A few months ago at the peak of the WNBA’s free agent period, we at Beyond The W penned a piece shortly after a High Post Hoops report (courtesy of Howard Megdal) that Tina Charles was a name that came up in trade talks.
Our words reflected the possible pros and cons of trading her from a basketball standpoint as well as an organizational and community perspective.
Since February, all has been silent on the Tina Charles front as the momentum generated by the WNBA’s busier-than-usual free agent period was grind to a halt because of the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on sports.
New York Liberty coach Walt Hopkins was asked about Charles’ status at a recent pre-draft conference call with the media where he mentioned Charles as still being with the Liberty.
Forty-eight hours later, that all changed as news broke that Tina Charles, seven-time All-Star, former league MVP and the Liberty’s all-time leading scorer was being traded to the defending WNBA champion Washington Mystics in a blockbuster three-team trade.
In the deal, the Liberty acquired Shatori Walker-Kimbrough from the Mystics in addition to the ‘Stics first-round (12th overall pick) plus three picks from Washington in next year’s draft. The Dallas Wings also sent Tayler Hill plus the 9th overall pick and a second round pick to New York. Dallas gets one draft pick each from New York and Washington in next year’s draft.
That ninth overall selection Dallas is sending Brooklyn’s way was originally Las Vegas’ pre-Liz Cambage trade.
Tomorrow night’s draft essentially becomes a first-round outdoing contest between the Wings and Liberty. Both teams essentially claim half of all selections in the first round of the draft – including the No. 1 (New York) and No. 2 (Dallas) overall selections.
But the two principal teams in this mega-trade are the Liberty and Mystics. The deal reunites Charles with the coach who originally drafted her to the Connecticut Sun out of UConn in Mike Thibault.
The Mystics definitely took notice of all the activity that occurred earlier when the free agency period hit its peak.
They noticed what the Las Vegas Aces did in getting Angel McCoughtry.
They noticed what the Phoenix Mercury did in getting Skylar Diggins-Smith.
They noticed what the Connecticut Sun did in getting DeWanna Bonner.
They noticed what the Los Angeles Sparks did in getting Kristi Toliver and Seimone Augustus.
And they noticed that Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart are returning for the Seattle Storm.
All of those teams have something in common – are all contenders for Washington’s spot perched atop the WNBA’s food chain. The Mystics themselves made a move earlier in the offseason by getting Leilani Mitchell as a replacement for Toliver, but inking a deal with a former league MVP and 7-time All-Star is a game changer for Thibault and friends.
Good luck, other WNBA teams having to go up against that frontcourt anchored by Charles and Elena Delle Donne, the reigning league MVP. Oh – and let’s assume the Mystics keep Emma Meesseman, who only won Finals MVP last season. The Mystics are the defending WNBA champions and Thibault’s boss move to get Charles (even if, for now, is at first a one-year rental) from the Liberty is a message to the rest of the W that the path to a championship may run through the DC Entertainment and Sports Arena for the next several years.
The path to a championship was also a major reason why Charles wanted to head to DC in the first place. It is still a relatively short distance from her native New York and she understands that the Liberty are in full transition mode. This is no longer the core of veteran players that the Lib had in its championship-contending seasons during the latter portion of their time at Madison Square Garden.
Kia Nurse, Rebecca Allen, Han Xu, Marine Johannes, Amanda Zahui B, Asia Durr plus the draft picks New York will select tomorrow night will give first-year head coach Walt Hopkins a new young crop of players to work with when the Liberty complete its move to Barclays Center. Layshia Clarendon provides that veteran presence. And if that No. 1 overall pick is Sabrina Ionescu (as everyone expects), it automatically makes her the centerpiece of the new look New York Liberty (trying saying that five times fast) when kicks meet hardwood in Brooklyn.
Charles is definitely deserving of her seafoam green-colored Big Apple flowers. She is the team’s all-time leading scorer, is a Queens native and has defined this chapter of Liberty basketball. In addition, she deserves her kudos as the glue that kept the Libs together during the trying Westchester seasons of 2018 and 2019.
And as Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb mentioned in the team press release announcing the trade, Charles has also given back in a major way to the community via her philanthropic work with initiatives such as Hopey’s Heart Foundation.
And while she has received some basketball-related criticism in recent years for supposedly forcing shots and somewhat hampering New York’s offense, power forwards that average nearly a double-double for their careers do not always grow in trees on Central Park (or Flushing Meadows or Prospect Park for that matter).
Charles deserves as much credit as anyone that the Liberty’s next chapter will be written at an arena worthy of playing host to some of the best women’s ballers in the world as opposed to, what Cambage referred to in her introductory Las Vegas Aces presser as, a “music hall,” and what Imani McGee-Stafford called a “church basement” on Twitter.
The Mystics will be a force to reckoned with for the coming years in the WNBA along with Seattle, Las Vegas, Connecticut, Los Angeles and Chicago. The Liberty can now go full speed ahead with its rebuild. And when the Mystics play its first game on the road at Barclays, Charles is sure to receive quite the rousing reception.
She will get that again when the No. 31 is raised to the rafters at Atlantic and Flatbush.
“Tina Charles is a name that will forever be synonymous with New York basketball.”@nyliberty trade all-time franchise scoring leader in 3-team deal: https://t.co/v0Z61hXWlL pic.twitter.com/ixpi9KkvWG
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) April 15, 2020
