Kara Braxton

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American basketball player (born 1983)

title: "Kara Braxton" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1983-births", "living-people", "american-expatriate-basketball-people-in-china", "american-expatriate-basketball-people-in-poland", "american-expatriate-basketball-people-in-russia", "american-expatriate-basketball-people-in-turkey", "american-women's-basketball-players", "basketball-players-from-michigan", "beşiktaş-women's-basketball-players", "centers-(basketball)", "detroit-shock-players", "galatasaray-s.k.-(women's-basketball)-players", "georgia-lady-bulldogs-basketball-players", "phoenix-mercury-players", "sportspeople-from-beaverton,-oregon", "tulsa-shock-players", "wnba-all-stars", "people-from-jackson,-michigan", "liaoning-flying-eagles-players", "21st-century-american-women", "detroit-shock-draft-picks"] description: "American basketball player (born 1983)" topic_path: "science/astronomy" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kara_Braxton" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American basketball player (born 1983) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox basketball biography"]

Field	Value
name	Kara Braxton
image	Kara Braxton 84.JPG
position	Power forward / center
team	Free agent
height_ft	6
height_in	6
weight_lbs	225
birth_date
birth_place	Jackson, Michigan, U.S.
high_school	Westview (Beaverton, Oregon)
college	Georgia (2002–2005)
draft_league	WNBA
draft_year	2005
draft_round	1
draft_pick	7
draft_team	Detroit Shock
career_start	2005
years1	2005–2008
team1	Detroit Shock
years2	2010
team2	Tulsa Shock
years3	2010–2011
team3	Phoenix Mercury
years4	2011–2014
team4	New York Liberty
wnba_profile	kara_braxton
bbr_wnba	braxtka01w
::

WNBA All-Star (2007)
2× WNBA champion (2006, 2008)
WNBA All-Rookie Team (2005)
First-team All-SEC (2002)
SEC Freshman of the Year (2002)
SEC All-Freshman Team (2002) | wnba_profile = kara_braxton | bbr_wnba = braxtka01w

Kara Liana Braxton (born February 18, 1983) is an American professional basketball player who last played for the New York Liberty of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA).

Early life

Kara and her twin sister Kim grew up in a household with four other siblings in Jackson, Michigan. Her father also played basketball. She played her freshman season at Jackson High and then moved to Oregon. She and her twin sister later enrolled at Westview High School in Portland, OR that is part of the Beaverton School District.

Braxton attended the University of Georgia, and was freshman of the year. She was frequently late to practice and committed other unspecified violations of team rules, and after three suspensions during the 2002–03 season, on February 20, 2004, coach Andy Landers dismissed Braxton from the team. She graduated in 2005.

Professional career

WNBA

On April 16, 2005, the Shock drafted Braxton in the first round as the seventh overall pick in the annual WNBA draft. She had given birth to a son, Jelani, in January 2005. Jelani's father is Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Odell Thurman.

Braxton was named to the WNBA's All-Rookie team in 2005 after averaging 6.9 points and 3.0 rebounds as a key reserve for the Shock. In 2006, she averaged fewer minutes and points than in her rookie season, but helped the Shock win the WNBA title that year.

In 2007, Braxton became Detroit's starting center after the Shock traded Ruth Riley to the San Antonio Stars. She averaged 6.0 ppg. Near the end of the 2007 regular season, the WNBA suspended Braxton for two games after she pled guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol. She was also suspended for the first six games of the 2009 season for a second DUI.

On May 28, 2014, the Liberty waived Braxton.

Career statistics

::data[format=table]

†	Denotes season(s) in which Braxton won a WNBA championship
::

WNBA

Regular season

|- | align="left" | 2005 | align="left" | Detroit |33||2||13.8||46.2||0.0||55.0||3.0||0.4||0.5||0.4||1.6||6.9 |- | align="left" | 2006 | align="left" | Detroit |34||1||10.6||40.6||0.0||62.5||3.4||0.8||0.3||0.3||1.6||4.3 |- | align="left" | 2007 | align="left" | Detroit |31||20||17.6||44.7||—||67.2||5.4||0.5||0.5||0.5||2.0||6.7 |- | align="left" | 2008 | align="left" | Detroit |33||10||17.9||41.5||0.0||74.3||5.1||0.8||0.4||0.7||1.6||8.9 |- | align="left" | 2009 | align="left" | Detroit |28||2||18.0||52.7||—||64.5||6.0||1.5||0.7||0.6||1.8||9.0 |- | align="left"rowspan=2 | 2010 | align="left" | Tulsa |22||16||16.8||50.0||25.0||63.9||4.6||1.3||1.1||0.8||3.0||9.3 |- | align="left" | Phoenix |13||0||17.2||54.4||—||71.1||4.8||1.2||0.6||0.4||2.1||11.1 |- | align="left"rowspan=2 | 2011 | align="left" | Phoenix |18||18||19.8||55.9||50.0||59.5||4.9||1.3||0.8||0.8||1.8||10.6 |- | align="left" | New York |13||0||12.8||39.7||33.3||40.0||3.0||0.8||0.4||0.5||1.5||3.9 |- | align="left" | 2012 | align="left" | New York |34||18||15.7||48.1||20.0||45.0||4.5||1.1||0.5||0.6||2.2||6.6 |- | align="left" | 2013 | align="left" | New York |34||33||21.8||48.1||—||66.1||6.6||1.2||0.6||0.4||2.3||8.7 |- | align="left" | 2014 | align="left" | New York |4||0||7.8||50.0||—||100.0||1.0||0.8||0.3||0.3||1.0||2.5 |- class="sortbottom" | rowspan=2 align="left" | Career | align="left" | 12 years, 3 teams |297||120||16.4||47.5||28.0||64.1||4.7||0.9||0.6||0.5||1.9||7.6 |- class="sortbottom" | style="text-align:center;"| All-Star |1||1||12.3||28.6||—||—||4.0||0.0||0.0||0.0||1.0||4.0

Playoffs

|- | align="left" | 2005 | align="left" | Detroit |2||0||18.0||27.8||—||83.3||3.5||1.0||0.0||0.0||1.5||7.5 |- | align="left" style="background:#afe6ba" | 2006† | align="left" | Detroit |10||0||12.3||42.3||—||54.5||2.8||0.6||0.8||0.4||1.8||5.0 |- | align="left" | 2007 | align="left" | Detroit |11||0||15.5||46.9||0.0||70.8||5.5||0.5||0.3||0.7||1.8||7.0 |- | align="left" style="background:#afe6ba" | 2008† | align="left" | Detroit |9||9||20.0||50.0||—||65.0||5.3||1.0||0.4||0.6||1.9||8.6 |- | align="left" | 2009 | align="left" | Detroit |5||0||19.2||54.1||—||57.1||6.8||1.4||0.8||1.4||2.4||9.6 |- | align="left | 2010 | align="left" | Phoenix |4||0||13.3||59.3||100.0||42.9||2.5||0.8||0.3||0.3||1.8||9.0 |- | align="left" | 2011 | align="left" | New York |3||0||16.0||50.0||0.0||100.0||4.3||1.7||0.3||0.3||1.7||5.0 |- | align="left" | 2012 | align="left" | New York |2||2||17.5||43.8||0.0||0.0||3.5||0.0||2.0||0.0||0.5||7.0 |- class="sortbottom" | align="left" | Career | align="left" | 8 years, 3 teams |46||11||16.1||47.6||25.0||63.9||4.5||0.8||0.5||0.6||1.8||7.2

College

::data[format=table title="NCAA statistics"]

Year	Team	GP	Points	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
2001–02	Georgia	30	489	54.0	14.3	62.6	6.8	2.3	1.8	2.0	16.3
2002–03	21	330	55.1	28.6	73.2	7.3	2.5	1.4	2.0	15.7
2003–04	20	274	47.8	16.7	64.8	8.0	1.2	1.4	1.3	13.7
Career	71	1582	52.6	20.0	65.9	7.3	2.0	1.6	1.8	15.4
::

European career

2005–2006: Poland TS Wisla Can-Pack Krakow (champion)
2006–2007: Turkey Beşiktaş Cola Turka
2007–2008: Poland TS Wisla Can-Pack Krakow (champion)
2008–2009: Turkey Galatasaray
2009–2010: China Liaoning Hengye (MVP, champion)
2010–2011: China Liaoning Hengye
2011–2012: Turkey Optimum TED
2012–2013: Russia Nadezhda Orenburg

Statistics

A two-time Class 4A player of the year.

References

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::