South Carolina assistant coach Khadijah Sessions left puzzled as former Gamecock gets waived by Golden State Valkyries

South Carolina coach Khadijah Sessions was shocked to hear that the Golden State Valkyries waived former Gamecocks star player Laeticia Amihere. Now, she is left without any team in the WNBA as the new season is right around the corner.

Amihere was with South Carolina in 2022 and she even won the national championship under Dawn Staley. She was the eighth overall pick at the 2023 WNBA Draft by the Atlanta Dream. However, she was waived off by Atlanta. But she was picked by the Valkyries, only to suffer another heartbreak.

Looking at Amihere's social media post, thanking the team, players and the fans, Sessions was not sure what was happening at the Golden State Valkyries.

"Whew what's going on in the W," Session wrote on X quoting Amihere's farewell post.

It has come as a shock for everyone because Amihere looked sharp in preseason and hardly anyone even expected her to be waived. She averaged 12.5 points in preseason with 60% shooting and 50% from beyond the arc. Despite this, she failed to make it to the final lineup.

Interestingly, the Valkyries are the newest team to join the WNBA. The upcoming season will be their first time featuring in the league.

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Khadija Sessions plays a massive role for the Gamecocks under the leadership of Dawn Staley

Khadija Sessions is an integral part of Dawn Staley's backroom staff for the Gamecocks. She has played for the program under Staley and understands the game inside out.

NCAA Womens Basketball: South Carolina at Southern California - Source: Imagn

She also works with individual players on a very personal level. Sessions herself, being a player of this generation, helps her understand the individual requirements of the players turning up for the Gamecocks.

Raven Johnson shared how Sessions has great basketball IQ, and she noticed things that Johnson failed to see. She felt Sessions was a true blessing for the team.

“Her IQ for the game is phenomenal, right,” Johnson told On3.com. “Things that she sees, and I’ll be like ‘Wow, coach I would have never thought of that.'”

As a player, Khadijah Session led the Gamecocks to their first Final Four in Tampa Bay back in 2015. A decade later, she is imparting her knowledge about the sport to her players and working with the team as an assistant to Staley. She played under her from 2012-16 and later joined her alma mater as an assistant coach.

She generally works with the guards in the team and helps them improve their game in various aspects, starting from shot creation, court awareness, decision making, defensive skills, etc. The players have stepped up under her coaching as they reached the title clash last season only to go down fighting against UConn.