Briann January to join Connecticut Sun coaching staff. But first, a quiet goodbye to Turkey

June 06, 2024

In No Offseason, The Athletic follows the paths of women’s basketball players after their WNBA seasons’ end and their travels begin. From Turkey, Israel, Italy, Czech Republic, Mexico and even here in the U.S., our reporters tell the stories of these players as they chase their dreams and try to shape the future of the WNBA.

MERSIN, Turkey — Here, in a port city on the Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey, one of the WNBA’s better defenders in recent memory is not getting a retirement tour. With the Seattle Storm this past season, Briann January received praise and adoration from visiting and home fans alike. She took part in multiple on-court ceremonies which honored her 14-year career and involved the presentation of framed jerseys and decked-out sneakers. In Mersin, though, January’s impending exit has little fanfare. And that is just fine with her.

Though January bid adieu to the WNBA last fall, her playing career did not end when she took off her Storm jersey for the final time, following Seattle’s Game 4 loss to the Las Vegas Aces in the WNBA semifinals. In her lone season with the franchise, January says she didn’t play as much as she wanted (she averaged 16.9 minutes per game, the lowest mark of her career). So a few weeks after her time there concluded, she journeyed to a Turkish city whose nearest airport is around an hour away to compete for one of the top teams in the EuroLeague. “This kind of gives me an opportunity to come out here and just play,” January said. “And have fun and be free and say goodbye to basketball.”

Or more accurately, to say farewell to the sport as a player.

Earlier this week, the Connecticut Sun announced that January, 35, will join the franchise as an assistant coach for the upcoming season. She suited up for Connecticut in 2020 and 2021, and also played under the team’s recently hired coach Stephanie White in Indiana — White started with the Fever as an assistant in 2011 and was there until she left for Vanderbilt after the 2016 campaign.

January will fully immerse herself in the next chapter of her hoops journey beginning later this month, when she leaves Mersin. But as she reflects on her career on a Friday morning in mid-December, she’s relishing her last on-court opportunity.

There are, of course, financial reasons that January played for ÇBK Mersin this winter — the club is one of the highest-paying in overseas women’s basketball, and in turn, the world. January, though, said another central appeal was being able to explore the world, as a player, for one final time. “We have been very immersive and intentional about our experiences overseas,” added her wife, Natasha Harris.

Back in 2009, January began her international playing career in Tarsus, Turkey, a city just under 200 miles west of where she is playing this season. Back then, she would primarily live out of suitcases — sweatsuits in one, normal clothes in another, her items organized but still packed because, she explained, “I never liked to get too comfortable.” Nowadays, though, much has changed. Among the ways: Harris joins her overseas, and their miniature dachshund named Freddie, is with them, too.

In Mersin, they stroll along the city’s picturesque marina, which features a wide bike and walking path, and a shopping center with storefronts like Armani Jeans, Guess, Starbucks and Burger King. They visit cafes and try Turkish food. And while January and her foreign teammates all drive team-issued cars with a chrome orange coat of paint on them, in the city, she has little celebrity. It’s “really about having my time to enjoy every moment and just being in it myself, and processing it,” January said.

It’s highly possible that January played in her last game earlier this week, when Çukurova defeated Spain’s Perfumerias Avenida, 85-80. The reason being that Sun center Jonquel Jones had spent the first half of the overseas campaign as a teammate of hers, but Jones left the Turkish club and will not return. In her place, Çukurova signed Washington Mystics center Elizabeth Williams as a replacement. Importantly, Jones has citizenship in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but Williams is registered with FIBA as an American player, meaning the club cannot play her, January and Aces guard Chelsea Gray in the same game. (Sun forward DeWanna Bonner and Atlanta Dream guard Tiffany Hayes are also with Mersin, but Bonner is registered as a North Macedonian citizen and Hayes is registered with an Azerbaijan passport.)

If January has taken part in gameplay for the final time, she said her body is ready for retirement. More than just having logged a decade-plus of WNBA miles on her feet, last year, in her third and final season with reigning EuroLeague champion Sopron Basket, she tore the UCL ligament in her right elbow — an injury which she has subsequently played through. Now, January said, “the mind just has to get” ready to move to the next stage as well.

In a statement from the Sun on Tuesday, January called joining the reigning finals runner-up “a homecoming,” referencing her past ties with the franchise and its coach. White, in her own team-issued comments, applauded January for leading “by example every day through her discipline, passion, competitiveness and humility.” She called her “one of the hardest workers and toughest competitors I have ever been around.”

That effort had been on display in the WNBA and has remained present overseas throughout her actual final season, where in a win over Spain’s Spar Girona on Dec. 14, the veteran guard looks very much the player one has come to expect. She controls the game like a seasoned guard on offense and plays stout defense on the other end.

A week later, she boarded a plane to Mechelen, Belgium, to play in another EuroLeague contest, and explore another city she otherwise might not have visited if not for basketball. Said January: “We know opportunities like this don’t come with any other job that you’re gonna have.”

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(Illustration: John Bradford / The Athletic; Photo of Briann January: Juan Ocampo / Getty Images)

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