Cal Basketball: Layshia Clarendon To Return to Minnesota Lynx for 10th WNBA Season

Clarendon joined the team early last season and helped spark a run to the playoffs.

Former Cal star Layshia Clarendon will return to the Minnesota Lynx for a 10th WNBA season, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.

Clarendon, 30, has agreed to contract terms to play a second season with the franchise, according to the newspaper.

Clarendon began last season with the New York Liberty but played just one game before being released. The Lynx needed backcourt help after starting the season 0-4 and signed Clarendon to a series of hardship contracts, the Star Tribune said.

Scoring 12 points in their debut, Clarendon helped Minnesota to a victory

Eventually, Clarendon was signed for the full season, and their play provided the Lynx a boost. The team went 15-5 over their first 20 games with Clarendon, who averaged 10.4 points, 5.7 assists and 3.1 rebounds while shooting a career-high 51.7 percent from the field.

Minnesota wound up with the WNBA’s third-best record but Clarendon sustained a stress reaction injury and could not finish the season.

Regardless, Clarendon is credited with helping to turn the team’s season in the right direction. The Star Tribune referred to Clarendon’s “leadership, physical play and excellence in the pick-and-roll game.”

The 2022 WNBA season begins on May 6 and features an expanded 36-game schedule. Minnesota will open that night at Seattle against the Storm, featuring WNBA all-time assists leader Sue Bird and all-star Breanna Stewart.

A native of San Bernardino, Clarendon played four seasons at Cal, leading the Bears to their only Final Four appearance in 2013.

Chosen No. 9 by the Indiana Fever in the first round of the WNBA draft, Clarendon played three seasons with the team, then parts of three with the Atlanta Dream, during which time they were named a 2017 all-star while averaging 10.7 points and 6.6 assists.

Clarendon played 2018 and ’19 with the Connecticut Sun, then moved to New York in 2020, averaging a career-high 11.5 points.

In nine WNBA seasons, Clarendon has posted 7.6 points and 3.2 assist per game.

Clarendon is the first openly non-binary WNBA player and the league’s first active player to complete top surgery.

Cover photo of Layshia Clarendon by Stephen Gosling, NBAE via Getty Images

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo