It’s possible for this story to begin with numbers. Awak Kuier is 1.98 meters tall, or 6 feet 6 inches, and has wings that can spread out to about seven feet. Those measurements look like they belong in a job board ad. When you see her move on the basketball court, it’s almost surreal how her size is matched with speed, coordination, and a calm, unhurried confidence that players twice her age don’t always develop.
A neighbor in the Finnish city of Kotka saw her and gave her name to a nearby coach. She was 10 years old and already 180 centimeters tall. It’s one of those small, unplanned events that happen all the time in sports history—an observation that means everything in the end. The coach asked her to come work out. She showed up. And somewhere in that normal sequence, the course of Finnish women’s basketball changed in a way that no one could have fully predicted at the time.
People always notice Kuier’s height first, but people who have followed her career closely will tell you that it was never the only thing. A video of her dunking went viral when she was 14. This is very unusual for a teenager, especially for a girl in European club basketball, where dunks are still very uncommon. Like those kinds of moments, it went viral online and got her a lot of attention she probably wasn’t ready for. But she seemed to handle it with a calmness that would become something of a trademark for her.
She moved to Helsinki’s Basketball Academy when she was 16 years old. By the time she was 19, she had turned down scholarship offers from American universities, which some people found strange. Instead, she signed a professional contract with Virtus Eirene Ragusa in Italy. That move could have been a sign of both ambition and a realistic view of her situation. It wasn’t in school that she wanted to compete, but in the business world. The WNBA was already out there, and it was getting closer.
European scouts had been saying for a while that the 2021 WNBA draft proved them right. The Dallas Wings picked her second overall. She is the first player from outside of the United States to be in the top five since Liz Cambage in 2011. When she played her first game in late May of that year, she was the first Finnish player in WNBA history. There was a point, a rebound, an assist, and the start of something really interesting after seven minutes of play.
She became the eighth woman in WNBA history to dunk during a game on June 10, 2022. Even against the Seattle Storm. Because they have seven feet of reach, or wingspan, they can do some things that players built in a more normal way can’t. It’s still not clear how her game will fully develop, but it’s hard to argue with the raw materials.
In the years 2022–2025, Reyer spent time in both Italy and the WNBA. She called Venezia, Italy, her home in Europe. She was named Finals MVP in May 2024 after scoring 24 points in the deciding championship game. This, if any more proof was needed, showed that her game had grown beyond the physical skills she came with. Then, in June 2025, she signed with Galatasaray in Turkey, adding another chapter to a career that has already gone through more borders than most players do in a decade.
Seeing how Awak Kuier’s career has grown over the years makes you think that he has carefully thought out every move. Height opened the door. After that, she built everything herself.
