Griner Joining Dream After 11 Seasons with Mercury

It is the end of an era in the desert.

WNBA All-Star Brittney Griner is on the move.

Griner has come to terms on a one-year deal with the Atlanta Dream, which will become official on Saturday, February 1 when WNBA player contracts can be signed, ESPN first reported on Tuesday.

“Free agency has been everything I wanted it to be,” Griner said in a video posted on social media that featured new Dream teammates Rhyne Howard, Allisha Gray and Jordin Canada. “I’m thrilled for this chapter.”

Griner, a 2014 WNBA champion, has spent her entire 11-year career with the Phoenix Mercury. In Phoenix, Griner accomplished a great deal, earning 10 All-Star appearances, six All-WNBA Team honors and seven All-Defensive Team nods, in addition to two scoring titles, eight block titles and two Defensive Player of the Year awards. She leaves the Mercury as the franchise’s career leader in blocked shots (812), rebounds (2,322) and field goal percentage (56.2%).

“It was a hard decision … leaving what I’ve known for my whole career. But there’s also the exciting factor of like ‘OK, this is a rebrand now, I get to show them something different,’ ” Griner said. “I was able to find where I wanted to go. And honestly what led me to that decision ultimately was the team, the players, as individuals, and then also my family.”

Griner averaged 17.8 points, 6.6 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.5 blocks in 30 games (all starts) in 2024. After finishing in the basement in 2023 with a disappointing 9-31 record, the Mercury finished in seventh place in 2024 with a 19-21 showing. The team made it to the playoffs, before being swept in the opening round by the Minnesota Lynx.

The move marks the end of an era for the Mercury’s dynamic duo, Griner and Diana Taurasi, who have played 11 seasons together. The pair won the Mercury’s third and most recent WNBA title in 2014 after Griner was drafted out of Baylor University with the first overall pick of the 2013 WNBA draft.

“To be here 10 years later with you guys, it’s like a sisterhood,” Taurasi said in September, while celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the Mercury’s 2014 WNBA championship team. “We are always going to be linked by this trophy, by this city and by this team.”

Taurasi was more than just a great teammate, she was also one of her strongest advocates and leading voices calling for Griner’s safe return to the U.S. after Griner was “wrongfully detained” in a Russian colony for nearly 10 months after vape cartridges containing oil derived from cannabis were allegedly found in her luggage at an airport near Moscow, forcing Griner to miss the entire 2022 WNBA season. Griner was freed in a prisoner swap on December 8, 2022.

“There’s no one like her in women’s basketball,” Taurasi said of Griner in 2023. “How she affects the game with her size, and I think what gets lost is how good she is on the block and all those things.”

Griner and Taurasi were not only WNBA teammates, but Olympic teammates. They both won an Olympic gold medal with the U.S. women’s basketball team at the 2024 Paris Olympics, marking Griner’s third and Taurasi’s sixth. They also captured gold together at the 2016 Rio Games and Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

It remains up in the air if Taurasi returns to the Mercury for her 21st season. Taurasi, 42, is an unrestricted free agent and has thought about retirement. Earlier Tuesday, the Mercury acquired five-time All-Star forward Alyssa Thomas in a trade with the Connecticut Sun, ESPN and The Athletic reported, sending guards Natasha Cloud, Rebecca Allen and the 12th overall pick in the 2025 WNBA draft to the Sun, in exchange for Thomas and Ty Harris.