After being released by the Seattle Storm, Stanford great Kiana Williams looking for her next home

Early in the decade, Kiana Williams established herself as an important figure at Stanford, helping the Cardinal win the 2021 NCAA Division I women’s basketball tournament en route to the school’s first women’s basketball title since 1992. Williams, along with players like Cameron Brink, Haley Jones and Lexie Hull formed a dominant roster that will forever go down in history as arguably one of Stanford’s best and most talented.

After Williams graduated following the title-winning season, she left as the school’s all-time leader in three pointers while cementing herself as a true Cardinal legend. Now, only three years after leaving college, Williams’ basketball career is in limbo after her recent release from the WNBA’s Seattle Storm.

Selected by the Seattle Storm with the 18th overall pick of the 2021 WNBA Draft, Williams was initially a longshot to make the roster as the team already had Sue Bird, Jordin Canada, Jewel Loyd and Kennedy Burke in their backcourt. Against the odds she made the final roster and proceeded to spend the following two seasons in Seattle, playing in 13 games between 2021 and 2022 where she averaged 1.7 points in the latter year. Released three games into the ‘22 campaign, Williams signed with Connecticut where she played the rest of the season with the Sun.

Williams did not play in the WNBA last year before once again rejoining the Storm on a training camp contract before this season. Her performance was good enough to earn her another spot on the initial roster, but after getting waived on July 2, she signed two 10-day contracts. Playing in 13 games with the team where she averaged only 0.8 points, she was not retained following the expiration of her second 10-day contract and was waived for a second time. 

Never missing a game while in college with 128 consecutive starts, Williams ended her tenure averaging 13.4 points per game with 3.4 assists and 2.4 rebounds. With her being the program’s all-time three point leader, her career percentage from behind the arc was .370. One of Tara VanDerveer’s most reliable players during her time there, Williams’ legacy will never be forgotten.

Listed as a 5-foot-7 hybrid guard, Williams’ versatility as well as her strong shooting ability make her the type of player that any team could use, and as the WNBA playoffs approach, Williams will continue to grind in the hopes of either finding a home for a team’s playoff run, or come back better than ever next season, ready to help a franchise achieve its aspirations.