Natasha Howard of the Minnesota Lynx is one of the most decorated players in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA): a three-time WNBA Champion (once with the Lynx and twice with the Seattle Storm), three-time All-Star, Defensive Player of the Year, and MVP of the 2025 Commissioner’s Cup. Despite these accolades, though, she is not one of the league’s marquee names.
Knowing that her story reflects many of the players in the WNBA, Howard worked with writer Deyscha Smith to tell it. That memoir, ”The Vision Through My Lens: My Life in Basketball and Beyond,” was released by Brooklyn-based publisher Akashic Books this week. It details Howard’s often-chaotic childhood and how discovering basketball rooted her and provided opportunities to solidify her future.
Smith is well-versed in basketball, having been an associate editor at Slam and now a contributing writer for that magazine who also covers women’s hoops for the IX Sports. “Tash had always wanted to write a book,” said Smith, noting that Howard had written a bit when she was a student-athlete at Florida State University. “When she was just about to sign with Indiana (in 2025), she decided to actually go forth.”
After a preliminary meeting with Akashic, which had previously published books by former New York Liberty player Sugar Rodgers and former NBA player/activist Etan Thomas, the work began. Over almost 18 months, Howard and Smith met regularly, both in person and virtually.
“We continued to meet all throughout the CBA (collective bargaining agreement) negotiations and her signing with Minnesota,” Smith said. “My feature writing style is I’m a conversationalist. I knew this is Tash’s story and she’s going to be talking about some hard moments in her life. She really wanted the book to be honest. I knew it was important that she felt comfortable.”
Capturing Howard’s voice came naturally through their conversations, including her childhood growing up with a single mother who dealt with alcoholism. “It was an organic process that we really took our time with,” Smith said. “It’s important that we tell women’s stories, women in sports. With the WNBA, there are players [who] get a lot of media attention, but Tash felt she hadn’t gotten a lot of media attention or the opportunity to tell her story of how she became this champion … There are players [who] deserve to have memoirs and talk about these human experiences.”
