The Basics
Position: Forward/Center
Current Team: Los Angeles Sparks | #7
Draft: 2018 | Russia | 1st round (11th overall)
WNBA Profile | Stats | Instagram | Twitter
The Pet: Choppy
The Down Low
Maria holds the title of the first player drafted who was born after the WNBA started playing, when she was drafted at 19 in 2018. Even at her young age, she was an immediate contributor in her first two seasons. Memorably, she ruled the stats leaderboards through a large portion of 2019 after having a monster 24 pt / 5 rebounds / 3 blocks / 2 steals in the first game of the season, before immediately going back overseas for two months. Maria has not played in the WNBA since that 2019 season, which should scare the rest of the league, as she is only getting better.
Outside of the WNBA, she is the Captain of Russian National basketball team and also plays for Russian super team, UMMC Ekaterinburg. She's also busy reaching influencer status on her instagram.
Highlight Reel
The Merch
Maria collaborated on a basketball diary (warning: it's in Russian). Here's her showing it off.