The Basics
Position: Guard
Current Team: #5
Draft: 2008 | Rutgers | 1st round (7th Pick)
Key Accolades: All-Star (2011), WNBA Champion (2016)
WNBA Profile | Stats | Instagram | Twitter
The Down Low
Essence has a whole career as a musician and production manager with Motown Records. She's been musical her whole life: She started playing the piano and saxophone at 9, taught herself the drums and electric bass in high school, and studied music in college. Now Essence releases music under the MC name Pr3pe (pronounced "preppy"). She has two albums, "Broken Diary" and "No Subz," as well as a number of singles, and you can listen to all of them on Spotify.
Essence is hard to miss on the court with her iconic glasses and hairstyle. It is also hard for Essence to miss the playoffs: She appeared in the playoffs in 10 of her 13 WNBA seasons for four different teams.
Somewhat unrelated, but I love the fact that Essence's mom was one of the fans sporting a "Free BG" shirt after Brittney Griner was suspended for an altercation during the 2019 season. Essence then turned her mom into a T-shirt.
Notable Quotables
The best music always makes you feel, even if you’re listening to a song that’s in another language. It doesn’t matter if you understand it or not, it still evokes emotion. Music and sports are both universal languages. I’ve played in many countries where I had teammates that didn’t speak the same language, but we were on the same team and we played the same sport.
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Forget it, neglected I expect it
A soul searching detective, I find my peace and protect it
- Conversations Pt. 1
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More on Essence
- The Iso: Essence Carson (The Players' Tribune)
- Write Your Story, Babygirl (The Players' Tribune)
- Former WNBA teammates Essence Carson and Tina Charles spotlight Carson’s music career (Jenn Hatfield, The Next)
- Black Female Athletes Weigh In On Creating Community And Enacting Change (Larisha Paul, U Discover Music)
- Why new Mystic Essence Carson chose to play in the WNBA this season over sitting out for social justice (Tyler Byrum, NBCSports)