WNBA Draft: Liberty select UConn’s Kia Nurse with 10th overall pick

Kia Nurse is no stranger to professional athletes. Her dad played in the CFL. Her brother plays in the NHL. Being a pro runs in the family.

With the 10th overall pick in the WNBA Draft Thursday night in Manhattan, the Liberty reached into UConn’s vast talent pool and took Nurse. With her offensive and defensive skills, the 6-foot guard fills a need for new head coach Katie Smith on the perimeter.

“In the conversations that I had with them and watching them over the last couple of summers, I think it’s a place that I fit in very well, and I’m very excited to get started,” Nurse said.

The native of Hamilton, Ontario, has played point guard, but the four-year starter mostly played shooting guard as a senior, averaging 13.5 points and shooting 44.3 percent from three-point range. She also was named the American Athletic Conference’s defensive player of the year.

Her dad, Richard, was a wide receiver for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Her brother, Darnell, is a defenseman for the Edmonton Oilers after being drafted seventh overall in 2013.

“Growing up, you’re kind of surrounded by that,” Nurse said. “You learn a lot about it every single day. You’re competitive just by nature. Coming out, my family was very excited and they were very helpful in anything I needed within the draft. I’m fortunate to have a brother who went through it, kind of, ‘How do you handle it?’

“So a lot of pressure. But I did it. And I’m the last one.”

The Liberty picked 6-6 Tennessee center Mercedes Russell in the second round and chose Leslie Robinson, a 6-foot guard/forward out of Princeton, in the third round. Her dad, Craig Robinson, is vice president of player development and G League operations for the Knicks. She also has an uncle and aunt who are rather famous — former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama.

Nurse joins four other former UConn players — Tina Charles, North Babylon’s Bria Hartley, Kiah Stokes (who played one season with Nurse) and Kelly Faris — on the Liberty‘s roster heading into training camp April 29. She also was one of three UConn players selected in the first round of this draft. Forward Gabby Williams went fourth to Chicago and forward Azura Stevens went sixth to Dallas.

Forward A’ja Wilson, the consensus national player of the year under Dawn Staley at South Carolina, went first overall to Las Vegas. She will play for former Liberty coach Bill Laimbeer.

“Just to be at the top really just makes my heart warm,” Wilson said. “This is a great feeling . . . I’m pretty sure that [Laimbeer’s] expectations are pretty much kind of the same as Coach Staley’s. You’ve got to come in and be effective as soon as possible.”