Baylor Professional Athletes

Baylor in the WNBA | Sept. 13–19, 2026

DiJonai Carrington's debut season with the Chicago Sky has hit a painful wall. The Baylor alum and Sky guard has missed multiple straight games due to a foot injury, sitting out contests against both the Washington Mystics and the Atlanta Dream during one of the most consequential stretches of the 2026 WNBA season.

Carrington's absence has been conspicuous. The Sky dropped their Mystics matchup on Friday, Sept. 18, losing 80–110 — a 30-point blowout that underscored how much Chicago depends on her in the backcourt. She was subsequently ruled out again for Saturday's game against Atlanta, which the Sky also lost, 81–106. Back-to-back losses by a combined 55 points while your starting guard sits in street clothes is a brutal stretch by any measure.

The Sky's injury woes extended beyond Carrington. Chicago also ruled out guard Kate Martin for the Mystics game amid compounding injury concerns, leaving the team thin at guard precisely when depth matters most. The playoff picture doesn't wait for anyone to get healthy.

---

Elsewhere Among the Bears

While Carrington nursed her foot in Chicago, fellow Baylor alum Kalani Brown provided a bright spot for the Las Vegas Aces. The center logged 10 points, three rebounds, one assist, and a steal in a 114–77 dismantling of the Seattle Storm on Friday — finishing with a plus-minus of +13. It was a decisive win for Las Vegas during a stretch run of their own, and Brown contributed efficiently off the bench.

Over in Washington, Darianna Littlepage-Buggs chipped in 5 points and a rebound for the Mystics in their blowout win over Chicago Friday night — a win made somewhat easier, of course, by Carrington's absence on the other side.

Brittney Griner surfaced in headlines this week, though not for on-court reasons. The Connecticut Sun center drew attention after a widely circulated postgame exchange with Angel Reese following a Sun loss to the Atlanta Dream on Thursday. The Sun were also navigating their own injury uncertainty heading into that game, per final injury report listings ahead of the Sun-Dream matchup.

---

The Bottom Line

The story of Baylor's WNBA week begins and ends with Carrington. A foot injury at this point in the season — with playoff seeding on the line — is the worst kind of timing, and Chicago has the losses to prove it. The Bears have contributors scattered across the league, but until No. 21 is back on the floor for the Sky, the Bears' biggest WNBA storyline is a player who isn't playing.

Four Baylor alumnae dominated WNBA headlines the week of Aug. 30–Sept. 5, touching everything from injury crises to viral moments to offseason business moves. The Bears' footprint across the league has rarely been louder.

NaLyssa Smith's Injury Rattles the Aces' Title Hopes

The biggest story out of the Baylor alumni network isn't celebratory — it's a red alert in Las Vegas. NaLyssa Smith's injury has sent WNBA analysts scrambling to reassess the Aces' contender status, and the concern is legitimate. Smith wasn't merely a complementary piece in Becky Hammon's starting lineup; she was the connective tissue that allowed four-time MVP A'ja Wilson to operate at full throttle. Without her, Las Vegas faces a significant structural problem on the floor at the worst possible time of the season.

Adding to the Aces' center depth concerns, fellow Baylor alum Kalani Brown officially signed with Las Vegas after spending the summer as a free agent. Brown, who previously played for the Phoenix Mercury, was candid about her wait for another WNBA opportunity — and the irony that it came from the team that ended her last season. She now steps into a roster that badly needs bodies in the frontcourt, making her timing either fortunate or pressure-packed, depending on how quickly she can contribute.

DiJonai Carrington Battles Through, Locks In Offseason Future

In Chicago, DiJonai Carrington has had a season defined by adversity. The Sky guard has dealt with a foot injury that forced her out of the lineup, with head coach Tyler Marsh publicly addressing her absence. But Carrington has responded publicly with a motivational message, signaling she isn't letting the setbacks define her narrative.

Off the court, Carrington made her most significant move of the week: signing a multi-year deal with Unrivaled for the 2027 offseason league. The deal cements her standing as one of the WNBA's marquee personalities beyond the hardwood, and ensures she'll remain a high-profile name regardless of how the rest of this season unfolds with the Sky.

Brittney Griner's National Anthem Moment Goes Viral

The most talked-about Baylor moment of the week had nothing to do with a box score. Ahead of the Sun-Wings game on Sunday, cameras caught Brittney Griner standing and singing along to "The Star-Spangled Banner" on the sideline — a moment that quickly went viral and resonated widely given Griner's complicated history with patriotic displays during her time overseas and after her 2022 detention in Russia.

The Sun, now eliminated from playoff contention, are in what's being called their "Golden Hour" era to close out the season. For Griner, the anthem moment has become symbolic of something larger than basketball — a public signal of where she stands, personally and emotionally, after everything she has endured. Connecticut may not be playing in October, but Griner is commanding attention all the same.

Meanwhile, Baylor alum Odyssey Sims suited up for the Wings in Sunday's Sun matchup, finishing with a minus-3 in a lopsided 97–71 Wings loss.

Baylor's WNBA footprint spans six teams this season, and this week was a reminder that the Bears' alumnae are rarely just background players — for better or for worse.

The Injury That Changes Everything

With five games left before the playoffs and a third straight WNBA title in sight, the Las Vegas Aces lost one of their most efficient players — and Baylor's most prominent WNBA alumna — in the worst way possible.

NaLyssa Smith suffered a non-contact left leg injury at the 3:15 mark of the third quarter in Las Vegas's 88-78 win over the Toronto Tempo on Sunday, August 23. She posted 8 points, 8 rebounds, 2 steals, and a block in the time she played — a reminder of exactly what the Aces are now without. The team confirmed Thursday that she is out for the remainder of the 2026 season.

The numbers underscore the loss: Smith was averaging 11.8 points and 6.4 rebounds across 37 games this season and was leading the entire WNBA in field-goal percentage at 63.8%. She was Las Vegas's fourth-leading scorer and second-leading rebounder — a foundational piece of a frontcourt built to defend a title. The Aces have won three of the last four WNBA championships, but the road to another repeat just got dramatically steeper.

Media reaction was swift and pointed. WNBA reporter Myles Ehrlich captured the general sentiment with a single word: "Awful."

Baylor to the Rescue

The Aces didn't wait long to respond. Las Vegas signed fellow Baylor Bear Kalani Brown to bolster a frontcourt now thin without Smith. Brown, a center, returns to the WNBA to help fill a void that is difficult to overstate — Smith wasn't just a scorer and rebounder, she was the most accurate field-goal shooter in the league.

Brown's signing keeps the Baylor pipeline to Las Vegas alive at a critical moment. Whether she can replicate Smith's production in a playoff push is another question entirely, but her familiarity with winning basketball — and shared roots with Smith in Waco — makes her an intuitively sensible addition.

Around the League

Elsewhere, the week had a rough complexion for Bears in blue. DiJonai Carrington and the Chicago Sky continued to struggle, with Carrington logging just four minutes in Tuesday's 87-81 loss to the Connecticut Sun before exiting with a left foot issue. She had been listed as questionable and was cleared to play, but lasted barely past the opening tip. In Sunday's 113-90 loss to Indiana, she managed 7 points, 3 rebounds, and an assist — part of a difficult stretch for a Sky team mired in one of the league's more turbulent seasons.

The week's defining story, though, belongs squarely to Smith and the Aces. A Baylor product who was playing the best basketball of her career — leading the WNBA in shooting efficiency — now watches the postseason from the sideline. Las Vegas still has the firepower to contend, but replacing a 63.8% field-goal shooter heading into the playoffs isn't a problem any roster move fully solves. Kalani Brown is a familiar face and a capable center, but the Bears' absence in the Aces' frontcourt will be felt when the games matter most.