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 court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

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 th ...

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 in the

2002 WNBA draft The 2002 WNBA draft was the first to implement a lottery that arranges the order of the first four overall picks. The lottery gave four teams with the identically worst record of 10–22 from the 2001 season an equal chance to own the first o ...

. 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 folded on January 3, 2007. The Sting was originally the sister organization of ...

. After the Sting franchise folded, Walker was drafted by

Los Angeles Sparks The Los Angeles Sparks (LA 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 club of the league's Western Conference. The team was foun ...

as the 12th pick in the dispersal draft on January 8, 2007. She returned to Detroit for her final season in 2007.

Louisiana Tech statistics

Source

USA Basketball

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 1983–88, 2006–08, and 2012–16) is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. It is situated on the south coast of Mallorca ...

. 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. 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.

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 sportspeople 21st-century African-American women 20th-century American sportswomen 20th-century African-American sportspeople 20th-century African-American women