Layshia Clarendon, the WNBA's first nonbinary athlete, retires from professional basketball

History-making WNBA participant Layshia Clarendon is hanging up her sneakers.

The guard, who most just lately performed for the Los Angeles Sparks and makes use of he/she/they pronouns, made history in 2015 after they got here out as “non-cisgender” and is credited as the first out trans and nonbinary participant in the WNBA.

Clarendon was drafted by the Indiana Fever as the ninth general choose in the 2013 draft and has additionally performed for Atlanta, Connecticut, New York, Minnesota, and most just lately, Los Angeles. Unfortunately, since 2019, a lot of her profession has been marred by accidents.

In 2021 they once more made historical past after they turned the first WNBA participant to get prime surgical procedure. “On January 13th at 10am I hugged my wife in front of my surgery building, walked in and took a deep breath… The day was finally here. The day I got to have Top Surgery!!!!!” they wrote at the time.

Now, they're reflecting on their profession in a brand new social media put up, speaking about their retirement.

“The lesson I’ve been learning this last year is that everything comes to an end. The time has come for my basketball career to end. I am deeply at peace with this choice as my mind, body, and spirit know unequivocally that it’s time to move on, they wrote. “The saying is that athletes have 2 deaths. Our careers and our true final breaths. I can let you know, I've been deeply in mourning over this loss. I’ve cherished this recreation with each ounce of my being. “

They also thanked their wife, saying without her “I would not have made it this lengthy,” and thanked her teammates.

“The sisterhood is what I’ve cherished about taking part in and can miss,” they continued. “The silliest issues in the mundane moments. The manner y’all helped me fill in my mustache, made jokes about my gender, the methods I joked about my gender. The manner gender is so rattling fluid in our league. The manner we battle to make the world higher and it all the time began with us. The 144 (a reference to the variety of gamers in the league).”

After thanking the league, her trainers, all the teams he's played for, fans, and coaches, he put out a message of joy.

“While the grief is heavy the pleasure stays. I'm so trying ahead to being celebrated and cherished on,” they said. “I do know I impacted a ton of individuals (or so I’ve heard, ha) if you'll, please share a reminiscence, an interplay we had, or one thing you really liked about the manner I performed. I respectfully ask you to not say ‘you are going to be nice in no matter you select subsequent.' I need to keep in the sweetness of THIS second. Where my coronary heart is damaged and there’s tears rolling down my eyes AND I may smile, lookup and say rattling I actually did all of that? 🤯”

Clerendon made the All-Star staff in 2017 and performed in the WNBA finals in 2015. He is married to Jessica Dolan and collectively, the two have a child.