{"id":284868,"date":"2026-05-08T20:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T20:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/284868\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T20:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T20:21:11","slug":"three-former-longhorns-set-for-2026-wnba-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/284868\/","title":{"rendered":"Three former Longhorns set for 2026 WNBA season"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN, Texas\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Three former University of Texas women’s basketball players are on rosters for WNBA teams as the 30th\u00a0season tips off tonight. Ariel Atkins (Los Angeles Sparks), Sug Sutton (Portland Fire) and Rori Harmon<\/a> (Washington Mystics) will suit up for their teams this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Atkins was drafted 7th\u00a0overall in the 2018 WNBA draft by the Washington Mystics and will start her ninth season in the WNBA. She helped lead the Mystics to the WNBA Finals in her rookie season and was a key piece of the Mystics 2019 WNBA Championship. She is a five-time WNBA All-Defensive Team selection and is the only player to be named to the All-Defensive Team in each of her first five years in the league. In 2021, Atkins won her first Olympic Gold Medal with Team USA at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sutton was drafted 36th\u00a0in the 2020 WNBA draft by the Washington Mystics and will start her fifth season in the WNBA. In 2023 Sutton joined the Phoenix Mercury and on Sept. 8, 2023 she recorded the first triple-double in Phoenix Mercury history with 18 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists. This year Sutton was drafted 20th\u00a0overall by the Portland Fire in the 2026 WNBA expansion draft.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Harmon was drafted by the Washington Mystics with the 34th\u00a0overall pick in the 2026 WNBA draft. Harmon is the career assist and steals record holder at Texas and is the only player in DI women’s basketball history to reach 1,600 points, 900 assists and 350 steals. Harmon was a two-time finalist for the Nancy Lieberman Point Guard of the Year award and a four-time All-America honorable mention selection. Harmon led Texas to back-to-back Final Fours in 2025 and 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Three former University of Texas women’s basketball players are on rosters for WNBA teams as the 30th\u00a0season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-284868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}