Kenyan basketball star Madina Okot has agreed to play for Australia’s Tasmania Jewels during the WNBA offseason, signing on as the club’s second import player pending league approval.
The move comes just months after Okot made history as the first Kenyan woman selected in the first round of the WNBA Draft, going 13th overall to the Atlanta Dream in April 2026.
Her signing completes the roster for the Jewels’ inaugural WNBL season, with the team set to make its debut on October 15 against Geelong.
Jewels head coach Claudia Brassard praised the acquisition, pointing to Okot’s rare physical profile: she stands 6-foot-6 with a 6-foot-10 wingspan and the balance she brings to a young roster.
“We have a great balance of experience, leadership, youth, and hunger, alongside playmakers, sharpshooters, and interior presence,” Brassard said of the squad Okot now joins.
Okot’s path to professional basketball has been anything but conventional. Born in Mumias, Kenya, she didn’t pick up a basketball until age 16 in 2020.
Within six years, she developed into a dominant collegiate center, playing for Mississippi State before transferring to South Carolina, where she became a double-double machine and helped lead the Gamecocks to the NCAA final.
Now 21 and already regarded as a rising force in Atlanta, Okot heads into her first offseason with a fresh challenge: adapting to Australian basketball as she continues building a career that has taken her from a schoolyard in Kenya to two continents’ professional leagues in the span of a few years.
