The Los Angeles Sparks have gone to the WNBA Finals the past two years, winning the title in 2016. On Wednesday, they added another veteran presence to the team, signing free-agent guard Cappie Pondexter.
Pondexter has spent 12 seasons in the WNBA, previously playing for the Chicago Sky, New York Liberty, and Phoenix Mercury, the team that drafted her No. 2 overall in 2006 out of Rutgers. She won WNBA titles with the Mercury in 2007 and 2009, and was the WNBA Finals MVP in '07.
Pondexter, who was named one of the WNBA's top 20 players for the league's 20th anniversary in 2016, is a three-time All-WNBA first-team selection. She has 6,591 career points, putting her fourth all time in WNBA history behind Diana Taurasi, Tina Thompson and Tamika Catchings. She is sixth on the career assist list with 1,524.
Pondexter, who turned 35 in January, joins a Sparks team coached by Brian Agler that has gone 26-8 in the regular season in each of the past two years and played in two best-of-five Finals that went the distance versus the Minnesota Lynx.
The Sparks also recently re-signed guard/forward Alana Beard, who turns 36 in May, just before the start of the 2018 season. She was the WNBA Defensive Player of the Year in 2017.
Los Angeles also has a pair of younger guards in Chelsea Gray and Odyssey Sims, both 25. Gray started all last year, while Sims moved into the starting lineup about midway through the season.
"I've always joked with Coach Agler that I'd end up playing for him," Pondexter said in a statement from the Sparks. "And words can't describe how happy I am to actually have the opportunity."