Two-time Olympian and 2009 No. 1 WNBA draft pick Angel McCoughtry, who has been limited to just three WNBA games since 2021 because of injuries, will play in the upcoming Athletes Unlimited season.
McCoughtry, 37, signed with the pro league that will hold its third season Feb. 29 to March 23 at Fair Park Coliseum in Dallas. All games are played at the same site for Athletes Unlimited, which also has pro leagues for softball, lacrosse and volleyball.
"I miss the camaraderie, I miss being on court," McCoughtry told ESPN. "I've given so much to the game, and I know I still have the capability to help a team and help people around me get better. I'm excited because it's a new journey.
"Physically, I feel good. I've been healing, and I've been rehabbing and working out, getting my body back. I haven't been sitting around eating Twinkies."
The former Louisville star spent 10 seasons with the Atlanta Dream, where she was 2009 Rookie of the Year, went to the WNBA Finals three times and was a five-time All-Star. She led the league in scoring twice and steals twice.
After a left knee injury cost her the end of the 2018 season and all but one game of 2019, McCoughtry signed as a free agent in 2020 with the Las Vegas Aces. She started and helped the Aces reach the WNBA Finals that year, but then suffered a right knee injury before the 2021 season and appeared in just one game. After signing with the Minnesota Lynx in 2022, she played just two games before being waived.
"It's been hell," she said. "You go over 10 years never getting hurt. But then you get hurt, you have a surgery, and it changes things. It's been like a domino effect."
McCoughtry visited the USA Basketball camp in November in Atlanta and was happy to spend time with former Olympic teammates Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner of the Phoenix Mercury. McCoughtry said that Taurasi, who will be playing her 20th WNBA season next year and turns 42 in June, is an inspiration to her.
"Not being picked up last season was really devastating for me," McCoughtry said of not playing in the WNBA in 2023, even though she felt healthy enough to do so. "I'm not going to waste anybody's time if I don't have it. I know my age; I'll know when it's time to give it up. But I still have something left."
AU has allowed players a chance to compete during the WNBA offseason without going overseas. Among those who will be playing this AU season are 2021 Olympian Allisha Gray of the Dallas Wings, her fellow 2023 WNBA All-Star Kelsey Mitchell of the Indiana Fever, and Sydney Colson and Kierstan Bell of the two-time WNBA champion Aces.
McCoughtry was on the WNBA's all-defensive first team seven times. She won gold medals with the United States in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics and the 2010 and 2014 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup. She says she hopes her time with AU will show she can still help a WNBA team.
"I look forward to showing that I still have ability," she said. "I feel like playing AU can help me get back in the WNBA. I know the narrative is, 'She hasn't played, she's older.' I just want to prove basketball still exists in my world."