NEW YORK (Reuters) – Ten-time All-Star Brittney Griner has recaptured her love for basketball after moving to the Atlanta Dream in a shock free agency move, the veteran center said on Friday. The former first overall pick built her career over 12 years with the Mercury and once appeared to be a permanent fixture in […]
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NEW YORK (Reuters) – Ten-time All-Star Brittney Griner has recaptured her love for basketball after moving to the Atlanta Dream in a shock free agency move, the veteran center said on Friday.
The former first overall pick built her career over 12 years with the Mercury and once appeared to be a permanent fixture in Phoenix, where she helped win the title in 2014 and was twice the WNBA’s scoring champion.
In a WNBA off-season full of blockbuster acquisitions, the 34-year-old Griner signing a one-year deal with the Dream earlier this year was perhaps the biggest shock to fans.
But the three-time Olympic champion said it was exactly the move she needed.
“I was somewhere for a very long time and it’s good to have a different change of pace, different outlook on everything. Definitely found the love for the game again being here,” Griner told a press conference.
The earliest sign of her fresh start came in the Dream’s 80-70 pre-season win over the Washington Mystics on Wednesday.
The 6’9″ Griner drained a three-pointer in her first possession, showing comfort with a shot she did not even attempt in her five seasons with the Mercury.
She told reporters that newly-installed coach Karl Smesko was helping build her confidence from behind the arc.
“Started in training camp day one, and I already can tell the difference now. I definitely feel comfortable taking the shot,” said Griner.
“Between coach and my teammates, they’re just putting a lot of confidence in me to take them. And then also movement on the three-point line and not just being on the block as well.”
Griner has enjoyed terrific longevity in her career despite a 10-month detention in Russia three years ago for carrying vape cartridges containing cannabis oil through a Moscow airport.
She was freed from a Russian penal colony in a high-profile prisoner exchange in December 2022 and named an All-Star only seven months later for the 2023 season, where she averaged 17.5 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game.
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York; Editing by Ken Ferris)