Tina Charles wants you to know she’s still here.

The 2010 first overall pick and 2012 WNBA MVP may not have played all last year, but it did nothing to disrupt her game. In fact, the 32-year old appears to be on a mission. 

Consider the Washington Mystics’ game against the Liberty last Friday. It was Charles’ first game against her former team since the April 2020 trade. Charles went off, scoring 34 points with nine rebounds and shooting 57.1% to place her in the top five in all-time field goals made. The center also made a career-high four 3-pointers. 

When asked if there was more juice to the game due to the nature of it all, Charles smirked.

“Yeah, they fired me on my day off,” she said. “I got fired on my day off, so, yeah, there was juice.”

She continued her one-woman onslaught on Tuesday in Indianapolis, posting her third straight 30-point game. She now leads the WNBA in points per game, averaging 26.2 points in 32.3 minutes through five games played.

The performance also put her in rare air, joining four-time WNBA champion and 2014 WNBA MVP Maya Moore as one of the only players in WNBA history with three 30-point games within the first five games of the season.

Following Tuesday night’s performances, Charles is putting together her case for league MVP. It’s only five games, but with Elena Delle Donne still out with a back injury, the Mystics will be relying on Charles to continue carrying a historic load. So far, the veteran center looks up to the task.