LOS ANGELES – Kara Braxton, who won two WNBA championships during a 10-year career, has died at age 43.

“It is with profound sadness that we mourn the passing of 2x WNBA Champion Kara Braxton,” the WNBA said in a statement Sunday. “Our thoughts are with her family, friends and former teammates at this time.”

No cause of death has been given.

Born in Jackson, Mich., along with her twin sister, Kim, Braxton played high school basketball at Jackson High for one season and at Westview High in Portland, Ore., for three seasons.

Braxton, a 6-foot-6 center-forward, played at the University of Georgia from 2001 to 2004, earning SEC freshman of the year and first-team All-SEC honors in 2002. She averaged 15.4 points and 7.3 rebounds per game during her three seasons with the Bulldogs.

“Rest in peace Kara,” Georgia basketball posted on X.

Braxton was selected by the Detroit Shock with the No. 7 overall pick in the 2005 draft. She spent 5 1/2 seasons with the team, winning WNBA championships in 2006 and 2008 and earning her only All-Star nod 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.

“We mourn the loss of Kara Braxton, a former Liberty player whose presence and passion left a lasting impact on our organization and the women’s game,” the Liberty wrote Sunday on X. “Our hearts are with her family, friends, teammates and all 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 at a Shock media day photo shoot.

“imma miss my queen,” Thurman wrote to accompany another photo, which appears to show him as an older child wearing his mother’s No. 45 jersey to school.

Thurman also posted video of an interview from around the time Ohio State won the 2024 national championship in which he was asked what lessons he learned from his mother that helped get him to that point.

“Man, she taught me always go hard,” Thurman said. “There’s one goal, you know what you need to go to do.”