Diana Taurasi has not yet confirmed the end of her 20-year career with the Phoenix Mercury.
As for Brittney Griner, her oldest teammate and 11-year veteran, she will remain in the WNBA for years to come.
After Phoenix was eliminated Wednesday in Game 2 of the first round of the playoffs at Minnesota.Griner scoffed at a question to vehemently deny that retirement was on his mind.
Cowards online: Take your hatred for Brittney Griner and go back under your rock
“As far as me and my game, I’m a long way from retiring, so let’s not even start this discussion and let’s not even try to broadcast it. Like what? No,” Griner said during the media session of ‘post-match. I’m going to meet again, so yeah, I’ll let you know when we can start talking about me and retiring, it’s not soon, so just know that.
Natasha Cloud explained the Mercury’s two-year rebuild plan that started around Diana Taurasi, Brittney Griner, Sophie Cunningham, being traded for Kahleah Copper and adding top FAs during the next offseason.
Griner, a 12-year veteran whose one-year contract is expiring, is “far from retiring.” pic.twitter.com/K8Ost7ozRR
-DANA (@iam_DanaScott) September 26, 2024
Mercury starting point guard Natasha Cloud (16 points, 10 assists in the loss) laughed and added several times during Griner’s response, “She’s stuck” and “She’s got a son to support.” “..” This last remark from Cloud was in reference to Griner’s first child, born in July..
Griner, 33, has spent his entire career in Phoenix and is With her one-year contract expiring, she re-signed with the team in March. She scored a team-high 24 points on superb 10-of-15 shooting, added five rebounds and two blocks as the No. 7 seed Mercury was swept.
Griner’s 2024 season coincidentally started and ended against the No. 2 seed, the Minnesota Lynx. She was initially sidelined with a toe injury and made her season debut in the Mercury’s 81–80 home Commissioners Cup victory over Minnesota on June 7. . Griner was Phoenix’s second-leading scorer (17.8 points per game), leader in rebounds (6.6) and was fourth in the league in blocks (1.5) in 30 games this year.
Cloud explained how she helped design the Mercury’s two-year rebuild plan after their league-worst 9-31 record in 2023. She left Washington to sign with Phoenix in free agency last offseason, wanting to play with the three returning players from Mercury, Griner, Taurasi and Sophie Cunningham. They added other key veteran players such as Kahleah Copper and starting wing Rebecca Allen in trades with Chicago and Connecticut, respectively, in February.
“When I came into free agency, we really talked about a two-year plan knowing that we would get some pieces this year, but this next free agency was going to be a big piece for us,” Cloud said. “We go into the season and we’re like, ‘Oh, we can actually be really good.’ And from there, with the ebb and flow of a new season, I think people forget that we literally took a core of three and then added and plugged in a bunch of pieces from that summer. was spent trying to figure out the chemistry, figuring out how we wanted to play: was it fast, was it slow, defensively where we were strong I’m proud of us.
Cloud added that even though it was swept by Minnesota, “this is the most connected game we’ve ever had on both ends of the court” in Games 1 and 2.
The Mercury finished that regular season 19-21, eighth in team offense and ninth in defense. Copper earned AP All-WNBA second team honors as third in league scoring (21.1 points) and won a gold medal with Griner and Taurasi on Team USA at the Paris Olympics this summer.
This article was originally published on Arizona Republic: Mercury’s Brittney Griner has no plans to retire from the WNBA
