Ryan YoungStaff writerMon, February 23, 2026 at 3:48 AM UTC·2 min readLongtime WNBA forward Kara Braxton, who won a pair of titles with the Detroit Shock, died on Sunday, the league and her former teams confirmed.
She was 43. Further specifics of her death are not yet known.
Braxton spent a decade in the NBA after a dominant run at Georgia, where she was the SEC's Rookie of the Year as a freshman. The Shock selected her with the No. 7 overall pick in 2005, and she spent her first five full seasons in the league with the organization. She helped them win a pair of WNBA championships, too, first in 2006 and again in 2008.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementBraxton earned her only All-Star nod during the 2007 campaign, too. She averaged 6.7 points and 5.4 rebounds during that season. The Shock reached the Finals that summer, too, but ended up falling to the Phoenix Mercury.
Braxton was dealt to Phoenix in 2010 after the Shock moved to Tulsa. She was moved a year later to the New York Liberty, too, where she spent her final four seasons before she left after the 2014 season. In total, Braxton averaged 7.6 points and 4.7 rebounds in 297 games throughout her career. She also won a pair of Polish league championships and was the Chinese league MVP in 2010.
Braxton returned to Georgia to finish her degree and graduate officially in 2024.
Braxton's oldest son, Jelani Thurman, is a tight end who spent the past three seasons at Ohio State. He won a national title with the Buckeyes in 2024, too, and has since transferred to North Carolina. Braxton, who worked for Nike for several years after retiring from basketball in 2019, relocated back to the Atlanta area. She is also survived by her husband, Jarvis Jackson, and their young son, Jream.
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