Former WNBA, Detroit Shock F Kara Braxton dies at 43
Longtime WNBA forward Kara Braxton, who won a pair of titles with the Detroit Shock, died on Sunday, the league and her former teams confirmed.
She was 43. Further specifics of her death are not yet known.
It is with profound sadness that we mourn the passing of 2x WNBA Champion Kara Braxton.
— WNBA (@WNBA) February 23, 2026
A 10-season veteran, Kara played with the Detroit Shock, Tulsa Shock, Phoenix Mercury, and New York Liberty. Our thoughts are with her family, friends, and former teammates at this time. pic.twitter.com/0I71xWCWfW
Braxton spent a decade in the NBA after a dominant run at Georgia, where she was the SEC's Rookie of the Year as a freshman. The Shock selected her with the No. 7 overall pick in 2005, and she spent her first five full seasons in the league with the organization. She helped them win a pair of WNBA championships, too, first in 2006 and again in 2008.
Braxton earned her only All-Star nod during the 2007 campaign, too. She averaged 6.7 points and 5.4 rebounds during that season. The Shock reached the Finals that summer, too, but ended up falling to the Phoenix Mercury.
Braxton was dealt to Phoenix in 2010 after the Shock moved to Tulsa. She was moved a year later to the New York Liberty, too, where she spent her final four seasons before she left after the 2014 season. In total, Braxton averaged 7.6 points and 4.7 rebounds in 297 games throughout her career. She also won a pair of Polish league championships and was the Chinese league MVP in 2010.
Braxton returned to Georgia to finish her degree and graduate officially in 2024.
Rest in peace Kara 🕊️
— Georgia Basketball 🏀🐶 (@UGA_WBB) February 23, 2026
Georgia mourns the loss of former Lady Bulldog Kara Braxton, who played from 2002-04. pic.twitter.com/4bKYMzur4c
Braxton's oldest son, Jelani Thurman, is a tight end who spent the past three seasons at Ohio State. He won a national title with the Buckeyes in 2024, too, and has since transferred to North Carolina. Braxton, who worked for Nike for several years after retiring from basketball in 2019, relocated back to the Atlanta area. She is also survived by her husband, Jarvis Jackson, and their young son, Jream.
Blues get shocking Jordan Binnington trade update after Olympics
Blues get shocking Jordan Binnington trade update after Olympics originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Jordan Binnington came up so close to Olympic gold medal glory with Team Canada.
But after a tough 2-1 defeat to Team USA, Binnington will head back to his NHL team, the St. Louis Blues.
If a new rumor is to be believed, Binnington may not be with St. Louis forever.
NHL insider David Pagnotta reported late in the Olympics that there are teams interested in trading for Binnington.
MORE: Jack Hughes, not a miracle, just magic
Pagnotta does add that unless there's an injury elsewhere, teams may wait to trade for Binnington until the offseason.
The Blues are looking at being a seller at this trade deadline, but to wait and then trade Binnington in the offseason would also be fascinating.
The Blues have Binnington to thank for their 2019 Stanley Cup championship. He was so good in net that series.
MORE: Team USA honors Johnny Gaudreau in special way after gold medal
Since then, the Blues have never returned to those full heights, but Binnington is clearly a leader for both his NHL team and his international team.
Just because Canada came up short Sunday doesn't mean Binnington is on a downswing in any way. If the Canadians had showed up offensively at all, Binnington would be the winner of the gold medal game instead of the loser.
Will the Blues trade a guy like that? Stay tuned. It might take a while.
More NHL news:
- Auston Matthews, Maple Leafs now forced to face tough reality
- Jack Hughes has forever changed his value
- Zach Werenski made 'the play before The Play'
- Connor Hellebuyck has changed his story forever
- Alex Ovechkin has shared an update on his retirement plans
- Evgeni Malkin gets big news on a possible future
Reddick Secures Back-to-Back Wins, 23XI Leads Standings
Tyler Reddick was excited, but 23XI Racing co-owner Michael Jordan was ecstatic as his 30-year-old driver became the first competitor since Matt Kenseth in 2009 to secure a victory in the season’s first two NASCAR Cup Series races.
Reddick’s 10th career victory coupled with Bubba Wallace’s eighth-place finish in Sunday’s Autotrader 400 at EchoPark Speedway gave 23XI Racing the first two positions in the Cup driver point standings. Reddick is first and Wallace is second, 40 points in arrears.
However, it was Reddick’s powerful drive to victory in a damaged race car that fueled Jordan’s jubilation.
“I feel bad for Bubba, obviously, because he had an unbelievable day, but Tyler drove his ass off,” an excited Jordan said after the race that ended in double overtime. “Tyler did an unbelievable job. Both teams did an unbelievable job. For us to come out and win the first two races says a lot about our whole team.”
Reddick and Wallace combined to lead 99 of the race’s 271 laps. In the race that had 57 lead changes among 14 drivers, Reddick set the pace on 13 occasions for 53 laps while Wallace led 10 times for 46 laps.
“Truly crazy,” Reddick said about the 2026 season’s first two weeks. “For a number of years, we would leave Daytona, the first couple of races, and kind of be in the hole in points… in the 30s. We were able to claw out of it, whether it’s win races or whatever the deal was, and get back where we needed to be. For us to get through two chaotic races with a lot of points is a great start.”
Despite Reddick possessing a powerful Toyota from the race’s beginning, it appeared his victory chances disappeared on lap 224 when he was involved in a nine-car accident on the 1.54-mile track’s front stretch. Repairs were numerous, including removal of the car’s right-front fender, but crew chief Billy Scott said they realized they had speed.
“We definitely preached to him to stay in line, poke left front out, keep the right front hidden behind other cars,” Scott said. “But I guess when you take the lead on the last three-quarters of a lap, you don’t have much of a choice.”
Reddick said after his Toyota suffered the damage, Scott told him to aim for a top-15 finish.
“In some ways I kind of didn’t listen,” Reddick said. “I kind of drove it into turn one and turn three on the first lap after crashing at about a 10 out of 10. I’m glad I did because I guess on one hand I could have crashed all by myself, but I was able to really understand what we needed if we had another caution to further repair the car to help the now loose handling that we had in our car from the right-front being gone.
“It’s funny how that just kind of works. I always have kind of driven past the limit to find the limit. In a situation like that, it kind of helped us get our car more where it needed to be at the very end.”
When the race restarted in the second overtime, Reddick was behind Wallace on the inside with Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe behind Reddick. Carson Hocevar led the outside lane with Ross Chastain behind him. Charging down the backstretch, Wallace pulled up to block Hocevar, but went too high and Hocevar shot to his inside. Briscoe closed on Reddick’s bumper. Thanks to a shove from Briscoe, Reddick took a narrow lead over Hocevar as they received the white flag and then extended it as Chastain fell in behind Briscoe. Reddick finished 0.164-second ahead of Briscoe. The race’s top 13 drivers finished less than a second behind Reddick. Denny Hamlin, who finished 13th, was 0.885 second behind Reddick.
NASCAR Cup Series Race
Autotrader 400
Atlanta Motor Speedway
Sunday’s Results
FINISH/START/CAR/DRIVER/MANUFACTURER/LAPS
1. (1) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 271
2. (34) Chase Briscoe, Toyota, 271
3. (21) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 271
4. (15) Carson Hocevar, Chevrolet, 271
5. (12) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 271
6. (28) Shane Van Gisbergen, Chevrolet, 271
7. (6) Zane Smith, Ford, 271
8. (9) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 271
9. (26) Ryan Preece, Ford, 271
10. (22) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 271
11. (4) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 271
12. (19) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 271
13. (29) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 271
14. (11) Noah Gragson, Ford, 271
15. (7) Chris Buescher, Ford, 271
16. (17) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 271
17. (5) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 271
18. (2) Joey Logano, Ford, 271
19. (24) John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, 271
20. (71) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 271
21. (32) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 271
22. (27) Cole Custer, Chevrolet, 270
23. (36) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 269
24. (23) Erik Jones, Toyota, 269
25. (35) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 258 Accident
26. (30) Austin Cindric, Ford, 257 Accident 2
27. (18) Cody Ware, Chevrolet, 257 Accident
28. (13) William Byron, Chevrolet, 256 Accident
29. (33) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 256 Accident
30. (31) Connor Zilisch, Chevrolet, 223 Accident
31. (38) JJ Yeley, Chevrolet, 220 Accident
32. (16) Kyle Larson Valvoline, Chevrolet, 160 Accident
33. (8) Riley Herbst, Toyota, 157
34. (14) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 124
35. (37) BJ McLeod, Chevrolet, 111 Accident
36. (3) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 103 Accident
37. (25) Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 81 Accident
38. (10) Josh Berry, Ford, 81 Accident
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 32 Mins, 27 Secs
Average Speed: 117.865 MPH
Margin of Victory: 0.164 Seconds
Stage 1 Top 10: 2, 23, 5, 24, 9, 45, 8, 22, 88, 12
Stage 2 Top 10: 23, 24, 19, 45, 9, 77, 60, 12, 6, 97
Fastest Lap Bonus: #41, lap 246/29.715
Failed to Qualify: None
Caution Flags: 10 for 67 laps; Laps: 62-68 (Stage 1 Conclusion [77]); 83-92 (Nos. 11, 20, 21, 35, 41, 42, 54, 78 Incident Turn 3 [77]); 104-110 (Nos. 3, 34, 35, 38, 41, 47, 78 Incident Turn 2 [None]); 126-131 (No. 8 Incident Backstretch [44]); 161-169 (Nos. 5, 97 Incident Turn 4 / Stage 2 Conclusion [34]); 200-204 (No. 97 Spin Turn 4 [34]); 225-231 (Nos. 11, 16, 17, 22, 24, 45, 48, 71, 88 Incident Frontstretch [44]); 239-243 (Nos. 22, 77 Incident Turn 4 [48]); 258-265 (Nos. 2, 3, 4, 11, 22, 24, 34, 41, 42, 43, 51 Incident Turn 3 [Red Flag 00:10:31] [48]); 267-269 (Nos. 1, 20, 23, 45, 77 Incident Turn 1 [22]).
Lead Changes: 57 among 14 drivers; T. Reddick 0; J. Logano 1; T. Reddick 2; J. Logano 3; T. Reddick 4-5; J. Logano 6-18; T. Reddick 19-23; B. Keselowski 24-28; T. Reddick 29; C. Elliott 30; B. Keselowski 31-33; T. Reddick 34; J. Logano 35-45; C. Elliott 46-53; K. Larson 54; C. Elliott 55-56; K. Larson 57; B. Wallace 58-59; A. Cindric 60-63; B. Keselowski 64; K. Larson 65-71; B. Wallace 72-79; K. Larson 80-87; S. Van Gisbergen 88; K. Larson 89-100; B. Wallace 101-102; T. Reddick 103-109; B. Wallace 110; T. Reddick 111-121; B. Wallace 122; T. Reddick 123-130; B. Wallace 131; T. Reddick 132-133; K. Larson 134-142; B. Wallace 143; K. Larson 144-149; C. Briscoe 150-155; K. Larson 156-159; B. Wallace 160-164; C. Hocevar 165; R. Blaney 166-169; Z. Smith 170; B. Keselowski 171; D. Hamlin 172-176; C. Briscoe 177-196; R. Blaney 197; C. Briscoe 198; B. Wallace 199-200; C. Hocevar 201; D. Hamlin 202-204; T. Reddick 205-206; D. Hamlin 207-208; T. Reddick 209-219; R. Blaney 220; A. Cindric 221-237; C. Bell 238-246; B. Wallace 247-269; T. Reddick 270-271.