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By the time her decorated career at LSU ended, Flau’Jae Johnson was ready to start the next chapter of her life in basketball.
“I'm very excited just to be able to know where I’m going to live. You know what I'm saying? Who are my teammates? I'm excited,” Johnson said Saturday in New York City. “This is a new journey. Now you're coming into the league where there's so much growth visibility.”
Now, Johnson knows her path forward. She'll still be wearing purple, just a different shade.
The Golden State Valkyries selected Johnson with the eighth overall pick in Monday night’s WNBA Draft.
Johnson's jaw dropped when she heard WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert say her name. She collected herself, exchanged hugs and kisses with her mom, brother and LSU coach Kim Mulkey, then marched to the stage.
Johnson joins a team coached by Natalie Nakase that was an expansion team a year ago and made the playoffs in its inaugural season. Golden State just signed 2025 All-Star Gabby Williams and brings back guards Veronica Burton and Kate Martin.
Following Angel Reese and Aneesah Morrow, Johnson becomes the third consecutive LSU player to be selected in the first round of the WNBA Draft. Overall, she’s the sixth Tiger coached by Kim Mulkey to be drafted. Dating back to her days at Baylor, Mulkey has now coached 28 WNBA Draft picks, with 12 going in the first round.
The four-time national championship-winning coach has long believed that Johnson would be a WNBA-caliber player.
“Her all-around game has just elevated. She’s a pro. You haven't seen the best of her yet,” Mulkey said during the NCAA Tournament. “I just think she's so unselfish with her passing. She sees things two and three steps ahead of most people and she can just flick a wrist and throw it.”
A college basketball star who has another career as a hip-hop recording artist, Johnson was the first McDonald’s All-American that Mulkey signed at LSU when she took the reins of the Tigers in 2021. A native of Savannah, Georgia, Johnson was a four-star recruit and tabbed as the 26th best player in the 2022 class by ESPN. Her late father James was also a rapper who performed under the moniker “Camoflauge.”
Johnson has been a starter for all but two of the 141 games she played in over four years at LSU, including the 2023 national title game in Dallas, Texas, where the Tigers defeated Caitlin Clark’s Iowa for their first championship in program history. Johnson earned SEC Rookie of the Year honors that season.
After Reese left for the WNBA, Johnson became the face of the program. Following the national title, she led LSU to a pair of Elite Eight appearances and a Sweet 16 trip this past season. Johnson was a three-time All-SEC selection, a two-time All-American and a two-time All-Region selection in the NCAA Tournament. She also featured on Team USA last summer on the squad that won the gold medal at the FIBA AmeriCup.
While LSU fell short of achieving its biggest goals this past season, Johnson averaged 14.2 points, 4.2 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.3 steals per game while shooting a career-best 39.3% from beyond the arc. For her career, she shot 47% from the floor and 75% from the free throw line.
“Flau'jae is going to be a really, really good pro, and I think the pros are going to help Flau'jae and maybe some of the disconnected play that we saw at LSU this year,” ESPN’s Ryan Ruocco said last week. “Maybe some of that just gets cleaned up playing with a little bit more cohesion at the pro level, and a player like Flau'jae might benefit from that.”
A 6-foot guard, Golden State is getting an excellent spot-up shooter, a defensive stopper on the perimeter and an elite all-around athlete.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: LSU star Flau'Jae Johnson picked by Golden State Valkyries in 2026 WNBA Draft
Continue reading...
“I'm very excited just to be able to know where I’m going to live. You know what I'm saying? Who are my teammates? I'm excited,” Johnson said Saturday in New York City. “This is a new journey. Now you're coming into the league where there's so much growth visibility.”
Now, Johnson knows her path forward. She'll still be wearing purple, just a different shade.
The Golden State Valkyries selected Johnson with the eighth overall pick in Monday night’s WNBA Draft.
Johnson's jaw dropped when she heard WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert say her name. She collected herself, exchanged hugs and kisses with her mom, brother and LSU coach Kim Mulkey, then marched to the stage.
Johnson joins a team coached by Natalie Nakase that was an expansion team a year ago and made the playoffs in its inaugural season. Golden State just signed 2025 All-Star Gabby Williams and brings back guards Veronica Burton and Kate Martin.
Following Angel Reese and Aneesah Morrow, Johnson becomes the third consecutive LSU player to be selected in the first round of the WNBA Draft. Overall, she’s the sixth Tiger coached by Kim Mulkey to be drafted. Dating back to her days at Baylor, Mulkey has now coached 28 WNBA Draft picks, with 12 going in the first round.
The four-time national championship-winning coach has long believed that Johnson would be a WNBA-caliber player.
“Her all-around game has just elevated. She’s a pro. You haven't seen the best of her yet,” Mulkey said during the NCAA Tournament. “I just think she's so unselfish with her passing. She sees things two and three steps ahead of most people and she can just flick a wrist and throw it.”
A college basketball star who has another career as a hip-hop recording artist, Johnson was the first McDonald’s All-American that Mulkey signed at LSU when she took the reins of the Tigers in 2021. A native of Savannah, Georgia, Johnson was a four-star recruit and tabbed as the 26th best player in the 2022 class by ESPN. Her late father James was also a rapper who performed under the moniker “Camoflauge.”
Johnson has been a starter for all but two of the 141 games she played in over four years at LSU, including the 2023 national title game in Dallas, Texas, where the Tigers defeated Caitlin Clark’s Iowa for their first championship in program history. Johnson earned SEC Rookie of the Year honors that season.
After Reese left for the WNBA, Johnson became the face of the program. Following the national title, she led LSU to a pair of Elite Eight appearances and a Sweet 16 trip this past season. Johnson was a three-time All-SEC selection, a two-time All-American and a two-time All-Region selection in the NCAA Tournament. She also featured on Team USA last summer on the squad that won the gold medal at the FIBA AmeriCup.
While LSU fell short of achieving its biggest goals this past season, Johnson averaged 14.2 points, 4.2 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.3 steals per game while shooting a career-best 39.3% from beyond the arc. For her career, she shot 47% from the floor and 75% from the free throw line.
“Flau'jae is going to be a really, really good pro, and I think the pros are going to help Flau'jae and maybe some of the disconnected play that we saw at LSU this year,” ESPN’s Ryan Ruocco said last week. “Maybe some of that just gets cleaned up playing with a little bit more cohesion at the pro level, and a player like Flau'jae might benefit from that.”
A 6-foot guard, Golden State is getting an excellent spot-up shooter, a defensive stopper on the perimeter and an elite all-around athlete.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: LSU star Flau'Jae Johnson picked by Golden State Valkyries in 2026 WNBA Draft
Continue reading...
