Good news! The Phoenix Mercury all-time player has officially announced her marriage to the Phoenix Suns.

Good news! The Phoenix Mercury all-time player has officially announced her marriage to the Phoenix Suns.

Brittney Griner, star of the Phoenix Mercury, is no stranger to controversy. After being arrested a few months ago, she is presently in Russia, awaiting a prison sentence. But this isn’t the first time she’s made international news.

Griner stirred much controversy a few years ago when she declined to stand up for the playing of the National Anthem, citing her personal beliefs on the matter. In addition, her union with Glory Johnson, a fellow WNBA player, was quite contentious.

 

May 2015 saw the two get married. Three weeks before their wedding, Johnson and Griner were taken into custody on charges of assaulting one another. Their relationship was already difficult, and Johnson’s pregnancy fanned the flames.

Less than a month after the two were married, Glory Johnson made her pregnancy known. In the face of strong criticism for her behavior, Brittney Griner requested for their marriage to be dissolved the very next day.

For the Phoenix Mercury, everything appeared to be coming together in the beginning of 2022.

The team, coming off a run to the WNBA Finals, was able to hold onto the key players from their 2021 season, which went better than anticipated. They signed two of the most sought-after free agents to join their ranks and hired a new head coach, someone the management felt could take their all-star team to new heights.

Some fans claimed that, unlike other stacked teams that brag about having a “Big Three,” Phoenix didn’t just have All-Stars on its roster. Unlike in 2021, the Mercury didn’t even end with the “Big Four.” The team that Phoenix had put together was a “Big Six,” unlike anything the league had ever seen.

Superstar WNBA player Diana Taurasi played with the Mercury for 17 seasons. For USA TODAY Sports, Joe Camporeale
But then, in mid-February, a check of a prominent player’s bags in Russia’s main airport’s small security screening room abruptly pushed the Mercury into retrograde. A season that had once shown promise turned into an unimaginable nightmare that nobody could have predicted.

Promotion
Phoenix’s ultimate objective hasn’t altered at all. This year is Mercury’s year to win a title. Now, though, they will have to do it without Brittney Griner, their all-time favorite, top scorer, rebounder, blocker, and biggest player on the floor in 2021, as she is still unjustly being held in Russia.

Phoenix’s top brass was motivated to make large off-season purchases after losing in the WNBA Finals the previous season.
Phoenix wasn’t considered a strong favorite to win the WNBA championship in 2021, despite being the fifth seed that made it through two straight single-elimination games to begin the playoffs. But the Mercury proved to everyone watching that they were right where they belonged after they defeated the reigning champion Seattle Storm in an overtime thriller on the road and went on to win a five-game series against the second-seeded Las Vegas Aces to reach the Finals.

That simply made the pain worse when Phoenix lost to Chicago. The Mercury, beset by injuries and unable to match the depth of the Sky’s team, dropped the series three games to one, leaving everyone in Chicago feeling frustrated.

Several of the team’s stars still feel the same way.