Seimone Augustus' remarkable basketball career has ended.
In one sense, anyway.
Augustus will not play a 16th season. Instead, she will join the Los Angeles Sparks — the team she played for last season — as an assistant coach.
Taken by the Lynx with the first overall pick out of LSU in the 2006 draft, Augustus played 14 of her 15 seasons with Minnesota — helping them win four WNBA titles — before her eye-raising decision to sign with L.A. in free agency before last season.
She retires with four championship rings and three Olympic gold medals. She was rookie of the year in 2006, was named first- or second-team all-WNBA six times, was part of the "Top 20 at 20" WNBA team in 2016 and an eight-time All-Star.
"We wish her well in her retirement and know she'll remain an incredible asset as a coach," Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said.
Reeve inherited Augustus — then a four-year veteran who had averaged 20 points or better in three of her first four seasons — in 2010 and began building a championship team around her. Lindsay Whalen arrived via trade and Rebekkah Brunson via dispersal draft that same season. In 2011, Maya Moore came with the first pick in the draft. And that fall Augustus was the finals MVP — she averaged 22 points in the 2011 playoffs — as the Lynx won their first of four titles with that same four-player core.
Key to that dynasty was Augustus' willingness to sacrifice scoring for all-around play, and to accommodate the talent around her.
