After 24 seasons in Connecticut, the Sun has officially set.
The end of the Sun’s time as a WNBA franchise was more than just a final season or a final game. It was a gradual process of saying goodbye, packing up and preparing for the next chapter, all while trying to honor 24 seasons of history.
At the team’s final shootaround on Thursday morning, players were given boxes to clean out and pack up their lockers, which had to be cleared by the end of the night. With multiple events planned to take place in the coming days, it would be their last day inside the arena.
At the end of shootaround, the players took part in their game day half court shooting contest, competing for prize money. After they had taken their shots, staff members joined in, with players stepping up to shoot on behalf of those who chose not to participate.
“This is for Morgan [Tuck]. Morgan [Tuck] this is for you!” Connecticut Sun rookie guard Charlisse Leger-Walker shouted before running toward the basket and banking the ball in.
She immediately ran toward Tuck and embraced her.
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The goodbye began before the final game
For some members of the organization, the goodbye began a month earlier, when the Sun played its final game in Boston. Over the years, the city has embraced the Sun with sell-out games at TD Garden and plenty of excitement, all while building a connection with the only WNBA franchise in the entire New England region.
That meaningful connection has even extended to the Sun’s own staff, particularly senior director of brand development and communications, Alexandra Maund, who grew up in Dorchester and has dedicated half a decade to the franchise.
Last year, there was also a chance that Boston was a potential destination for the franchise when a Boston-based group led by Steve Pagliuca had made a $325 million offer to purchase and relocate the team, along with an additional $100 million to build a dedicated training facility. The deal, however, never went into fruition.
A few weeks after this year’s Boston game, the WNBA went into a FIBA World Cup break. During that time, the staff, particularly the Public Relations (PR) department, began cleaning out their offices as the organization continued to wind down ahead of the final buzzer at Mohegan Sun Arena.
The Connecticut Sun’s director of content, Asia McMillan, started packing up her office about a month before the season ended, which was a little earlier than most.
“My team rooms were like, ‘Are you good?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m just getting a head start on things.’ I had to clean all of my stuff out and take a lot of stuff home,” McMillan told The IX Sports.
McMillan shared that the rest of her team’s offices weren’t as clean as hers. By then, there was nothing left on her office walls.
What the Sun meant to its players and its fans
The Sun meant something different to each player. For guard Saniya Rivers, it meant finding a home.
“This is probably one of the best experiences I’ve ever had in my life,” Rivers told reporters during shootaround on Thursday. “Obviously, this is where I got drafted, and I felt like I was at home from the jump. I felt like I had the fan support from day one. If I would come in here and score 20 points, if I come in here and score zero points, they’d still love me the same.
So I say the loyalty was real, and the support was real, and it was genuine, and yeah, they showed up night in, night out, and you can’t ask for anything more than that.”
For Sun forward Aaliyah Edwards, Connecticut had been home long before she joined the team. She spent four years at UConn and one and a half seasons with the Sun, with fans supporting her since her freshman year of college.
“I know that it’s even more meaningful for them, and more heartbreaking for them as well to see us go, especially a pro team that’s been so dear and close to their hearts for so long, and also to the WNBA. It’s a legendary time. It’s a legendary organization, and they really paved the way for pro hoops in the state of Connecticut. So, to be a part of that, it’s amazing,” Edwards told reporters during shootaround on Thursday.
Olivia Nelson-Ododa spent eight years in Connecticut, four at UConn and four with the Sun. Fans had the chance to watch her grow from a teenager into a professional player, and she often heard from those who had followed her journey across both programs.
“I think there’s so many fans that cross over, UConn fans, Connecticut Sun fans,” Nelson-Ododa told reporters at shootaround on Thursday. “…When I just hear that or hear those little tidbits that they tell me, like, ‘Oh, I’ve watched you since college, and I’ve seen your growth’ and it just means the world. So, like I said, I just keep going back to that support, that support and that energy, that this fan base carries is everything, and it just meant the most to me as a player being able to play here.”
Nelson-Ododa also reflected on the Mohegan Tribe’s investment in the team and in women’s sports.
“It’s definitely bittersweet. I think it’s good that you know the league is expanding in this way. But at the same time, it’s just nice to recognize how much Mohegan has invested in the WNBA and also our team and women’s sports in general,” Nelson-Ododa said.
That support extended beyond players who had attended college at UConn and spent years in the state. Leger-Walker said she was “blown away all the time” by the letters and gifts she received from fans.
“Like they don’t have to do any of that, but they choose to, and that makes me so appreciative of their time and their willingness to do it,” Leger-walker told reporters during her exit interview on Thursday. “But I feel like I’ve built already in such a short amount of time a really good connection with the fan base, and it’s going to be really sad to leave and part ways with them just because I know how much this team means to them”
The connection between the team and its fans was felt inside Mohegan Sun Arena, too. Edwards described the atmosphere for someone who may never have experienced it firsthand.
“It’s almost like when you know that a storm is coming, but you don’t know when,” Edwards said. “You don’t know when it’s gonna hit you, but when it does hit, it hits hard. And what I mean by that is… If you’re not the home team here and you’re playing in Mohegan, you think that you got it. You might hit a couple shots, might hit a couple layups, a couple baskets. But once we go on a run, oh, it’s over with. It’s over with. It’s gonna hit you hard, and you guys aren’t gonna be able to come back from it. So I think that the atmosphere is very storm-like, very dominant, very loud, disruptive. So that’s how I would describe it.”
The people behind the scenes
For McMillan, the Connecticut Sun was more than just a workplace. Since joining the organization in 2024, she had watched her team grow while building her own career in professional sports.
McMillan’s time with the Sun marked her first opportunity to work in professional sports outside of freelancing. As the team’s director of content, she also had the chance to help others take their first steps in the industry.
“Definitely, just like the camaraderie,” McMillan said when asked what some of her favorite memories are. “Getting to know my team, getting to know different people, personalities, and honestly, seeing my team grow has been a huge success for me. So, seeing them grow the last two seasons, seeing people that I have hired, this is their first opportunity in the WNBA. So really just seeing that progression in their careers”
After some thought, McMillan has decided to relocate with the team to Houston for the 2027 WNBA season. But as the Sun’s time in Connecticut came to an end, she hadn’t fully processed what the move would mean for her yet.
“To be honest, it’s like a blur kind of right now,” McMillan said. “It probably won’t really kick in for me until I’m there and have my place and everything locked in… It’s like the unknown, right? You know, change can be scary, or you can kind of embrace it and just kind of go with the flow. And that’s usually how I am. I just like to go with the flow with things.”
One of McMillan’s most memorable moments with the Sun came when she got to tell Alyssa Thomas that she made the 2024 U.S. Olympic team and see her reaction to it.
Even as the franchise prepared for its next chapter, the work in Connecticut continued. Staff members still had games to produce and responsibilities to fulfill. From press releases to game day operations and marketing, there was still a job to do, even as the goodbyes began.
McMillan said much of that work happened behind the scenes, often requiring staff to adapt to last-minute changes while continuing to deliver for fans.
“It’s just so much that goes on behind the scenes that people don’t realize or people don’t understand or know. But just knowing how we have come together and doing stuff last minute, not on our own accord, but because things change so frequently, coming together, getting it done, putting on a great show and production for fans night in and night out,” McMillan said.
Balancing a goodbye with the future
When Tuck first became the general manager of the Sun, she and team president Jennifer Rizzotti saw a vision and began working to bring it to life. The franchise’s move to Houston wasn’t a part of the original vision, but Tuck is excited about the opportunity to see it through, even though it means leaving Connecticut behind after 14 years.
“I think it’s hard to walk away from something that you really believe in and that you can see the potential in,” Tuck told reporters pregame before the last game.
Tuck and Rizzotti wanted to make this final Sun season as special as possible for its supporters, staff and players. The franchise had the opportunity to give Connecticut a farewell season — something not every team that folds or relocates gets.
Together they helped make the season, dubbed “Sunset Season,” as memorable as possible. Part of that effort involved honoring former players and coaches as Sun Legends. Former stars, including Alyssa Thomas, Tina Charles and Jasmine Thomas, returned, along with former head coaches Curt Miller and Mike Thibault. Each was gifted a commemorative varsity jacket and a mini version of the Sun Legends banner that will remain inside the arena.
For Tuck, it was important to appreciate the final season in Connecticut while also preparing for what comes next. As general manager, looking ahead is part of the job, but she wanted to make sure the organization made the most of its final chapter in the state.
“I think really trying to enjoy it and to just say like okay let’s do our due diligence to make it the best experience as possible for everyone here in Connecticut and for ourselves, and that we feel like we’re ending it in the right way, right?” Tuck said.
“We don’t want to have any regrets, and then by also at the same time planning for the future, and understanding that you know this is a step in the process, and you know it’s maybe an end here, but it’s not an end to our team, right? It’s not an end to our players and what they’re going to do on the court. So I think you just try to work on both at the same time.”
With the season over, Tuck and Rizzotti still had exit interviews and season review ahead of them before turning their attention fully to Houston.
For head coach Rachid Meziane, Connecticut was where he began his WNBA head coaching career. He expressed gratitude to the Sun for giving him the opportunity and trusting him to lead the team, a chance to coach and be the first French head coach in this league, that he said he will never forget.
“So first, I want to be very grateful because, like you said, they gave me this chance, to be a head coach in the best league in the world, to work with the best players or at least to play against the best players in the world,” Meziane told reporters after shootaround on Thursday. “I will never forget that. I will never forget the trust they put in me as well”
For Meziane saying goodbye to this franchise also meant leaving behind the relationships he built during his time here.
“But I want to be grateful,” Meziane said. “I don’t want to forget anything from my experience in Connecticut. I really met a lot of good people, good players, but also good people in the organization. Some of them became friends. It will be tough to say bye to everyone. But who knows the future. So I hope that I will keep these people around me somewhere else.”
Meziane’s younger brother, Adil, has been in town to support him and help him pack up his belongings. With the season over, Meziane could begin to process the end of his time in Connecticut and the relationships he hoped to carry with him.
The IX Sports requested an interview with Rizzotti to discuss the process of winding down the organization’s time in Connecticut. However, the team did not make Rizzotti available for an interview before publication.
What they take with them
As the Sun’s time in Connecticut came to an end, the people who had helped shape the organization were preparing to take different paths. The offices would be cleared, the lockers emptied, and the work of moving forward would continue.
For Nelson-Ododa, what mattered most was how she would be remembered — both for the way she played and the connection she built with the fans.
“Just to be remembered as a player that competed, gave it their all, sacrificed for my team, and it was just a pleasure not only for my teammates and organization, but for the fans as well. And so I hope that I was able to give them that, and hopefully we can garner the same type of support going to Houston too,” Nelson-Ododa said.
