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Michael VoepelFeb 23, 2026, 04:14 PM<\/p>\n
Close<\/a>Michael Voepel is a senior writer who covers the WNBA, women’s college basketball and other college sports. Voepel began covering women’s basketball in 1984, and has been with ESPN since 1996.<\/p>\n Multiple Authors<\/p>\n Kara Braxton, a two-time WNBA champion with the Detroit Shock, has died at age 43.<\/p>\n No cause of death was given.<\/p>\n “It is with profound sadness that we mourn the passing of 2x WNBA Champion Kara Braxton,” the WNBA said in a statement<\/a> Sunday. “Our thoughts are with her family, friends, and former teammates at this time.”<\/p>\n Braxton, a 6-foot-6 center-forward, played at Georgia<\/a> from 2001 to 2004 and was named SEC Freshman of the Year in 2002.<\/p>\n She was selected No. 7 by the Shock in the 2005 WNBA draft and made the league’s all-rookie team that season. Braxton won WNBA titles with Detroit in 2006 and 2008.<\/p>\n Braxton spent part of the 2010 season in Tulsa, where the Shock franchise relocated, and then was traded to the Phoenix Mercury<\/a>.<\/p>\n During the 2011 season, she was traded to the New York Liberty<\/a> and finished her WNBA career with New York in 2014.<\/p>\n Braxton, who was named an All-Star in 2007, averaged 7.6 points and 4.7 rebounds during a 10-year WNBA career.<\/p>\n Braxton’s son, college football player Jelani Thurman<\/a>, played tight end the past three years at Ohio State<\/a>. He transferred to North Carolina<\/a> in January.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael VoepelFeb 23, 2026, 04:14 PM CloseMichael Voepel is a senior writer who covers the WNBA, women’s college…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-493734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Kara Braxton was selected by the Shock with the seventh pick in the 2005 WNBA draft and went on to win two championships with Detroit, in 2006 and 2008.\u00a0Garrett Ellwood\/NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n