Griner signs with Mercury for 2023 season
Brittney Griner will be back in the WNBA this season after officially re-signing with the Phoenix Mercury Tuesday.
Griner, 32, had said she would return to Phoenix in a social media post in December in the days after she returned home from her 10month detainment in Russia. Griner had been arrested at an airport just outside of Moscow on drug possession charges in early 2022 and was brought home in a dramatic high-level prisoner exchange in December.
“We missed BG every day that she was gone and, while basketball was not our primary concern, her presence on the floor, in our locker room, around our organization, and within our community was greatly missed,“Mercury GM Jim Pitman said. “We will continue to use the resources of our organization to support her, on and off the floor, and we are thrilled for her that she gets to return to basketball, which she loves so dearly. This is a special signing and today is a special day for all of us.”
The 6-foot-9 center last played for the Mercury in 2021 and helped the team reach the WNBA Finals. She averaged 20.5 points and 9.5 rebounds that season.
More pro basketball
Russell Westbrook, waived by the Utah Jazz Monday after being acquired in a trade from the Los Angeles Lakers earlier
this month, is in line to sign with the Los Angeles Clippers after clearing waivers Wenesday and could make his debut with them Friday. The Clippers — fourth in the Western Conference with a 33-28 record — host Sacramento Friday in their first game after the All-Star break.
• The Chicago Bulls ruled point guard Lonzo Ball out for the season because of lingering discomfort in his surgically repaired left knee. Ball hasn’t played since Jan. 14, 2022.
• Jacque Vaughn, who has coached the Brooklyn Nets into playoff position despite the trades of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving during the season, was given a multiyear contract extension. Vaughn replaced Steve Nash early in the season and has the Nets at 34-24 and in fifth place in the Eastern Conference.
• With the team 29-30 and in eighth place in the
Eastern Conference, the Atlanta Hawks fired coach Nate McMillan. Joe Prunty will serve as interim coach. McMillan was 99-80 in his time with Atlanta and is 760668 in all or parts of 19 seasons as a head coach in the NBA.
College football
Authorities in Las Vegas are investigating the death of 20-year-old UNLV player Ryan Keeler, who was found unresponsive in bed in a studio apartment Monday.
Soccer
MLS is expanding its playoffs to include the nine top finishers from each of its two conferences. An opening “wild-card” round will feature matches between the eighth- and ninth-seeded teams in the Eastern and Western conferences. The first round will then be a