ARLINGTON, Texas — Deja Kelly signed a Developmental Player contract with the Dallas Wings on Tuesday, one day before Dallas closes the regular season at the Seattle Storm, and will wear No. 2 for the team. Kelly played her final two high school seasons at Duncanville High School.
Under the 2026 collective bargaining agreement, Developmental Players can practice and travel with the team and are eligible to be active for a set number of regular-season games. Each Developmental Player may be activated for up to 12 games this season, and a team is limited to 24 total developmental activations across the season. Teams also hold the reserved rights to up to two players who finished the previous season on a Player Development Contract.
Dallas (26-17) is tied with the New York Liberty for seventh in the WNBA standings and holds the tiebreaker between the two. Both teams sit a half-game behind the Washington Mystics (26-16). The Wings lost 87-86 at the Phoenix Mercury on Monday, which ended their six-game winning streak.
Deja Kelly Led The Charlotte Crown To The First Upshot League Title
Kelly signs with Dallas 24 days after she led the Charlotte Crown to the inaugural Upshot League championship. On Aug. 29 at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Fla., Charlotte came back from a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter and beat the Jacksonville Waves 81-76. Kelly finished with a game-high 29 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals.
Upshot League commissioner Donna Orender presented Kelly with the Ann Meyers Drysdale MVP award after the game. Kelly was holding the trophy when she spoke, Jacksonville Today reported.
“The championship MVP means a little bit more,” Kelly said.
Over the 2026 season, Kelly averaged Upshot League highs of 18.1 points and 4.0 assists per game. She was one of six players named to the All-Upshot League team. Charlotte opened the season 1-6 in the four-team league, which will add franchises in Nashville and Baltimore next season.
Deja Kelly Played At North Carolina, Oregon, And Las Vegas Aces Training Camp
At Duncanville, Kelly led the school to the Class 6A state title as a senior and was named the 2019-20 Gatorade Texas Player of the Year. She played in the 2020 McDonald’s All-American Game.
Kelly scored 1,858 points in four seasons at North Carolina, which ranked eighth on the program’s all-time list when she left Chapel Hill. She was a first-team All-ACC selection three times. The Tar Heels reached four straight NCAA Tournaments with her and advanced to the Sweet 16 in 2022.
As a graduate student at Oregon in 2024-25, Kelly averaged 12.2 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 3.3 assists while helping the Ducks to a 20-12 record and the second round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament. She finished her college career with 2,247 points in 153 games. During the 2024 Paris Olympics, Oregon coach Kelly Graves said he spoke with Curt Miller, the Wings’ general manager at the time, about Kelly’s WNBA prospects, Andscape reported.
After going undrafted in 2025, Kelly signed a training camp contract with the Las Vegas Aces in April. She played just over 7 minutes against Dallas in the preseason on May 2 and scored 9 points on 4-of-5 shooting. Four days later, she scored 15 points and hit the game-winning basket in an 85-84 exhibition win over Phoenix. Las Vegas waived her before the regular season, and she played for Athletes Unlimited in Nashville the following winter.
Kelly told Rob Knox of The IX Sports in July that the Aces camp showed her where she needed to grow. Some WNBA teams, she said, have questioned whether she can run a team as a point guard. On whatever roster she lands, Kelly said, “my role is not going to be to put up 15, 20-plus points a night.”
Dallas closes the regular season Wednesday at Seattle, with tip-off set for 9 p.m. CT at Climate Pledge Arena on USA Network, CNBC, and KFAA. The Wings are 3-0 against the Storm this season.
