The Phoenix Mercury officially re-signed Brittney Griner for the upcoming WNBA season, the team announced Tuesday.
The 32-year-old center was a free agent before she re-signed with her former team on a one-year deal.
Mercury general manager Jim Pitman said it was “a great day for all of us” in announcing Griner’s signing.
“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,” Pitman said in a statement.
“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,” he continued.
“This is a special signing and today is a special day for all of us.”
Griner will make her return to the court May 21, when the Mercury kick off their season against the Chicago Sky.
The eight-time WNBA All-Star last played for the Mercury in 2021 and helped the team reach the WNBA Finals, averaging 20.5 points and 9.5 rebounds per game.
“I do not think any of us will forget where we were on Dec. 8 when we heard BG was coming home or on Dec. 15 when she announced she intended not only to play basketball in 2023 but that it would be for the Mercury,” Mercury president of business operations Vince Kozar said in a statement.
“And I know none of us will ever forget what it will feel like to welcome her back onto her home floor on May 21. To know BG is to love and appreciate BG, and we can’t wait to show her that in person with thousands and thousands of her biggest supporters exactly three months from today at our Welcome Home Opener.”
Griner missed last season as she was detained in Russia for 10 months. She was arrested on drug possession charges in Russia in February 2022 at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport when authorities found hashish oil in vape canisters in her luggage.
Griner was later sentenced to nine years in prison before returning to the United States in a high-level prisoner exchange in December.
At the time of her arrest, Griner was a professional player for Russia’s UMMC Ekaterinburg.
