Title Is Next Target for Tina Charles, Rising Connecticut Star After scoring 25 points in a series-clinching win over the Liberty last weekend, Connecticut Sun center Tina Charles celebrated with home-cooked meals of oxtails, peas and rice, as well as with tickets to a Jay-Z concert. During the show at the Barclays Center on Monday night, while addressing reports of his small ownership share of the Brooklyn Nets, Jay-Z told the crowd: "I look out here right now and see how far we've come. You still got a long way to go because everybody wants to diminish your accomplishment. Those words from a fellow New Yorker resonated with Charles, who honed her skills on playgrounds and in gyms throughout the city. "One of the main things I took from there was never let anybody's insecurities or fears get to you," Charles said. When somebody tells you something, and because they can't do it, that's why they think you can't. And that's one of the main things I did all my career. When people told me I couldn't do it, I knew I could. Charles's home court was the playground at P.S. 127 in East Elmhurst, Queens, around the corner from where she lived with her mother, Angella Murray. She said she was often the last player chosen in pickup games with the older boys from the neighborhood, but she quickly developed a mentality that encapsulates a New York basketball player. "The determination to want to make it, to want to be better than each other; the competitiveness is just natural," Charles said. It keeps us going, keeps us motivated. She added: "I was never the top dog, I was never the top man. I was always the person coming off the bench. I was always the person who had to stay after and work on fundamentals. But this year, there has been little doubt that Charles, 23, is among the elite after winning an Olympic gold medal for the United States and the W.N.B.A."s Most Valuable Player award. On Friday night, the Sun host the Indiana Fever in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals. The team is five victories from its first title. Charles could become the first player to win a gold medal, a league M.V.P. trophy and a W.N.B.A. championship in the same year. "I don't feel any pressure at all," Charles said. I just know when you work hard, have determination and patience, that eventually your game gets respected. I knew one day, one year it will get seen, and this year was it right here. This season, the 6-foot-4 Charles averaged 18 points and 10.5 rebounds per game, the third consecutive year she led the league in rebounding. Connecticut had the best record in the East, and for the fourth time in franchise history the Sun entered the playoffs as a No. 1 seed. Charles was still in high school at Christ the King during those other three seasons, 2004 to 2006, when the Sun lost in the W.N.B.A. finals twice and the conference finals once. Charles's transformation into an athletic and bruising force on the basketball court did not develop overnight, and she has become a more vocal leader this season. As a sophomore at UConn, Charles was benched during the N.C.A.A. tournament. But she responded by leading the Huskies to a national championship the following season and becoming the team's career leader in points and rebounds. When Coach Bob Mackey first saw Charles play as a 6-foot freshman at Christ the King, he was taken aback by her coordination and speed. "The combination of the two is a very rare commodity in women's basketball," he said. Her physical capabilities are just so limitless. Mackey, who has also coached Sue Bird and Chamique Holdsclaw, described Charles as a quiet leader in high school with a polished personality, which he attributed to her mother. "I expected her to make a big splash in the league," he said, "but I don't think I expected the level of this splash." Even Murray is somewhat surprised at her daughter's accomplishments this season. On Tuesday morning, after Charles drove back to Connecticut for practice, Murray was washing dishes in her kitchen when she glanced at a photo on the refrigerator of Charles as an 11-year-old youth basketball player, Photoshopped onto a Wheaties box. "I'm overwhelmed actually when I think about it," Murray said. I was just shaking my head and saying look how far she has come. Charles is not quick to embrace the superstar label. "My goal is not to be a face of the league," she said. But it is becoming evident around the W.N.B.A that she is viewed in the same class of top players as Diana Taurasi and Candace Parker, the type of dominant force that can take over games. If Charles is able to cap her memorable summer with a championship, Murray already has a spot ready on the mantel for the trophy. Before mother and daughter said goodbye Tuesday, Murray had a message for Charles, her only child. "I usually pray with her for protection on the road, to get back home," Murray said. "I told her: "Let's do this. Stay focused and bring the championship home. Take care of yourself and do what you have to do. You know what you have to do. I wish I had more children so they could follow in her footsteps.