Awak Sabit Bior Kuier (born 19 August 2001) is a Finnish professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player who competes for

Galatasaray Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Galatasaray and familiarly as Cimbom, is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul including basketball, wheelchair ...

in the Turkish

Women's Basketball Super League The Women's Basketball Super League (, KBSL), also known as the ING Women's Basketball Super League for sponsorship reasons, is the top women's professional basketball division of the Turkish women's basketball league system. The league was establ ...

and in the

EuroCup Women The EuroCup Women (officially ''FIBA EuroCup Women'') is the second-level basketball competition with teams from associate members of FIBA Europe. It succeeds the Ronchetti Cup. Unlike the EuroCup Basketball, EuroCup Men, the competition is entir ...

, and for the

Dallas Wings The Dallas Wings are an American professional basketball team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Wings compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member of the Western Conference. The team is owned by a group ...

of the

Women's National Basketball Association The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is a women's professional basketball league in the United States. The league comprises 13 teams (scheduled to expand to 15 in 2026). The WNBA is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan. The WNBA w ...

(WNBA). She competes internationally for the Finnish national team. Selected by the Wings with the second overall pick in the 2021 WNBA draft, she was the second Finnish player in the history of the league after Taru Tuukkanen to be drafted, and she became the first Finnish player to play in the WNBA in May 2021.

Career

Peli-Karhut (2016–2017)

Growing up in the city of

Kotka Kotka (; ) is a town in Finland, located on the southeastern coast of the country at the mouth of the Kymi River. The population of Kotka is approximately , while the Kotka-Hamina sub-region, sub-region has a population of approximately . It is th ...

, Kuier was discovered for basketball by a neighbour at age 10, when she stood already 180 cm tall. The man contacted Mikko Kokkola, who was coaching basketball at the local , and Kokkola invited her to practice. Kuier joined the club. She was named the U16-league Player of the Season in 2015–16. She debuted in top-tier Naisten Korisliiga with PeKa first team in the 2016–17 season. At the age of 14, a video of her dunking went viral online.

HBA-Märsky (2017–2020)

In 2017, at the age of 16, she joined the Helsinki Basketball Academy team HBA-Märsky. Kuier played in Naisten Korisliiga with HBA team, and was named the Most Improved Player in the league in 2019. She was also named the league's Player of the Month in January 2020.

Virtus Eirene Ragusa (2020–2022)

She then later declined offers from American universities to sign a professional contract with Lega Basket Femminile (LBF) team (Passalacqua Ragusa) in 2020.

Dallas Wings (2021–2023)

Selected 2nd overall in the 2021 WNBA draft by the Dallas Wings, she was the first non-American player since Australia's

Liz Cambage Elizabeth Folake "Liz" Cambage ( ; born 18 August 1991) is a British-born Australian professional basketball player for the Sichuan Yuanda of the Women's Chinese Basketball Association. She won the Women's National Basketball League in 2011 and ...

in 2011 to be selected in the first five picks of the draft. After missing the first few games of the 2021 season, she made her debut for the Wings on 27 May 2021, scoring a point, a rebound, and an assist in seven minutes of game time in a 101–95 loss to the Atlanta Dream. In addition to her speed and resilience, Kuier's features also include an exceptionally large wingspan of about seven feet. On 10 June 2022, in a game against the

Seattle Storm The Seattle Storm are an American professional basketball team based in Seattle. The Storm compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member of the Western Conference (WNBA), Western Conference. The team was founded by Gi ...

, Kuier became the 8th woman in WNBA history to dunk a basketball. On 22 January 2024, Kuier announced that she would skip the

2024 WNBA season The 2024 WNBA season was the 28th season of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The regular season began on May 14, 2024, and ended on September 19. The 2024 WNBA Commissioner's Cup was held from June 1 to 25. The 2024 WNBA All-St ...

. This is due to overlapping seasons between Italy and the United States, and the strict change in WNBA rules concerning absences related to playing in Europe. Kuier has stated that her dream is to compete in the EuroLeague Women.

Reyer Venezia (2022–2025)

Since June 2022, Reyer has also played for Italian team

Reyer Venezia S.S.P. Reyer Venezia Mestre, commonly known as Reyer Venezia or simply Reyer, is an Italian professional basketball club that is based in Venice, Veneto. The club currently plays in the Lega Basket Serie A (LBA), the highest tier of basketball i ...

during winter seasons in Europe, competing in Lega Basket Femminile and EuroCup. In May 2024, Kuier helped Reyer Venezia to win the Italian championship title. She was also named the Finals MVP with her 24-point performance in the decisive third final match. The team also advanced to the semi-finals of the EuroCup. In July 2024, Kuier extended her contract with Venezia. In September, she was named the Best Foreign Player in the Italian league. On 10 October 2024, Kuier made her debut in the

EuroLeague The EuroLeague is a European men's professional basketball club competition. The league is widely recognised as the top-tier and the most prestigious men's basketball league in Europe. The league consists of 20 teams, of which 16 are given lon ...

for Venezia, recording 14 points, six rebounds, three assists and two blocks in an 80–59 win over Hungarian UNI Győr.

Galatasaray (2025–)

On June 4, 2025, she signed with

of the Turkish

(TKBL).

International career

She represented Finland at the 2019 U18 B FIBA Women's European Championship tournament, winning the championship and being named tournament MVP. She was then named to the All-Star Five at the 2019 U20 B FIBA Women's European Championship, helping Finland to a second-place finish. Since 2019, she has represented Finland senior national team.

WNBA career statistics

Regular season

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2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

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Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

, 16 , , 0 , , 8.9 , , .308 , , .167 , , .786 , , 2.4 , , 0.6 , , 0.3 , , 0.8 , , 1.0 , , 2.4 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

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, 33 , , 0 , , 12.6 , , .395 , , .190 , , .613 , , 2.5 , , 0.9 , , 0.4 , , 0.9 , , 0.6 , , 2.8 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

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, 37 , , 4 , , 10.8 , , .396 , , .087 , , .778 , , 2.5 , , 0.5 , , 0.2 , , 0.6 , , 0.6 , , 2.6 , - , style="text-align:left;", Career , style="text-align:left;", 3 years, 1 team , 86 , , 4 , , 11.1 , , .380 , , .145 , , .708 , , 2.5 , , 0.7 , , 0.3 , , 0.8 , , 0.7 , , 2.6

Postseason

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, 1 , , 0 , , 8.0 , , .000 , , — , , — , , 3.0 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 1.0 , , 0.0 , - , style="text-align:left;",

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, 3 , , 0 , , 5.0 , , .000 , , .000 , , — , , 1.7 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 0.7 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , - , style="text-align:left;",

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, 5 , , 0 , , 10.4 , , .643 , , .286 , , .000 , , 1.4 , , 0.2 , , 0.6 , , 0.8 , , 0.8 , , 4.0 , - , style="text-align:left;", Career , style="text-align:left;", 3 years, 1 team , 9 , , 0 , , 8.3 , , .500 , , .200 , , .000 , , 1.7 , , 0.1 , , 0.3 , , 0.7 , , 0.6 , , 2.2

Career statistics

EuroLeague

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Umana Reyer Venezia S.S.P. Reyer Venezia Mestre, commonly known as Reyer Venezia or simply Reyer, is an Italian professional basketball club that is based in Venice, Veneto. The club currently plays in the Lega Basket Serie A (LBA), the Italian basketball league sys ...

, 2 , , , , 30.1 , , .522 , , .273 , , .333 , , 5.0 , , 2.5 , , 1.5 , , 1.5 , , 2.5 , , 14.0 , -

EuroCup

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, 14 , , , , 27.4 , , .508 , , .333 , , .605 , , 5.1 , , 1.9 , , 1.1 , , 1.5 , , 2.4 , , 12.4 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2023–24 , style="text-align:left;",

, 12 , , , , 21.5 , , .400 , , .222 , , .737 , , 4.4 , , 1.7 , , .8 , , 1.5 , , 1.5 , , 8.7

Personal life

She was born in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

and is of

South Sudan South Sudan (), officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered on the north by Sudan; on the east by Ethiopia; on the south by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Kenya; and on the ...

ese origin. She moved to

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

as a refugee with her family when she was two years old, first settling in the city of

. Today, her family has settled in the coastal town of

Uusikaupunki Uusikaupunki (; , ) is a list of towns in Finland, town and municipalities of Finland, municipality of Finland. It is located in the Southwest Finland regions of Finland, region, northwest of Turku and south of Pori. The municipality has a pop ...

and she holds dual Finnish and Egyptian citizenship. She speaks Italian, Arabic, Finnish, and English. Kuier has four older brothers and her parents are

Jehovah's Witnesses Jehovah's Witnesses is a Christian denomination that is an outgrowth of the Bible Student movement founded by Charles Taze Russell in the nineteenth century. The denomination is nontrinitarian, millenarian, and restorationist. Russell co-fou ...

. Kuier and her family are close friends with Federiko Federiko and his family, who share a similar background.Painajainen vaatekaupan myyjälle – Federiko Federikon kehossa on piirre, joka on todellinen harvinaisuus

Iltalehti ''Iltalehti'' (literally "Evening newspaper") is a tabloid newspaper published in Helsinki, Finland. History and profile ''Iltalehti'' was established in 1980 as the afternoon edition of the newspaper '' Uusi Suomi''. The Helsinki-based Alma ...

, 4 August 2023”Äiti pakotti lopettamaan jalkapallon” – Susijengissä kasvaa uusi tähtipelaaja

Helsingin Sanomat , abbreviated ''HS'' and colloquially known as , is the largest subscription newspaper in Finland and the Nordic countries, owned by Sanoma. Except after certain holidays, it is published daily. Its name derives from that of the Finnish capital ...

, 22 May 2023

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kuier, Awak 2001 births Living people Dallas Wings draft picks Dallas Wings players Egyptian emigrants to Finland Egyptian people of South Sudanese descent Finnish people of South Sudanese descent Finnish women's basketball players Sportspeople from Kotka Sportspeople from Uusikaupunki Refugees in Egypt Refugees in Finland South Sudanese emigrants South Sudanese refugees Basketball players from Cairo HBA-Märsky players Finnish expatriate basketball people in the United States Finnish expatriate basketball people in Italy Naturalized citizens of Finland Reyer Venezia players 21st-century Finnish sportswomen Galatasaray S.K. (women's basketball) players