A South Carolina legend finds a new stage — and the Upshot League may be exactly what women’s basketball has been waiting for
Some players are built for the spotlight. Others are built for something more essential — the kind of player a team simply cannot win without, even when the box score doesn’t show their name. E’lisia “LeLe” Grissett was always the latter. And now, after years of grinding through professional leagues across three continents, the 2022 national champion is coming home to the Southeast — with a brand new league ready to showcase exactly what she brings.
Grissett has officially signed with the Charlotte Crown of the inaugural Upshot League, a new professional women’s basketball circuit poised to tip off on May 15, with games streaming live on YouTube and Fubo TV.
A New League With Serious Backing
The Upshot League isn’t a startup built on optimism alone. This is a professionally structured operation with real investment behind it — and the names attached carry enormous credibility in women’s basketball circles. Among the investors are Cheryl Miller and Ann Meyers Drysdale, two of the most decorated figures in the history of the women’s game. When those names are tied to a venture, the industry pays attention.
For its inaugural season, the league features four Southeast-based franchises: the Charlotte Crown, the Greensboro Groove, the Savannah Steel, and the Jacksonville Waves. Expansion is already planned, with Nashville and Baltimore franchises set to join in 2027 — a sign that the league’s architects are thinking long-term and building infrastructure designed to last.
The Charlotte Crown will play their home games at Bojangles Coliseum, a storied venue in the Queen City that gives the franchise immediate roots and a built-in sense of place. The Crown open on the road in Jacksonville on May 15 before making their home debut on May 21.
A Roster Built to Win — and Built for the Region
Grissett is far from the only name worth watching in this league. The Upshot’s inaugural rosters are stacked with players who have long been underserved by the limited availability of domestic professional options.
AD Durr — the second overall pick in the 2019 WNBA Draft and a two-time ACC Player of the Year out of Louisville — brings marquee appeal and elite guard play to the league. Deja Kelly, a three-time First-Team All-ACC selection from UNC, adds another recognizable name. Reigan Richardson, Amiya Joyner, Zee Spearman, Khayla Pointer, Shyanne Sellers, and Jessica Timmons give the league genuine depth of talent across multiple franchises. And for South Carolina fans, the presence of Lauryn Taylor — a former Spring Valley High and Francis Marion standout — adds a deeply local thread to the league’s regional identity.
Charlotte’s roster, featuring players with ties to UNC, Duke, South Carolina, Winthrop, Elon, and Appalachian State among others, is practically a love letter to Carolina basketball culture.
What LeLe Grissett Actually Meant to South Carolina
Casual observers might glance at Grissett’s career averages — 4.8 points and 3.6 rebounds per game — and underestimate her value. That would be a mistake. Statistics have never been the language through which her contributions are best understood.
Grissett was the spark. During the 2020 and 2021 seasons, she averaged over six points per game as the program’s premier energy player — a disruptive, defensively tenacious presence off the bench whose impact on possessions often couldn’t be measured. She finishes her South Carolina career as the program’s all-time leader in games played and currently sits third on the all-time career list — numbers that reflect a player who showed up, competed, and gave everything she had for five years.
That fifth season only existed because of COVID, and Grissett made the most of every minute of it.
But the chapter that defines her character most is the one that nearly derailed everything. In the 2021 SEC Tournament, she suffered a serious leg injury that kept her out of the entire NCAA Tournament run that spring and cost her the first month of the 2022 championship season. Returning from that kind of setback — watching from the sideline while your teammates compete — tests the mental fabric of any athlete. When Grissett came back, she wasn’t the same explosive presence she had been before the injury. But she still contributed. She still competed. And she still earned a national championship ring.
That is the definition of a player who is built to win.
From Columbia to France, Luxembourg, and Lebanon — and Now Charlotte
Since her time in Columbia ended, Grissett has done what so many women’s basketball players are forced to do in the absence of robust domestic opportunities — she took her game overseas. Stints in France, Luxembourg, and Lebanon have kept her sharp, competitive, and professionally active across multiple years and multiple basketball cultures.
Now the Upshot League offers something different: a professional home close to where she grew up, competing in front of fans who already know her name and her story. Durham, North Carolina — where Grissett is from — sits just over two hours from Charlotte’s Bojangles Coliseum. That’s not a flight. That’s a road trip.
For a player who has chased this game across three continents, the chance to compete professionally in her own backyard is something worth fighting for. And if the 2022 championship run taught us anything, it’s that LeLe Grissett always finds a way to fight.
The Upshot League tips off May 15. The Crown’s home opener is May 21. For Gamecock fans, it’s worth making the drive.
