Why Brittney Griner signed with Connecticut Sun for final season in CT: ‘Basketball is rich here’

Griner was drafted No. 1 overall in 2013 by the Phoenix Mercury and played for 11 seasons with the franchise. The Mercury told Griner during free agency in 2025 that they were looking to move in a different direction, so the veteran center left to sign a one-year deal with the Atlanta Dream.

The move to Atlanta was a struggle by Griner’s own admission. After spending her entire career as a centerpiece in Phoenix, Griner was often the third or fourth option on the Dream and had difficulty adjusting to the system run by first-year coach Karl Smesko. As a result Griner had the least productive season of her career, averaging 9.8 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in 20.8 mintues per game. She appeared in 39 games but made just 25 starts.

“The right fit matters, and that transition from Phoenix to Atlanta, I’ll be honest, it was rough for me a little bit; the mental side of it,” Griner said. “It was an adjustment, and there was some growing I had to do on my part. But I feel really good about (Connecticut). I’m in the right headspace. I feel like I went into and knew what I wanted, I knew what I was looking for, and you don’t know what you don’t know until you know.”

The start of free agency in 2026 was delayed for months by negotiations over the new WNBA collective bargaining agreement, and the signing period opened just eight days before training camp begins on Sunday. But Griner said the accelerated timeline suited her, and it didn’t take long to settle on the Sun as her new home.

“I’m a person that likes to make a decision kind of quick and stick with it,” Griner said. “Coming here, after speaking with Coach (Rachid Meziane), Morgan and other people around the team, it was an easy decision for me.”

Bringing in Griner was a no-brainer for Meziane, entering his second season as Connecticut’s head coach. Meziane joked that, like Tuck, he’s lost to Griner more times than he can count while coaching in EuroLeague and at the FIBA level. Prior to joining the Sun, Meziane coached for 12 years in France’s Ligue Feminine, and he was an assistant on the French national team from 2014-21 before serving as head coach of the Belgian national team from 2022-24.

“We expect her to be who she is, a strong presence on both ends of the floor,” Meziane said. “Our system is about effort, spacing, but also an in-and-out game, so with her dominant presence in the paint, and she has very good court vision, so she fits with what we want and what we’re building. I feel that she can elevate our philosophy.”

In Connecticut, Griner will be the team’s most veteran player by a wide margin. No other player on the roster has more than six years of experience in the WNBA, and 11 of the team’s 17 training camp participants have played fewer than two seasons in the league. Griner was also the Dream’s most experienced player, but she was surrounded by other veterans and had just two rookies on the roster, so leading the Sun’s overwhelmingly young group will be a new challenge.

Though there may be growing pains, its a challenge Griner is more than equipped for after 12 seasons learning from some of the WNBA’s all-time greats. Griner’s veteran mentor in Phoenix was UConn legend Diana Taurasi, and she said her leadership style was also influenced by Hall of Famer Sue Bird when they played together on Team USA.

“(Diana) taught me a lot, and I learned a lot by watching her, her pulling me to the side and having tough conversations with me when I was younger about where do I want my career to go?” Griner said. “I’ve had a lot of really good people pour into me … So I’m just looking forward to that, looking forward to sharing my experiences. Some of my best leaders shared their experiences, grabbed me and put me underneath their wing, and I’m looking to do the same.”