they shared and the support everyone showed one another were something the players always appreciated, even if the season didn’t go the way they wanted it to.
At the beginning of the season, a clip of the players doing the splits in the locker room — including 6-foot-9 Griner — spread throughout the internet.
Once they were officially eliminated from playoff contention, it didn’t change anything for the players. They still wanted to go out there every night and compete for one another.
“We walked out of that locker room. We walked in that locker room every single day, and I think we had a smile on our face. Even when it was hard to smile, we found a way to pull through and still build towards something,” Griner said.
Burke said that the team’s ability to stay positive, especially for a young squad, is hard to replicate.
“Despite the record that we have, we just knew how to stay together and just keep that chemistry off the court … That when you’re not winning a lot of games, sometimes the locker room is not that great, but our locker room is great. So shout out to my team and shout out to the players. Like it’s just so much love,” Burke said.
For guard Gianna Kneepkens, some of the memories and relationships she made with her teammates this year will be something she will always remember.
“Honestly, I feel like it’s the little moments, where we’re in the locker room before games, or you know the times we’ll go get dinner together as a team on away trips. I think it’s those little moments that kind of built our chemistry,” Kneepkens told reporters during her exit interview.
Rookie guard Charlisse Leger-Walker, along with Rivers, would make a dancing TikTok almost every game day, which eventually led to Leger-Walker teaching the team the viral dance to the song “WTF GOIN” by Belly Gang Kushington (feat. 21 Savage).
Guard Hailey Van Lith said the Sun’s pregame locker room environment reminded her of “how simple” can be.
“We would be interacting and laughing and listening to our music and like vibing as a team and it almost helped you relax in a way and kind of get to an even headspace, and those are my favorite moments. Normally in past situations where people would be super tight and anxious, we were almost always present with each other. So that helped me relax a lot and remember that we’re really just playing a basketball game,” Van Lith told reporters during exit interviews.
Offseason of growth
This offseason, the Sun players will travel all over the world before the next chapter for the organization begins in Houston. The players also have big plans to continue developing their games, which has been an emphasis for the staff over the past two seasons.
A majority of the roster plans to head overseas. Guard Leïla Lacan will be playing for Fenerbahçe in Euroleague this offseason but also has plans to play in Project B. Rookie guard Nell Angloma will join Lacan to play for Fenerbahçe.
A few players emphasized the need for some rest before playing again this offseason. Edwards plans to play in Unrivaled, which kicks off in January, so she will have time to rest her body, especially after a season where she experienced frequent injuries.
Leger-Walker is returning home to play in New Zealand for the Tokomanawa Queens. This opportunity allows Leger-Walker to share the court with her sister again. Van Lith will join Leger-Walker to play for the Queens as well.
“Obviously, having Charlisse is a big plus. Not only is she someone I know, but she’s from New Zealand, so that will help [with] the transition a lot, I think. But I’m excited, I’ve heard incredible things about New Zealand and just the experience that it could be,” Van Lith said. “And obviously, me and Charlisse have kind of built a cool relationship over the season, so I’m pumped to do it with her, and it’ll be fun. It’ll be fun to just get to play and compete and hike some mountains and go to the beach and do all that stuff. So it’ll be fun.”
Burke’s season ended early because of her shoulder injury, and she doesn’t have much time to recover before returning to Turkey.
“I think by then I’ll be completely healed. So, shout out to the trainers and the coaches for just being patient with me and just helping me get the stuff that I needed to be done for my shoulder and just for my overall physical health. And I’m gonna be just fine,” Burke said with a smile.
Another player will also be heading to Turkey — Nelson-Ododa will play for Galatasaray, where she said she wants to put herself in more uncomfortable situations to challenge herself and expand her skill set.
Rivers will not return to Unrivaled this offseason. She doesn’t have a specific team yet but plans to play overseas somewhere, with Project B also on the horizon.
“I don’t exactly know what I’m doing yet. I need to take a vacation. I need to just get away for a little bit, do something for my mental. So I plan on it, I just don’t know where yet. And as far as off season with basketball, I’m hoping Project B takes off,” Rivers said.
“I would love to possibly be a part of that,” she continued. “I’m not doing Unrivaled this season, so for the people that didn’t know, here it is. I’m not doing it, will not be returning. But I’m hoping to go overseas and play. Just get away, experience something new, working on my game, 5×5, so that’s what I’m excited for. Don’t know where yet, but stay tuned.”
Griner has plans to vacation overseas but is also looking forward to spending time with her son, Bash, who she doesn’t see often during the season.
“My biggest plan, honestly, is being with my son. Can’t wait to get to him, get to love on him. But yeah, I plan on going overseas actually. So I’m gonna go overseas and, not to play. Just going overseas to have some fun. Try to catch a game. Try to catch a Euroleague game,” Griner said.
Burke wants to use the offseason to continue making herself a threat for opponents, especially inside the paint.
“I definitely want to be more of a threat on the post, even though I am an undersized big, but really a guard, I do want to focus on just being more physical when I get on that post, to be able to score and guard against one of the best fours and fives in the league,” she said. “And then just improving my pull-up jumper and my pull-up threes. That’s something that I’m gonna consider and just working on … when I go to Turkey and just building that confidence over time as I continue to play.”
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Jackson, who started the season on a development contract, was able to prove herself and earn a standard contract with the team. She’s known to be a sharpshooter and scored a career-high 18 points while shooting 55% from behind the arc. This offseason, she wants to expand her game even more.
“I’d say for me personally, just being able to stay consistent and try to work on my inside game a little bit more. I can shoot the ball pretty well, but being able to create whenever I want, get to my spots, and just be really, really poised and consistent with the shots that I’m taking,” Jackson said. “And defensively, I want to get stronger. I want to lean up a little bit more and get quicker, really, because you got to go out there and guard Jackie Young, Chelsea [Gray]. You got to be able to guard.”
Edwards wants to do the opposite and continue to work on her outside game, which she excelled in more this season than in past seasons. This season, her field-goal percentage was 51.8% and her 3-point percentage was 38.9%, compared to 40% and 0%, respectively, last season.
“My basketball off-season goals [are] definitely to expand my perimeter game,” she emphasized. “I feel like I highlighted a lot of potential this season in terms of my depth of my three-point range … I haven’t checked the updated stats, but I think that I’m maybe 32 percent from three. Someone needs to check that. One point in the season, I was 40 [percent].
“So, man, they had to respect me on the scouting report,” Edwards continued. I think just expanding my game, being a three-level scorer, and I think that Unrivaled is going to help push that agenda and give me a lot of great moments to really work on my game in that aspect”
A new chapter in Houston
When the 2027 WNBA season begins, the franchise will have already moved to Houston. The Sun’s young core is something general manager Morgan Tuck has focused on and believes in for the team’s future as they navigate this transition.
“We’ve had a lot of moving pieces over the past couple years, and so I think it’s hard sometimes to have that chemistry where it’s genuine,” Tuck told reporters before the Sun’s last game. “And I think that they’ve done that really well …I think our young ones have done a good job of showing some of their potential. You know, how well will they do kind of over time, we have to wait and see. But luckily, we have a long offseason to kind of figure some of that out.”
For Lacan, Houston will be a huge change, having only been to Texas to play the Dallas Wings the past two seasons. She has enjoyed Connecticut; moving will be bittersweet for her.
“I’m kind of sad to leave here for now because I like nature places more, and the weather is good here, so I know Houston is more hot and more city. I saw some pictures of the facilities, so that is exciting. I’m sure I will like that too,” Lacan explained.
Nelson-Ododa will leave the state after spending eight years between playing college basketball at UConn and playing for the Sun, but she is excited for the next chapter.
“Yeah, I think just the excitement that the fans have for us in Houston, and you know it was already such a successful franchise in the past, and then just coming into so much history and just so much anticipation from the fans and just from the city in general is really exciting for us players,” Nelson-Ododa told reporters during her exit interview.
“And so it’s going to be something that’s just completely brand new, fresh, like a fresh new chapter, for all of us,” she continued. “But I’m definitely looking forward to how much the fans are willing to embrace us and are just excited to see us get there.”
Griner, a Houston native, talked about the basketball culture there and the legacy that the Houston Comets carry, as the team to have won the first WNBA titles.
“I just feel like that Houston pride. Like you’re from Texas, you’re from Houston. It’s just something different,” Griner said. “I don’t know, something in the air, something in the water, something in the city, something in the culture … [I’ve] always repped Houston my whole life. For the franchise to come back, man, it’s about time, honestly, for Houston to have a team. Basketball is super rich in Texas, super rich in Houston.
“The legacy that the Comets have, everything that those players did for the game. I mean, the teams that we have now today, and the players that are here still playing wouldn’t have happened without those players and without the Houston Comets,” she continued. “So for us to go back there and revive that and add to that legacy is big. I know the city is ready. Everybody is super ready.”
Rivers is ready for a fresh start, but that doesn’t mean change isn’t scary for her. She said she has been thinking about going to Houston early so she has extra time to get acclimated.
“I know that change can be scary, but it’s also so good for the soul. We’re just gonna have to adapt,” she said.
Jackson is a Texas native as well, having grown up in a city called China, about an hour from Houston. She’s looking forward to being closer to her family.
“I’ll tell you this: the moment that it was all over social media that I was coming here to be a development player, my phone did not stop ringing for three days straight,” she said. “My community, my family, they’ve been growing up watching me play, traveling to come watch me play, and just being able to finally be home … But knowing that I was coming home, so many people are so excited.”
