09/19/2025
Athlinics is proud to welcome Karleen Thompson as our Director of Basketball🏀:
Karleen Thompson is a highly respected basketball coach with extensive experience at the highest levels of the game, including multiple leadership roles in the WNBA and collegiate basketball. She served as head coach and general manager of the Houston Comets from 2007 to 2008 and was previously associate head coach of the Atlanta Dream from 2013 to 2017. As an Assistant Coach, she was instrumental in the Los Angeles Sparks’ championship runs in 2001 and 2002 and took over as interim co-head coach in 2004, leading the team to a league-best 25-9 finish. Thompson has also represented the league on the international stage, serving as an assistant for the WNBA Select Team that earned silver at the 2003 FIBA Women’s World Cup in Russia, and as an assistant coach for the Western Conference All-Star Team in 2002 and 2003.
In the college game, Thompson has made a significant impact as an assistant coach and defensive coordinator at Clemson from 2010 to 2013 and later served as the associate head coach at the University of Virginia. A former collegiate standout herself, she began her playing career at Contra Costa College, where she was a Kodak All-American and later inducted into the Junior College Hall of Fame, before transferring to the University of Southern California. A passionate leader and mentor, she is also the wife of William Borders III, proud mother to daughters Ayesha and Keisha, and grandmother to three grandsons, twins Tyler and Kameron, and youngest grandson Brennan.