Is There a Team Left for Chennedy Carter?

When the Las Vegas Aces announced they had waived Chennedy Carter on Tuesday, July 7, the news rippled through the WNBA with a heavy, familiar sense of inevitability. To fill her roster spot, the defending champions signed rookie Justine Pissott, closing the door on Carter's brief Las Vegas tenure. For the 27-year-old guard, it marked another abrupt end to an opportunity that had begun with real promise, one she'd called a fresh start unlike any other just months earlier.

The passage of time in the WNBA is often measured in championships and lasting legacies. For Carter, it has so far been measured in dazzling bursts of brilliance, each one eventually overshadowed by conflict: with teammates, with coaches, or with the public conversation surrounding her.

College Station

The legacy Carter seemed destined to build began at Texas A&M, where she became the first player in program history to earn All-American and First-Team All-SEC honors in each of her first three seasons. She averaged 22.5 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 4.1 assists per game over her 88-game collegiate career, dropped a school-record 46 points against USC, and was the unanimous National Freshman of the Year in 2018.

Atlanta

That foundation translated immediately when the Atlanta Dream selected her fourth overall in the 2020 WNBA Draft. Playing in the Florida bubble, she became the youngest player in league history to score 30 points in a game, dropping 35 on the Seattle Storm en route to an All-Rookie Team selection.

The trouble started in year two. According to reporting by Spencer Nusbaum of The Next, teammate Courtney Williams approached Carter on the bench during a July 4, 2021 game against the Aces and told her to be more engaged after Carter appeared disengaged while teammates celebrated. The two argued, and Carter didn't return to the game after the first quarter. Sources told The Next that after the game, Carter confronted Williams about her playing time and suggested she wanted to fight her. Williams alluded to the incident publicly on Twitter, writing that she'd "never initiate controversy" and had been raised to respect her veterans and coaches. Carter's own response, posted to the same platform, was three words: "game gone speak." The Dream suspended her indefinitely for conduct detrimental to the team, and per The Next's reporting, it reportedly wasn't the first time locker-room tension involving Carter had surfaced. She never played for the Dream again.

Los Angeles

A trade to the Los Angeles Sparks in 2022 offered a fresh slate. Sparks GM Karen Bryant thanked Carter for her contributions when the team later waived her, but the season itself had been rocky: the Los Angeles Times reported she was benched for "poor conduct" during the year, and she was limited to 8.9 points a game in a diminished role before the Sparks waived her in March 2023. She didn't play in the WNBA at all in 2023.

Chicago

Hope flickered again in 2024. Under head coach Teresa Weatherspoon, Carter led the Sky in scoring at 17.5 points per game and finished fourth in Most Improved Player voting. But her season was defined nationally by one moment: on June 1, she threw a hip and shoulder into Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark on an off-ball play, sending her to the floor. Ruled a common foul in real time, it was upgraded to a flagrant 1 by the league the next day. The incident became a genuine flashpoint. Fever GM Lin Dunn publicly called on the league to address what she called unnecessary targeting of players like Clark, while others in the discourse, as HuffPost and other outlets reported at the time, argued that the criticism aimed at Carter carried racial undertones given how physical the WNBA has always been. Carter declined to answer questions about the play right after the game, but nearly a year later, appearing on a livestream with streamer N3on, she offered her own account, describing it as ordinary basketball trash talk that escalated after she felt she'd been elbowed on a previous possession, not a premeditated attack on a rookie.

That single clip aside, Chicago Sun-Times reporter Annie Costabile reported, citing multiple league sources, that players had been unhappy with the locker-room dynamic Carter created that season. The Sky chose not to extend her a qualifying offer, making her a free agent.

Mexico and China

With WNBA doors closed in 2025, Carter took her game overseas: first to Adelitas de Chihuahua in Mexico's LNBPF, where she averaged 15.8 points and 3.7 assists and helped the team win a regular-season championship and reach the Gran Final, then to Wuhan Shengfan in China's WCBA, where she led the league in scoring. It was, by any account, a lucrative and competitive exile rather than a career death spiral.

Las Vegas

That set up her return in April 2026, when the three-time-champion Aces signed her to a training-camp deal. Carter called it the best decision she'd ever made in her life, and she backed it up early: she opened the season with 96 points over her first five games off the bench, one of the best stretches by a reserve to start a WNBA season, and was the early favorite for Sixth Player of the Year. Aces head coach Becky Hammon spoke publicly about wanting Carter to succeed, saying she was fighting for her "in rooms" Carter wasn't in.

Then, following a May 28 loss to the Dallas Wings, Carter posted on Threads criticizing her role and rookie Azzi Fudd, writing in part, "y'all can hollar at me when my leash is off, too." The remark drew criticism from fans and former players alike. Her minutes declined afterward. A leg injury cost her the first three games of June; an undisclosed illness cost her several more. She scored just four points in her final appearance, an overtime win over Chicago, and zero in her last game against Indiana. The Aces waived her on July 7, ahead of the deadline that would have guaranteed the rest of her salary, without publicly stating a reason. In the aftermath, Carter unfollowed nearly the entire Aces organization on social media.

A career still searching for its ending

Reflecting on her career this season, Carter told USA Today, "I'm one of the most talented scorers in the world," adding that everything she's earned, she's had to work for. What's less settled is whether any organization will give her the runway to prove that talent can outlast the turbulence. As she faces being waived once again, the question that has followed her since Texas A&M remains open: will this generational talent ever find the stability required to write the legacy her skills so clearly deserve?

Sources referenced: The Next (Spencer Nusbaum), Just Women's Sports, The IX Basketball, Los Angeles Times, ESPN, Chicago Sun-Times (Annie Costabile), CBS Sports, HuffPost, Associated Press, Sports Illustrated/Women's Fastbreak, USA Today (Callie Fin), Yahoo Sports, Wikipedia (career record verification). Direct quotes from Chennedy Carter, Courtney Williams, and team officials are drawn from public statements, social media posts, and on-the-record interviews as reported by the above outlets.