Photo courtesy Duke University.
Taina Mair’s collegiate basketball career ended on March 29 when she and her team, the Duke Blue Devils, lost to the eventual champs from UCLA. But, there’s more to her story: The 22-year-old Fields Corner native— who got her start shooting hoops on the courts around Dorchester and also starred as a freshman at Boston College — is now widely seen as a likely prospect for the WNBA, which will hold its annual draft next Monday (April 13).
“Whatever opportunity I get, whether that’s in the WNBA, if I get drafted or called up to go to a training camp, I just want to take every single opportunity and make the most out of it,” Mair said in an interview last week. “Playing overseas, that’s always been something I wanted to do. I’m open to any opportunities that come my way.”
That bring-it-on attitude has served this talented young woman well in a journey that started on Westville Street, steps away from UP Academy.
“They had a whole field, basketball court, baseball field, playground, everything. When they used to get out of school, I would go up there and play basketball.”
Fueled by Papa Rino’s pepperoni pizza and Hawaiian Fruit Punch, the young Taina spent many afternoons playing with her younger brother Talik and looking up to her older sister, Trayana.
“My sister was in high school; she went to English High. When it was halftime, I would go out on the court and try to shoot and do all that stuff,” Mair said in the interview with The Reporter. “I just really wanted to be like my sister; that’s really how it all started, and eventually my mom put me in basketball programs.”
Mair learned the fundamentals from the No Books No Ball program, which offers basketball training and essential life skills to kids ages 7 to 17. She attended Mozart Elementary in Roslindale and then Roxbury Prep for middle school.
As 8th grade came to an end, Mair’s club coach from the MassRivals presented her with a new opportunity: Holderness Academy, a boarding school in Plymouth, NH.
“I didn’t really want to go,” she said. “I didn’t want to live somewhere in the woods in New Hampshire. That’s not how I grew up. It was completely different from what I knew.”
Above, Taina Muir celebrated her MVP performance in the 2026 ACC championship with her mom Mercy Pineda. Photo courtesy Duke.
After one year, Mair transferred to the Brooks School in Andover, where, as a senior, she averaged a triple-double and earned Massachusetts Gatorade Player of the Year honors.
The collegiate game was next, and the 5-foot-9 point guard had committed to play basketball at Boston College when she was a junior in high school.
“I think playing in the Power Five was something I really wanted to do, and it was something I knew I could achieve,” Mair said. “I just wanted to play the highest level of basketball, and BC offered me that.”
In her only season at the Heights, Mair was the backbone of the Eagles squad. She started in all 33 games, averaging a team-high 36.6 minutes per outing, finishing second in scoring and steals, and tied for fourth in rebounding.
She also set the single-season freshman assists record with 217, the second highest single-season mark in program history, earning her a spot on the ACC All-Freshman Team.
But her college path reflected that of her high school one – always on the move – and at the end of the season, Mair entered the NCAA transfer portal.
“At first, I didn’t want to leave BC. I didn’t want to leave Boston or Massachusetts… I didn’t want to leave my friends, my teammates, but eventually, sitting down with my AAU coach and my mom, reflecting on the pros and the cons of staying and leaving, eventually the pros started to outweigh the cons.”
She added: “A lot of schools were calling me, the ones you dream of. For me, it was super overwhelming, but eventually I narrowed it down to three schools. I took three visits: Duke, Texas, and Maryland. All those schools are great in different aspects, but when it came to Duke, every single box got checked.
“Academically, they are an amazing school, that degree holds weight, and basketball for them was on the rise.”
Duke head coach Kara Lawson won her over, she said. “Coach Kara had a vision for Duke. She was super business-oriented, which I liked; she didn’t promise me anything. She said this program is going to be something in a few years, you can be the start of that, the foundation, and I’m going to develop you to be a great point guard.
“She made no promises to me. She said, ‘You have to earn everything, you have to work super hard.’ That really spoke to me.”
Mair took a minute to reflect on the beginning of her journey from Westville Street to Durham, North Carolina.
“A lot of athletes who come out of Dorchester, who I know, are all super hard-working,” she said. “I saw them when I was in high school. I was working out outside at Fields Corner at the basketball court. Everybody was outside working out, and we did it together constantly.”
That sense of determination and discipline has defined the way she describes herself as an athlete:
“I work super hard. Before practice, I’m in the gym getting a workout in, at night, I’m always going back to shoot. On the court, I’m willing to do anything. I’m willing to work hard for my team to win, whether I have to score, rebound, pass the ball, or do anything. I’m willing to do whatever it takes to win.”
And that’s why, she said, she and Lawson work so well together. “[Coach Kara] is a tough coach to play for. She coaches with tough love, emphasize the tough,” Mair said, laughing. “She’s going to give it to you how it is; she’s super honest and direct. I think not a lot of people can play for her in that sense because you have to be able to take harsh criticism.”
Players like Mair often seem to thrive under that kind of pressure.
“I’m always willing to be challenged by anybody, and I’m willing to take on the challenge head on. With her, she understood that about me, so she challenged me constantly. Almost every day, she challenged me with something new.”
In a post-game press conference on March 29, Lawson praised the impact that Mair and her teammate Ashlon Jackson have had on the program.
“The sadness, of course, at this time of year is when it’s your seniors’ final game and you know that you’re not going to get a chance to coach them again. That’s where it’s emotional, that’s where it’s heavy, but these two have changed our program,” she said.
“They have been the most influential class in our program since I’ve been here. They changed the tide of our program and turned us into champions.”
In three seasons, Mair started in 107 games, totalling 3,188 minutes, and averaging 29.8 points per game. And she graduates in seventh place in career assists in ACC history.
“It’s really one of the more underrated careers in ACC history when you think about it,” Lawson said. “When you look at the other names on the list and the accolades and the publicity of those players, and you look at Mair and Mair’s height in comparison to the other names on that list, she’s had an incredible career in our league, 7th all-time. It speaks to her consistency, her playmaking ability,” said Lawson.
“I talk about all the time, she’s such a winner. She’s got three conference championships, an ACC tournament MVP, a Sweet 16, and Elite 8. It’s hard to find a player with the consistency that she’s shown. A great, great player.”
For her part, Mair lamented the loss to UCLA. “They’re super experienced, they made a lot of adjustments, and they knew what it took to win, to get to the Final Four. We hadn’t learned that yet, and I think we learned last Sunday. You have to play a whole great game to be able to get to a final four.”
While her time at Duke is near its end, she described the experience as “a dream come true, to say the least.”
When asked if the WNBA was in the card,s she said: “I hope so. I really do hope so.”
