{"id":635508,"date":"2026-05-10T22:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T22:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/635508\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T22:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T22:38:08","slug":"wnba-fan-favorite-kate-martin-very-grateful-sparks-signed-her","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/635508\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA fan favorite Kate Martin ‘very grateful’ Sparks signed her"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Sparks signed guard Kate Martin<\/a> to a developmental player contract Sunday just hours before their first game of the season. About 45 minutes before tipoff, Martin arrived in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been chaotic, but honestly, found a lot of clarity, a lot of confidence, and where I\u2019m at and where the future of my career is heading,\u201d she said. \u201cSo honestly, kind of all over the place, but feeling really good and having a lot of clarity right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martin was a surprising end-of-training camp cut for the Golden State Valkyries after she averaged 6.2 points per game in 42 contests last season. But Golden State was deep at the wing position, making Martin expendable with its other positional needs.<\/p>\n

Speaking publicly for the first time since being cut, she was emotional, but excited for the opportunity with the Sparks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI chose L.A. because of the way they approached me,\u201d she said. \u201cI just feel honored for the opportunity. And opportunities don\u2019t always come around in this league. And so for the year that I got cut to be the year where there are development spots, I feel very grateful for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sparks had one developmental spot left after signing Louisville graduate Laura Ziegler during training camp.<\/p>\n

Martin will be available to be on the active roster for 12 games, while receiving a weekly stipend of $750 in addition to a pro-rated minimum salary of $6,000. She has the most experience of any player signed to a developmental contract across the league with two full seasons under her belt.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Martin is) great in the locker room, great teammate, super hard worker,\u201d said Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon<\/a>, who coached Martin in her rookie season. \u201cShe\u2019s somebody who came in with pro habits and a lot of times from college, that\u2019s hard to do, but she came in and was a nice piece for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old was a fan favorite with the Valkyries and had the third highest-selling jersey in the WNBA last season despite coming off the bench for Golden State.<\/p>\n

Martin first went viral during the 2024 draft when she was selected 18th overall by Las Vegas and was in the room to support her Iowa teammate, Caitlin Clark<\/a>. She averaged 2.6 points per game in 34 games as a rookie with the Aces before being selected by the Valkyries in the expansion draft in December 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow my expectations for myself are to buy into being an L.A. Spark,\u201d Martin said. \u201cI know that roles are ever changing throughout the season, but right now, I\u2019m gonna be where my feet are, and I\u2019m going to buy into this role as a development player. I\u2019m going to learn, I\u2019m going to grow, and I\u2019m just going to make the most of this opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear how much Martin will play with the Sparks, but she might have a path because they lack wing depth. The Sparks are backcourt heavy, then have three bigs in Nneka Ogwumike<\/a>, Cameron Brink<\/a> and Dearica Hamby<\/a>. Rae Burrell<\/a> and Sania Feagin<\/a> fill that role, but Martin could bring a three-point shot and energy off the bench.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great fit for us,\u201d Sparks coach Lynne Roberts<\/a> said. \u201cThrilled how that worked out. It\u2019s no secret, I love shooters. I think it\u2019s a great add. And I think this gives her a chance in the developmental spot to just kind of settle and really pour into the player development. Her work ethic is unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Sparks signed guard Kate Martin to a developmental player contract Sunday just hours before their first game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[38849,274494,8305,235467,4804,63337,3591,16693,53097,15553,13544,4990,16961,5190,23629,99,434],"class_list":["post-635508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-bench","tag-developmental-player-contract","tag-draft","tag-first-game","tag-golden-state-valkyries","tag-locker-room","tag-lot","tag-martin","tag-opportunity","tag-player","tag-point","tag-role","tag-rookie-season","tag-season","tag-sparks","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}