Layshia Clarendon


Layshia Renee Clarendon is an American basketball player for the New York Liberty of the Women's National Basketball Association. Born in San Bernardino, California, they completed their college career at the University of California, Berkeley in 2013. The 2012–2013 season saw them become a leader of the team and receive national recognition for their abilities, culminating in their place as a finalist for the Senior Class Award.
According to their coach Lindsay Gottlieb, " vocal in terms of helping us achieve those goals and being a leader off the court and talking to teammates, but you're never necessarily going to notice that on the court."
For the 2012–2013 regular season, the Clarendon-led Bears lived up to expectations, compiling a 28–2 record and earning a 2nd seed in the NCAA tournament. Clarendon and the Bears have also enjoyed post season success, resulting in the team's first Final Four appearance. The Bears lost in the national semifinals to Louisville.

College statistics

Source
YearTeamGPPointsFG%3P%FT%RPGAPGSPGBPGPPG
2009–10California37–36.226.278.74.52.30.80.18.9
2010–11California3445040.033.769.65.43.51.50.113.2
2011–12California3544941.332.769.83.92.61.50.112.8
2012–13California3659045.232.566.54.02.81.70.116.4
CareerCalifornia142148941.031.369.74.42.81.40.110.5

USA Basketball

Clarendon was named to the USA Women's U19 team which represented the US in the 2009 U19 World's Championship, held in Bangkok, Thailand in July and August 2009. Clarendon scored 4.5 points per game, and helped the USA team to an 8–1 record and the gold medal.
Clarendon was selected 9th overall in the 2013 WNBA Draft by the Indiana Fever.
In 2018, Clarendon was traded to the Connecticut Sun in July.

Activism

Layshia Clarendon is a noted social advocate, speaker and writer, who is often asked to lend their voice and opinions on various social topics. In 2017, they discussed the issues within the WNBA in regards to the inclusion of people in the LGBTQ+ community. They claim that during their early career playing for the Indiana Fever, the team was attempting to include LGBTQ+ individuals by participating in a "Diversity Night" during Pride month- which Clarendon felt was purposefully coded, a way to tiptoe around the true purpose of recognizing Pride month. As time went on and Clarendon began playing for other teams, they stated that they saw the league improving and becoming more accepting of the LGBTQ+ community. The league even allowed Clarendon to use their WNBA Player’s Association Twitter account to send a supportive message to Mili Hernandez, the eight-year-old soccer player banned from a tournament in part because her short haircut made someone think she looked like a boy.
In June 2020, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the first LGBTQ Pride parade, Queerty named them among the fifty heroes “leading the nation toward equality, acceptance, and dignity for all people”.

Personal life

In 2017, Clarendon married Jessica Dolan.