Nashville’s fifth season of Athletes Unlimited Women’s Basketball has wrapped up. Now, let’s take a look back at how Connecticut Sun players Tina Charles and Aneesah Morrow showed up and showed out over the past several weeks.
A League of Its Own
Athletes Unlimited is one of several leagues, along with Unrivaled, that have been mentioned in discussions of opportunities for players beyond the WNBA. For both players and league fans, the lack of clarity persists about what to expect.
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In the most recent news, March 10 was called the final day negotiations could be finalized before a mandatory delay in the season. With that deadline quickly approaching, players are definitely heading in different directions.
Athletes Unlimited, based out of Nashville, TN, was launched on March 3, 2020. Rather than being specific to a single sport, the organization has several leagues: softball, volleyball, lacrosse, and, of course, basketball.
Similar to Unrivaled, they are a team focused on their athletes’ well-being and adopt a player-first mindset.
The league’s values aren’t the only difference between Athletes Unlimited and the WNBA; the overall format is another. The league is made up of 40 women’s basketball players from all over.
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These players are ultimately competing in both the individual and team aspects. Using a continuous leaderboard throughout the short four weeks of each season, players look to gain or lose points each week. These points ultimately decide each of the four captains following week one.
Captains step into the leadership role for one of four teams: Gold Rush, Rhythm, Eclipse, and Glow. These teams change players every week, making it much more challenging for players to develop chemistry on and off the court.
Two Different Stories
With Morrow and Charles being at very different stages in their careers, this was certainly serving wildly different purposes for the Connecticut Sun stars.
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Signing with the league in September, Morrow looked to use the time to learn from veterans. This comes after her rookie season with the Connecticut Sun and the WNBA.
Charles, on the other hand, had other motives. For the past decade, during the WNBA offseason, Charles has played overseas. This was going to be her first time in a while playing in the United States, specifically in Nashville, to use her competitiveness in the offseason.
“I heard great things from players who were active in AU. More importantly, the camaraderie and friendships and opportunity to make an impact playing in AU serve where I’m at in my career,” said Charles in a phone interview.
What also sparked the player’s curiosity was one of the league’s core values of giving back and the charity component. This comes after spending 12 years raising awareness for sudden cardiac arrest with Hopey’s Heart Foundation. With the foundation, Charles has been able to donate almost 500 automated external defibrillators.
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How Sun Players Showed Up and Showed Out
Both Charles and Morrow had stand-out seasons, each in the top four on the leaderboard across the entire league. Morrow ended with a total of 5,344 points, while Charles ended with a total of 4,875.
Before the season ended, there were plenty of moments for each of these athletes that were deserving of attention.
Charles was able to start strong right off the bat, contributing 17 points and nine rebounds to lead Team Glow to an 86-73 lead at the very beginning of the season. This performance earned Charles MVP 1 Honors in her first showing with Athletes Unlimited. Her veteran status with other leagues was certainly going to help her dominate.
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This dominance continued throughout the season, giving Charles the “Captain” status for Team Rhythm Week Four, where she chose to draft players she believed would make strong use of their experience.
Morrow also had her own stand-out moments, one of which was in Week Four. On Team Gold Rush, Morrow combined with Odyssey Sims for 54 points to lead the team to a 98-82 win over Team Eclipse.
Contributing 25 points and 14 rebounds, Morrow earned MVP 2 Honors for that game. These numbers also contributed to Morrow’s fifth double-double so far in the season.
For its fifth season in a row, Athletes Unlimited brought out the best in players like Aneesah Morrow and Tina Charles, who aren’t as talked about in the media. With confusion still lingering about where the WNBA is heading, before long, more and more fans will start turning their heads to other options.
The post How Did Connecticut Sun Players Fare in Athletes Unlimited? appeared first on The Lead.
