Kiara Leslie Resigns with Athletes Unlimited Pro Basketball for 2026 Season
Kiara Leslie is set to return to Nashville for the 2026 Athletes Unlimited Pro Basketball season. The former first round WNBA draft pick brings a well-rounded scoring and rebounding presence to the guard position, along with the experience of a strong first AU season in 2025.
Leslie played 10 games during her AU debut and finished with 2,535 leaderboard points while averaging 7.5 points and 4.1 rebounds. She reached the 300 mark in leaderboard points four times, including a season-high 394 against Team Harrison in the Week Three finale. Her best scoring outing came on March 1 against Team Sims when she posted 15 points on 5-of-13 shooting and went a perfect five-for-five at the free throw line. She also collected 10 rebounds in that game for the first double-double of her AU career.
Leslie’s consistency on the glass helped drive her value throughout the season. She grabbed nine rebounds in two separate Week Two games and matched that total again in the season finale. She added another double-digit scoring effort with 12 points against Team Westbrook in early February and knocked down a pair of threes in that performance.
Her return to AU follows a year that also included a WNBA training camp contract with Minnesota, which she earned during last winter’s AU Pro Basketball season. Leslie made an immediate impression during Week One with Team Colson by averaging 9.3 points and 2.3 assists and posting a 12-point outing versus Team Westbrook.
Leslie arrived in AU with two years of WNBA experience after being selected tenth overall by Washington in the 2019 draft and winning a championship with the Mystics during her rookie season. She played 28 games across her two years in Washington and posted 4.6 points and 2.8 rebounds per game. She has also played overseas in Russia, Israel, France, Egypt, and Puerto Rico.
Before her pro career, Leslie split her college career between Maryland and NC State and finished with 1,252 points, 642 rebounds, and 204 assists. She earned AP and WBCA All-America Honorable Mention recognition at NC State, along with First Team All-ACC honors. She averaged 15.9 points and 7.2 rebounds as a grad student and recorded 31 double-digit scoring performances that season. She appeared in 136 college games overall and reached her 1,000th career point in 2019.
Now, Leslie is set to reprise her debut AU performance this winter in Music City, where she’ll join the high-caliber 2026 roster.
AU Pro Basketball returns to Nashville, Tennessee, with elite talent and electrifying energy, for its fifth championship season on February 4, 2026, at Nashville’s Municipal Auditorium. Tickets for the upcoming season are available now.
Siera Jones is the digital media reporter at Athletes Unlimited. You can follow her on Instagram and X @sieraajones.
