Seimone Augustus has announced her retirement from the WNBA, ending the playing career of one of the most-accomplished out LGBTQ professional athletes of all time.
For at least the last decade, Augustus was a constant source of inspiration for LGBTQ athletes (and everyone else, too). She rarely put being LGBTQ front and center, yet she hasn’t hidden from it either, lending her voice to the fight for marriage equality as she was planning her own wedding, and then again as the Supreme Court debated the topic.
On the court, she was “Money.”
She won four WNBA titles with the Minnesota Lynx and was the WNBA Finals MVP in 2011. She was the league’s rookie of the year after her first season with the Lynx, in 2006, when she was the first draft selection, coming out of LSU. She won three Olympic gold medals. She was named Outsports Female Athlete of the Year in 2017.
She’s 11th all-time in points scored in the WNBA. In the WNBA playoffs, she’s top-25 in points, assists, rebounds and steals. That’s clutch.
Having done virtually all of this living her life publicly out is a quiet but important part of her legacy. Speaking up in 2012 as Minnesota was debating same-sex-marriage rights was an important step for her and the community.
She rarely sought the limelight, preferring to play on her sport’s biggest stages while keeping her life mostly to herself. She hasn’t been a prolific poster on Instagram for a few years, though in the last 12 months she’s returned. Expect more of that from Money Mone.
Augustus has now joined the coaching staff of the Los Angeles Sparks, where she spent the final season in the WNBA (and her only WNBA season playing away from the Lynx), and whom she faced twice in the Finals.
Sky’s the limit for coach Augustus, and we wouldn’t be surprised if she was eventually back in Minnesota coaching the Lynx, or head coaching another team in the WNBA.
You can follow Seimone Augustus on Twitter and Instagram.
