{"id":726878,"date":"2026-05-06T04:18:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T04:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/726878\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T04:18:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T04:18:16","slug":"wnba-general-managers-vote-former-south-carolina-womens-basketball-star-as-biggest-steal-of-2026-wnba-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/726878\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA general managers vote former South Carolina women’s basketball star as biggest steal of 2026 WNBA Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

The third South Carolina women\u2019s basketball product picked in the 2026 WNBA Draft was guard Ta\u2019Niya Latson. She followed point guard Raven Johnson (Indiana Fever, 10th) and post player Madina Okot (Atlanta Dream, 13th). The Los Angeles Sparks took Latson at No. 20 overall. Frankly, the second-round selection came later than most expected.<\/p>\n

In fact, in the WNBA\u2019s annual preseason survey of general managers, the league\u2019s GMs selected Latson as the draft\u2019s biggest steal, along with Connecticut Sun rookie Nell Angloma. Both Latson and Angloma received 21% of the total votes.<\/p>\n

The sentiment echoes what future Hall of Famer and re-signed LA star Nneka Ogwumike had to say about her new teammate a couple of weeks ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI absolutely love her,\u201d the 10-time All-Star said about the former Gamecock guard. \u201cI think she is the biggest steal [in the WNBA Draft] this year. You can tell who\u2019s somebody that\u2019s locked in, she is someone who does not like to lose, and she\u2019s quite mature for her age.\u201d<\/p>\n

NEW! Message board for South Carolina Women\u2019s Basketball<\/a>! \ud83c\udfc0\u00a0<\/p>\n

During her own organizational introduction, Latson admitted that the shock of the late selection put a chip on her shoulder. Even so, she likes her place with the Sparks. \u201cIt was shocking to everybody; I mean, I was kind of shocked,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s about fit, I feel like. Fit over pick. I flipped my mentality immediately when I found out I was going to LA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ogwumike\u2019s assessment of Latson and the rookie\u2019s desire to prove herself mirror what South Carolina fans saw from the All-American this season.<\/p>\n

Formerly the nation\u2019s leading scorer with the Florida State Seminoles, she transferred to the Gamecocks to improve her all-around game. Latson became a much better defender playing for Dawn Staley\u2019s team, and she upped her offensive efficiency along the way.<\/p>\n

This year at USC, Latson averaged 14.1 points per game on 48.6%\/32.5%\/80.3% shooting splits. Despite dealing with some injuries, she also added 3.6 assists, 2.9 rebounds, and 1.7 steals per game.<\/p>\n

Over the past few weeks, Latson has had a strong preseason for the Sparks. That was also the case for former Gamecock and second-year pro Sania Feagin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The third South Carolina women\u2019s basketball product picked in the 2026 WNBA Draft was guard Ta\u2019Niya Latson. She…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":726879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,465],"class_list":["post-726878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-womens-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116525708730604940","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=726878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/726879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}