| Awak Kuier | |
| League: | WNBA |
| Position: | Forward |
| Height Ft: | 6 |
| Height In: | 5 |
| Nationality: | Finnish / South Sudanese |
| Birth Date: | 2001 8, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Cairo, Egypt |
| Draft League: | WNBA |
| Draft Year: | 2021 |
| Draft Round: | 1 |
| Draft Pick: | 2 |
| Draft Team: | Dallas Wings |
| High School: | Helsinki Basketball Academy (Helsinki, Finland) |
| Years1: | 2016–2017 |
| Years2: | 2017–2020 |
| Team2: | HBA-Märsky |
| Years3: | 2020–2022 |
| Years4: | – |
| Team4: | Dallas Wings |
| Years5: | 2022–present |
| Team5: | Reyer Venezia |
| Highlights: |
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Awak Sabit Bior Kuier (born 19 August 2001)[1] [2] is a Finnish professional basketball player who competes for Reyer Venezia in the Italian Lega Basket Femminile and for the Dallas Wings of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA).[3] [4] [5] [6] She competes internationally for the Finnish national team. Selected by the Wings with the second overall pick in the 2021 WNBA draft, she was the second Finnish player in the history of the league after Taru Tuukkanen to be drafted, and she became the first Finnish player to play in the WNBA in May 2021.[7]
Growing up in the city of Kotka, Kuier was discovered for basketball by a neighbour at age 10, when she stood already 180 cm tall. The man contacted Mikko Kokkola, who was coaching basketball at the local, and Kokkola invited her to practice.[8] Kuier joined the club. She was named the U16-league Player of the Season in 2015–16. She debuted in top-tier Naisten Korisliiga with PeKa first team in the 2016–17 season.[9] At the age of 14, a video of her dunking went viral online.
In 2017, at the age of 16, she joined the Helsinki Basketball Academy team HBA-Märsky.[10] Kuier played in Naisten Korisliiga with HBA team, and was named the Most Improved Player in the league in 2019. She was also named the league's Player of the Month in January 2020.[11]
She then later declined offers from American universities to sign a professional contract with Lega Basket Femminile (LBF) team (Passalacqua Ragusa) in 2020.[12]
Selected 2nd overall in the 2021 WNBA draft by the Dallas Wings, she was the first non-American player since Australia's Liz Cambage in 2011 to be selected in the first five picks of the draft.[13] After missing the first few games of the 2021 season, she made her debut for the Wings on 27 May 2021, scoring a point, a rebound, and an assist in seven minutes of game time in a 101–95 loss to the Atlanta Dream.[14] In addition to her speed and resilience, Kuier's features also include an exceptionally large wingspan of about seven feet.[15] On June 10, 2022, in a game against the Seattle Storm, Kuier became the 8th woman in WNBA history to dunk a basketball.
Since June 2022, Reyer has also played for Italian team Reyer Venezia during winter seasons in Europe, competing in Lega Basket Femminile and EuroCup.
On January 22, 2024, Kuier announced that she will skip the 2024 WNBA season.[3] This is due to overlapping seasons between Italy and the United States, and the strict change in WNBA rules concerning absences related to playing in Europe.[16] [17] Kuier has stated that her dream is to compete in the EuroLeague Women.
In May 2024, Kuier helped Reyer Venezia to win the Italian championship title. She was also named the Finals MVP with her 24-point performance in the decisive third final match.[18] The team also advanced to the semi-finals of the EuroCup. In July 2024, Kuier extended her contract with Venezia.[19] [20] [21]
She represented Finland at the 2019 U18 B FIBA Women's European Championship tournament, winning the championship and being named tournament MVP. She was then named to the All-Star Five at the 2019 U20 B FIBA Women's European Championship, helping Finland to a second-place finish. Since 2019, she has represented Finland senior national team.[22]
|-| style="text-align:left;"| 2021| style="text-align:left;"| Dallas| 16 || 0 || 8.9 || .308 || .167 || .786 || 2.4 || 0.6 || 0.3 || 0.8 || 1.0 || 2.4|-| style="text-align:left;"| 2022| style="text-align:left;"| Dallas| 33 || 0 || 12.6 || .395 || .190 || .613 || 2.5 || 0.9 || 0.4 || 0.9 || 0.6 || 2.8|-| style="text-align:left;"| 2023| style="text-align:left;"| Dallas| 37 || 4 || 10.8 || .396 || .087 || .778 || 2.5 || 0.5 || 0.2 || 0.6 || 0.6 || 2.6 |-| style="text-align:left;"| Career| style="text-align:left;"| 3 years, 1 team| 86 || 4 || 11.1 || .380 || .145 || .708 || 2.5 || 0.7 || 0.3 || 0.8 || 0.7 || 2.6
|-| style="text-align:left;"| 2021| style="text-align:left;"| Dallas| 1 || 0 || 8.0 || .000 || — || — || 3.0 || 0.0 || 0.0 || 0.0 || 1.0 || 0.0|-| style="text-align:left;"| 2022| style="text-align:left;"| Dallas| 3 || 0 || 5.0 || .000 || .000 || — || 1.7 || 0.0 || 0.0 || 0.7 || 0.0 || 0.0|-| style="text-align:left;"| 2023| style="text-align:left;"| Dallas| 5 || 0 || 10.4 || .643 || .286 || .000 || 1.4 || 0.2 || 0.6 ||0.8 || 0.8 || 4.0|-| style="text-align:left;"| Career| style="text-align:left;"| 3 years, 1 team| 9 || 0 || 8.3 || .500 || .200 || .000 || 1.7 || 0.1 || 0.3 || 0.7 || 0.6 || 2.2
|-| style="text-align:left;"| 2022–23| style="text-align:left;"| Umana Reyer Venezia| 14 || || 27.4 || .508 || .333 || .605 || 5.1 || 1.9 || 1.1 || 1.5 || 2.4 || 12.4|-| style="text-align:left;"| 2023–24| style="text-align:left;"| Umana Reyer Venezia| 12 || || 21.5 || .400 || .222 || .737 || 4.4 || 1.7 || .8 || 1.5 || 1.5 || 8.7
She was born in Cairo, Egypt and is of South Sudanese origin.[2] She moved to Finland as a refugee with her family when she was two years old,[23] first settling in the city of Kotka.[24] Today, her family has settled in the coastal town of Uusikaupunki and she holds dual Finnish and Egyptian citizenship.[25] [26] She speaks Italian, Arabic, Finnish, and English.[27] Kuier has four older brothers and her parents are Jehovah's Witnesses.[28] [2] Kuier and her family are close friends with Federiko Federiko and his family, who share a similar background.[29] [30]