Hamilton basketball star Kia Nurse aims to rebound with Athletes Unlimited after `rocky' 2 years

Everything changed for Kia Nurse when she tore her anterior cruciate ligament in the 2021 WNBA playoffs.

The basketball star from Hamilton was locked in as starter for a team in the semifinals. She'd been selected as an all-star just two years prior. But in one awkward fall three years ago, she was plunged into the depths of surgery and rehab.

Nurse would miss the entire 2022 season due to the injury. She signed with the Seattle Storm for the 2023 campaign before a trade landed her with the Los Angeles Sparks last season.

The common thread throughout Nurse's recent basketball journey? She just hasn't quite felt like herself.

"I still love basketball with all of my heart, and it's my favourite thing that I get to do. And I'm so privileged to be able to say that I get to do it as a job," Nurse said. "But the last two years for me have been just really rocky, up and down."

Nurse, 28, will become a WNBA free agent as of Feb. 1. For now, she's continuing her Raptors broadcast work with TSN and, on Monday, announced a new playing gig.

In February, Nurse will join fellow WNBAers Alysha Clark and Sydney Colson among 37 others for Athletes Unlimited's third basketball season in Nashville.

Players earn points through a fantasy-style system that rewards team successes like wins as well as individual accomplishments from made three-pointers to steals to drawn fouls.

Outside of the unique scoring system, the game looks like traditional basketball — a major appeal to Nurse as she attempts to tap back into her roots.

"I am not proud of my performance at the Olympics and not necessarily proud of how I've been playing over the last two years. I just have goals of finding my true love of the game and kind of coming back and being stronger