Dawn Staley, Ta’Niya Latson, Raven Johnson and more adore Kamilla Cardoso’s glamorous look on her special day

Chicago Sky center Kamilla Cardoso celebrated her 24th birthday on Wednesday, April 30. The budding WNBA star posted photos from a photoshoot, presumably for her birthday, on Instagram.

It caught the attention of several in the basketball world, especially from the college basketball personalities. This is because Cardoso is considered one of the greatest products of coach Dawn Staley's South Carolina Gamecocks.

"Happy ME day 🥰," she captioned with an emoji.

Several former teammates, along with the current slew of Gamecocks such as Ta'Niya Latson, adored her for the glamorous looks on her special day.

Incoming fourth-year guard Raven Johnson dropped three heart-eyes emojis.

(image credits: @kamilla_cardoso on Instagram)

"Happy happy happy birthday kmill!! Let your light keep shining!!!!," coach Dawn Staley exclaimed.

"Happy baddieeee dayyyy," recently-graduated star Te-Hina Paopao wrote with heart-eyes and fire emojis.

"SHEESH," recently-graduated standout Bree Hall said through a GIF.

Hall then doubled down on the support for Cardoso with another comment.

"Welll wellll welllll," she shared with heart-eyes emojis.

"Happy birthday," recently-graduated key cog Sania Feagin posted with heart-eyes and red heart emojis.

"Happy birthday," incoming Gamecocks transferee Ta'Niya Latson commented with a red heart and a heart-eyes emoji.

Cardoso is in the WNBA offseason, preparing for her second year of professional hoops with the Sky. The 2025 WNBA season is set to commence on May 16, with Cardoso and Co.'s first regular campaign begin the next day on May 17 against the Indiana Fever in away territory.

Kamila Cardoso was a two-time NCAA national champion with the South Carolina Gamecocks

Kamila Cardoso spent three seasons of her four-year collegiate hoops tenure with the South Carolina Gamecocks, starting with her sophomore campaign in the 2021-2022 season.

That season, she won her first NCAA national title by defeating the UConn Huskies by 15 points, 64-49, in that year's March Madness. This was then followed by South Carolina's most recent national championship berth in 2024, when they toppled the Iowa Hawkeyes by 12, 87-75.

Cardoso was a tried-and-tested standout from the Gamecocks program and she was selected with the third pick in the 2024 WNBA draft. In her college basketball stint, she averaged 10.6 points, 7.9 rebounds, 1.2 assists and 2.1 blocks per game.

About the author

Koby del Rosario is a college sports journalist at Sportskeeda who took up BS in Advertising Management at De La Salle University, one of the big "four" universities in the Philippines. Koby has over four years of experience with Complex PH, M2.0 Communications, The LaSallian, Daily Tribune, and Time Attack Manila.

Koby's favorite college team would have to be the North Carolina Tar Heels. Apart from being MJ's alma mater, Koby has always been fond of the Jordan silhouettes that release in the school's colors (being a sneakerhead himself).

His past favorite college players would have to be Russell Westbrook (UCLA) and Markelle Fultz (Washington). With Russ, his 1-2 punch with Kevin Love during their UCLA days was something Koby marveled at as Russ became his favorite player to watch post-Kobe.

Besides playing basketball, Koby enjoys nightlife, collecting sneakers, and playing video games. Apart from hosting parties and taking pictures for parties/bars/clubs, Koby is learning to DJ as a hobby with all sorts of house and hip-hop as the main genres.

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Edited by Chaitanya Prakash