After much speculation this WNBA offseason about Brittney Griner’s next step, the nine-time All-Star, two-time Olympic gold medalist and Nimitz product has made her immediate future plans known.
The 33-year-old international basketball star is sticking with the Phoenix Mercury, the only WNBA team she has known for the last 10 seasons. The Houston native has re-signed with the team that drafted her No.1 overall out of Baylor in 2013.
“Phoenix is home,” Griner said. “The love and support my wife and I have received from the organization, community and X-Factor over the last 11 years has meant everything to us. I’m excited to continue my career in a Mercury jersey and work towards bringing another championship back to the Valley.”
It’s been a turbulent last couple of years for Griner who was detained for nine months in Russia in 2022 for being in possession of cannabis oil. The ordeal forced her to miss that entire WNBA season while raising considerable concern for her safety and well-being after she was sentenced to nine years in prison.
Griner, of course, was free in a prisoner swap in Dec. 2022 and resumed her WNBA career last season. Griner averaged 17.5 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.2 assists, while ranking second in the league in field goal percentage (56.0%) and third in blocks (1.6) during the 2023 season. She is third on the WNBA’s all-time blocks list.
So it seemed like a no-brainer that the player known affectionately around the world as BG would finish out her professional career where it started.
“BG has been a stalwart of the Phoenix Mercury and Phoenix community for the past decade, and we are excited that she will be with us as we build a team that can compete every night on both ends of the floor,” Mercury general manager Nick U’Ren said in a statement. “We know winning is what’s most important to her and that she can help lead us this year.”
The news of Griner’s contract extension comes on the same week that Griner begins training with the USA Basketball Women’s National Team in Cleveland, Ohio. Griner, who said she would “never go overseas again” to play unless it was to compete in the Olympics, will be playing for her third Olympic gold medal.
The Paris Summer Olympics kick off on July 26.
Griner making the Olympic team has only added to an eventful offseason. In February, Baylor held a ceremony to retire her #42 jersey after she starred for the Bears from 2009-13. Griner also announced that she is writing her memoir, which will give details of her Russian captivity for the first time since her release. The memoir, titled “Coming Home,” is set to be published on May 7, 2024.
“‘Coming Home’ is a story of hope and survival, of before and after,” Griner said in a statement. “Before, on my way to Russia, a place I’ve called my second home, I was excited to win another title. For eight seasons I played there, won there and lived there for long stretches. A short time later and a world away, I woke up in an after I’d wish on no one.”
