In one of the biggest moves of the WNBA off-season, superstar Brittney Griner signed a one-year deal with the hometown Atlanta Dream. The announcement came through a video on her Instagram last Tuesday.
Griner played her first 11 seasons for the Phoenix Mercury, the franchise that drafted her with the No.1 overall pick back in the 2013 draft. The 6-foot-9 center played a pivotal part in their WNBA title in the 2014 season.
Individual accolades for Griner include being a 6x All-WNBA selection as well as a 2x WNBA Defensive Player of the Year award winner. Winning has been a constant throughout her career at the college, professional and Olympic levels. She most recently won her third gold medal last summer with Team USA in Paris.
Atlanta hopes the pairing of Griner with new head coach Karl Smesko will have an instant impact on the franchise. The Dream have not won a playoff series since the 2018 season.
In a league that has been growing in popularity the last couple years nationally, Griner’s move will make a popularity push for the league locally according to our UNG Women’s team.
“I will say, I think it’s super cool how much attention women’s basketball has been receiving recently,” UNG Forward Emily Trushel said. “Even though I haven’t always kept up with the WNBA, I am excited to see the amount of recognition our sport is getting now.”
“The name Brittney Griner has certainly become well known over the last few years, so I have no doubt that her joining Atlanta will draw in more fans. A lot of the people who just started watching the WNBA in these last few exciting seasons might become true fans now that Atlanta has a big name on their roster. Sometimes all it takes is a star to grow a fan base, and I think that’s exactly what Atlanta needed right now.” – Carly Fahey, senior guard for UNG Women’s Basketball
No stranger to being the talk of town Griner dominated headlines nationally back in 2022 when she missed the whole season while being detained in Russia. An incident with THC at the airport led to her being incarcerated for 293 days before being released as part of a prisoner swap.
