Ayana D'Nay Walker (born September 10, 1979) is an American former women's

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. She played for the

Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters basketball The Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters basketball team represents Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana. The team currently competes in Conference USA. The current head coach of the Lady Techsters is Brooke Stoehr. Louisiana Tech has won thr ...

team from 1998 to 2002. Walker was a member of gold medal-winning USA Basketball Women's National Team in 2001 and set a USA single-game record with 19 rebounds in gold-medal game. She was also a member of gold medal-winning USA Basketball World University Games Team in 2001. Walker was drafted as the 20th overall pick by the

Detroit Shock The Detroit Shock were a Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) team based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. They were the 2003, 2006, and 2008 WNBA champions. Debuting in 1998, the Shock were one of the league's first expansion franchises. Th ...

in the 2002 WNBA draft. As a member of the Shock, she won the 2003 WNBA Championship. On July 3, 2005, Walker signed with the

Charlotte Sting The Charlotte Sting were a Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) team based in Charlotte, North Carolina, one of the league's eight original teams. The team disbanded on January 3, 2007. The Sting was originally the sister organization ...

. After the Sting franchise folded, Walker was drafted by

Los Angeles Sparks The Los Angeles Sparks are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Sparks compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member of the Western Conference. The team plays its home games at Crypto.co ...

as the 12th pick in the

dispersal draft A dispersal draft is a process in professional sports for assigning players to a new team when an existing team folds or is merged into another team. Like most other sports drafts, most dispersal drafts are conducted in closed leagues and are in ...

on January 8, 2007. She returned to Detroit for her final season in 2007.

International career

Walker played on the team presenting the US at the 1999 World University Games held in

Palma de Mallorca, Spain Palma (, ; ), also known as Palma de Mallorca (officially between 1983 and 1988, 2006–2008, and 2012–2016), is the capital and largest city of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. It is ...

. The team had a 4–2 record and earned the silver medal. Walker averaged 4.3 points per game and led the team in blocks, with nine. Walker was selected to be a member of the team representing the US at the 2001 World University Games held in

Beijing, China Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

. After winning the opening game easily, the USA team faced Canada and lost a close game 68–67. The USA team defeated Japan to earn a spot in the quarterfinals. The USA team fell behind by 12 points against undefeated Russia, but came back to win the game by eleven points. The next game was against the unbeaten host team China, and the USA team won 89–78. The USA team won their next two games to set up the gold medal game; a rematch against the host team. China would stay close early, but the USA team prevailed and won the gold medal with a score of 87–67. Walker set a USA World University Games record for most rebounds in a game with 19. She was the leading scorer and rebounding for the team, averaging 15.4 points and 8.6 rebounds per game.

Career statistics

WNBA

Regular season

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Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

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2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

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2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

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2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

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2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

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2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

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Playoffs

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College

References

*https://web.archive.org/web/20121022063734/http://www.wnba.com/playerfile/ayana_walker/bio.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, Ayana 1979 births Living people American expatriate basketball people in France American women's basketball players Basketball players from Houston Charlotte Sting players Detroit Shock players Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters basketball players Tarbes Gespe Bigorre players FISU World University Games gold medalists for the United States FISU World University Games silver medalists for the United States Summer World University Games medalists in basketball Forwards (basketball) Medalists at the 1999 Summer Universiade Medalists at the 2001 Summer Universiade 21st-century American sportswomen 21st-century African-American sportswomen 20th-century American sportswomen 20th-century African-American sportswomen