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Basketball star Madina Okot starts life with WNBA outfit Atlanta Dream
19th April, 2026 09:06 PM
Kenyan basketball star Madina Okot has officially kicked off his stint with Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) outfit Atlanta Dream.
In an update on Sunday, April 19, 2026, Atlanta Dream shared Okot alongside her new rookies, Allish Gray, Briona Jones, and Angles Reese, joining the club for the new season.
WNBA Draft
The meet was the first following the history-making feat where Okot was selected as a 13th overall by the Atlanta Dream in the 2026 WNBA Draft event held on Monday, April 13, 2026, in New York City.
This followed her eye-catching performance in the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship league, where she inspired the South Carolina Gamecocks to the finals.
At Dream, she joins a revamped Atlanta Dream frontcourt that now features two-time WNBA All-Star Reese, acquired by the Dream in a major trade from the Chicago Sky
The Draft event in New York City saw the 21-year-old Kenyan centre become the highest-drafted Kenyan player in WNBA history and only the third Kenyan woman to be selected into the league.
The draft is an annual selection procedure held by the WNBA through which WNBA teams can select new players from a talent pool of college and professional women’s basketball players.
In the highly competitive sphere of US college basketball, a successful selection serves as a career-changing move and dictates a player’s immediate career trajectory and financial security.
Okot’s journey stands out as one of the most rapid rises in modern basketball. She only began playing the sport seriously around 2020 after joining Zetech University in Kenya, before moving to the United States to further her career.
She went on to feature at Mississippi State before transferring to the University of South Carolina, where she played under coach Dawn Staley and helped the Gamecocks reach the 2026 NCAA Final Four.
Despite a denied petition for extra eligibility, she declared for the WNBA Draft and quickly emerged as a strong first-round prospect.
