Tiffany Hayes, a 2017 WNBA All-Star and a two-time National Champion at UConn, has retired from the WNBA.
Hayes announced her retirement on the “Counted Me Out” podcast, making it clear that her season last summer with the Connecticut Sun was her final one in the league.
“It’s a lot of things. I really feel like I’m older now. I got a lot of stuff that I really always want to get into but I’m so busy ’cause I’m playing year-round,” Hayes said. “Plus, my body, playing 11 seasons straight with no breaks, every year, two seasons in a year every time, that’s a lot.”
Hayes, the No. 14 pick in the 2012 WNBA Draft, spent the first 10 seasons of her career with the Atlanta Dream. Over that time, she made the All-Star Game in 2017 and was named All-WNBA First-Team in 2018. She averaged nearly 14 points on 42.9 percent shooting from the field with Atlanta.
Last offseason, Hayes was traded from the Dream to the Sun. After playing only 32 games combined in 2021 and 2022, she played all 40 games last year, averaging 12.1 points and three rebounds per game. She said in her exit interview with the Sun that “the stars really aligned for me” in Connecticut. She repeatedly talked about the “gratefulness” she felt, noting that she had avoided a significant injury….
