wnba skylar diggins: What You Need to Know (June 2026)
Skylar Diggins Is Back โ and She's Making Noise Again
Skylar Diggins-Smith has never been easy to ignore. Whether she's dropping 30 points in a playoff game or speaking her mind on social media, the 12-year WNBA veteran commands attention. Right now, searches for her name have spiked over 500%, and the reasons why tell a bigger story about where she stands in the league heading into 2025.
The Seattle Move That Has Everyone Talking
After a complicated split with the Phoenix Mercury โ where she averaged 21.2 points and 7.3 assists per game in 2023 before opting out โ Diggins-Smith signed with the Seattle Storm. The move reunited her with a franchise built around winning and paired her alongside a young core that desperately needed a proven floor general. Seattle hasn't had a true lead guard with her combination of shot creation and playmaking since the early Jewell Loyd years, and the fit looks genuinely compelling on paper.
The Storm finished 15-25 in 2024, missing the playoffs entirely. Adding a guard of Diggins-Smith's caliber isn't a minor adjustment โ it's a structural overhaul of how Seattle runs its offense.
What She Still Brings to the Table
At 34, the questions about her game are fair. But so is the evidence that she hasn't declined significantly. In her last fully healthy season, she was top-five in the league in assists and remained one of the most difficult isolation scorers in the WNBA. Her pull-up mid-range game is practically automatic, and she's historically been a nightmare for defenses in pick-and-roll sets because she can both score and find cutters at an elite level.
Her career averages โ 17.4 points, 5.6 assists, 3.5 rebounds per game โ understate her impact in clutch moments. She has made six All-Star teams and has repeatedly elevated her game when it matters most in postseason play.
The Storyline Behind the Stats
Part of what makes Diggins-Smith's resurgence such a compelling story is everything she's navigated off the court. She was candid about her mental health struggles, stepped away briefly during the 2021 season to prioritize her well-being, and has spoken openly about the pressures placed on Black women in professional sports. That honesty, at a time when athlete mental health conversations were just beginning to go mainstream, made her a figure people follow for reasons beyond box scores.
Recent social media activity has added fuel to the trending searches. Comments she made in interviews about her legacy, her age, and proving doubters wrong have circulated widely among WNBA fans โ a community that has grown dramatically since Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese elevated the league's profile in 2024.
Why This Season Could Define Her Final Chapter
The timing matters. The WNBA is in a different place than it was when Diggins-Smith broke in with the Tulsa Shock back in 2013. Ratings are up, attendance records are being broken, and national media is paying the kind of attention that players in her generation spent years fighting for.
A deep playoff run with Seattle โ a city with real WNBA history and a passionate fanbase โ would be a fitting stage for her to remind people exactly who she is. A 2025 championship run would cement her in conversations about the greatest guards the league has ever produced.
- 6x WNBA All-Star selection
- Career average of 17.4 points and 5.6 assists per game
- Averaged 21.2 points per game with Phoenix in 2023
- Signed with Seattle Storm ahead of the 2025 season
- One of four active players with 4,000+ career WNBA points
Whether you've followed her career from the beginning or you're just catching up, Skylar Diggins-Smith in 2025 is worth watching closely. She's not winding down. She's setting up for one more run.