Kara Braxton death: Two-time WNBA champ with Detroit Shock, dies at 43
Kara Braxton, who won two WNBA championships during her 10-year career, has died at the age of 43.
“It is with deep sadness that we mourn the passing of two-time WNBA champion Kara Braxton,” the WNBA said in a statement Sunday. “Our thoughts are with his family, friends and former teammates at this time.”
No cause of death was given.
Born in Jackson, Michigan, with his twin sister Kim, Braxton played high school basketball at Jackson High for one season and at Westview High in Portland, Oregon, for three seasons.
Braxton, a 6-foot-6 power forward, played at the University of Georgia from 2001 to 2004, earning SEC freshman and first-team all-conference honors in 2002. She averaged 15.4 points and 7.3 rebounds per game in her three seasons with the Bulldogs.
“Rest in peace Kara,” Georgia Basketball posted on X.
Braxton was selected by the Detroit Shock 7th overall in the 2005 draft. She spent 5 1/2 seasons with the team, winning the WNBA championship in 2006 and 2008 and earning her only All-Star nomination in 2007. She also played for the Phoenix Mercury from 2010 to 2011 and the New York Liberty from 2011 to 2014, finishing with career averages of 7.6 points and 4.7 rebounds per game.
Kara Braxton of the New York Liberty grabs the ball between Tammy Sutton-Brown of the Indiana Fever, left, and Tamika Catchings on September 17, 2011.
(Mel Evans/Associated Press)
“We mourn the loss of Kara Braxton, a former Liberty player whose presence and passion left a lasting impact on our organization and women’s soccer,” the Liberty wrote Sunday on X. “Our hearts go out to her family, friends, teammates and all those who were touched by her spirit. Her impact will not be forgotten.”
Braxton is survived by her husband Jarvis Jackson and two sons, Jelani Thurman and Jream Jackson.
Thurman, a tight end who played three seasons at Ohio State before transferring to North Carolina last month, posted a number of tributes to his mother on his Instagram Story, including a photo of her kissing him as a baby during a Shock media day photoshoot.
“I’m going to miss my queen,” Thurman wrote alongside another photo, which appears to show him as an older child wearing his mother’s No. 45 jersey to school.
Thurman also posted a video of an interview around the time Ohio State won the 2024 national championship in which he was asked what lessons he learned from his mother that helped him get to this point.
“Man, she taught me to always go hard,” Thurman said. “There is only one goal, you know what you have to do.”
