Chamique Holdsclaw, former WNBA star, sentenced for assault

Former professional women's basketball player and Olympic gold medal winner Chamique Holdsclaw will have to take anger management classes after pleading guilty to charges that she shot into a player's car and smashed the windows with a baseball bat, prosecutors said on Saturday.

Holdsclaw, 35, pleaded guilty on Friday to aggravated assault, criminal damage, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, prosecutors said. She will be on probation for the next three years.

The charges stem from a Nov. 13 incident involving Holdsclaw and Jennifer Lacy, a player for the Tulsa Shock Women's National Basketball Association team.

Lacy, who said Holdsclaw was her former girlfriend, was driving on a busy Atlanta street when she spotted Holdsclaw in a car behind her, the Fulton County District Attorney's Office said.

When Lacy stopped her car, Holdsclaw, allegedly began striking the vehicle with a bat and shattered several windows. Holdsclaw then fired a gunshot into the still-occupied vehicle, the district attorney's office said. Lacy was not injured in the attack, prosecutors said.

In addition to probation and anger management classes, Holdsclaw will be required to pay a $3,000 fine, and perform 120 hours of public service by speaking with youth "about depression, overcoming adversity and the consequences of one's actions," prosecutors said in a news release.

Holdsclaw, who played for the University of Tennessee, joined the WNBA in 1999 when she was drafted by the Washington Mystics. She retired in 2010 after playing for the Los Angeles Sparks, the Atlanta Dream and the San Antonio Silver Stars.

As a player for the U.S. women's basketball team, Holdsclaw won a gold medal at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.

(Editing by Mary Wisniewskiand Mohammad Zargham)