ATLANTA – For the first decade of the career of the WNBA of Brittney Griner, she was a social butterfly in the locker room, regularly asking the teammates on their plans for matches or training.
“What are we doing?” What are we doing? ” She would repeat.
Advertisement
But now, as a 34 -year -old veteran, Griner said: “I know what I’m doing.”
“I’m going to go to wash these bottles. I’m going to play with my son. We are going to watch the corner of Gracie,” she said, referring to a YouTube channel for animated educational children. “It’s just a little different now.”
Griner and his wife, Cherrelle, are parents of a 10 -month -old son, bash, who is with wide, curious eyes and learns to walk. Parental responsibilities are not the only difference in the life of Griner this spring.
For the first time since its n ° 1 selection of the 2013 WNBA draft by the Phoenix Mercury, Griner plays in a new team. She signed this last off -season with Atlanta’s dream. It is as important a decision for her as for her new franchise. Although Atlanta has made the playoffs in the past two seasons, he has only one winning season since 2014. Griner, 10 times All-Star and triple Olympic gold medalist, could be the regular veteran who can anchor their future.
Advertisement
He is early, but she has already woven her contagious mind in the base of fans. She attended the launch event of the Atlanta season holder – a barbecue held at the Piedmont Park – in May. For more than an hour, Griner and his teammates discussed with the fans, danced and posed for photos. When a 9 -inch 6 -inch Griner crossed a park fence to grab donuts from a nearby catering truck, Atlanta supporters were impressed. A small step to Griner. A huge jump for the dream.
“(Griner) is very easy to live, fun, playful,” said Dream Director of Dream, Dan Padover.
Griner will do his home debut in the regular season Thursday evening against Indiana fever, but in many ways, she seems to have already found what she was looking for.
“Rejuvena for sure,” said Griner. “I definitely have a new energy here in Atlanta. I feel like I am at home. “
While Griner determined the next stage of her career, she wanted to find a place where she felt comfortable. She did not enter the offseason by thinking that she would leave the mercury. She had never played in Phoenix, where she won a WNBA championship in 2014. She thought of a maxim of her father: “You do not give up when the times are hard. You buckle. You endure and find a way to get out of it.”
Advertisement
After 11 seasons of the WNBA and reaching the back half of his career, Griner first thought that she would help Phoenix to get back in mind before finally getting out of the game.
“Where I was drafted, I really wanted, in my mind, to retire. But it was not mine,” she said.
Griner said that before playing for a new one – a new professional league of three against three who overthrew in January – she visited the installation of Mercury for a question unrelated to her free agency without restriction. It was only Alors, said Griner, she heard representatives of Mercury that her future in Phoenix was uncertain.
Griner prospered there as a double leader of the WNBA and has become one of the most recognizable stars of the WNBA. When she was detained in Russia for more than nine months in 2022, she was grateful that the Mercury helped to raise awareness of his imprisonment and to make cries for her release.
Advertisement
Thus, learning the franchise was ready to separate perhaps from it was a surprise.
“I said to myself,” I want to be somewhere where they know a fact that they want me, “said Griner.
The first full day of the free agency in January, she met Padover, owner Larry Gottesdiener, first year dream coach Karl Pmesko, deputy director general Brooklyn Cartwright and others of Atlanta coach staff. For an hour, the franchise explained how it would be a good adjustment with their existing foundation and the city. Having grown up in the suburbs of Houston and a graduate of Baylor, Griner has always liked to live in the south – the charm of its cities, the culture of the region and, in particular, its food.
“More than anything, she really was looking for a house,” said Padover.
Advertisement
Griner also met representatives of Dallas and Las Vegas Aces in free will. But a few days after meeting the dream, she spent an afternoon of canoeing and fishing with three Atlanta players-two All-Stars Rhyne Howard and Allisha Gray, and twice WNBA champion and first-level All-Defensive Jordin Canada. Like Griner, they also participated in an unrivaled.
At that time, she had decided to play for Atlanta, and she wanted to spend time with her new teammates. They appreciated the waters off Miami Beach, and Griner, a fisher enthusiast, caught a mackerel of the king. But there were other cases to manage.
On the boat, Griner filmed a video – with cameos of his boatmates who have become a teammate – for social networks where she announced herself as the new Atlanta player.
“It was very special because not only was her announcement, but she already wanted to be part of us,” said Howard.
Griner also helps more to one of the leg of the league aspiring.
Advertisement
In February 2021, Gottesdiener, the founder and president of a leading real estate capital company, led a trio of investors to buy the team. With the commercial partner Suzanne Abair and the former star of Dream Renee Montgomery, Gottesdiener said that she had entered what was “to cut an expansion franchise”. Atlanta had only seven employees in its head office. A few months after their new property, the franchise separated from its team president and traveled the head coaches.
Since then, the dream has rebuilt their infrastructure. They now have more than 50 full -time corporate employees, with aspirations to continue to grow. Gottesdiener said that Atlanta “actively negotiates” a new center of practice as well as working on plans for what would be the first specially designed stadium of the WNBA.
The dream has also recovered with clear maneuvers rather than counting on the victory of the WNBA drafts. Atlanta has made 10 professions since 2022, acquiring key draft choices (including choice n ° 1 in the 2022 draft, which was used to select Howard) and players (including Gray and Canada).
This trio was a draw to Griner when she was thinking about where she wanted to spend the next stage of her career. She had observed their humor and their warmth in a recent Olympic camp on the American team and liked to spend time with them.
Advertisement
“You don’t hear the disorder of Atlanta’s dream,” said Griner.
Jitters washed Griner as she entered the installation of Dream Core 4 on the first day of the training camp. But almost immediately, Griner settled in his new environment, and his teammates felt his presence.
Griner said his father instilled in him the importance of connection. He taught her to always enter a room and talk to everyone. So Griner started talking and directing.
“Every day is a gift,” she said. “Tomorrow is not guaranteed. You never know. I just want to enjoy all the time I can while I’m here. ”
No one knows it better than Griner, whose detention in Russia has given him a new perspective.
Advertisement
During Atlanta pre-season training, Griner gathered a few young players and delivered hard truths.
“As much as we want you to do the team, all of you will not,” she said. “It is not the end of the world. The goal of life is to be able to support your family and having a job. Going abroad is not a bad thing. And that does not mean that you will never be back in W.”
PMEMESKO, a first WNBA coach who spent more than two decades to train the Côte du Gulf de Florida, saw Griner away the players away to teach patience and effectively use post. (Griner and his colleague high -level acquisition of the free agent Brionne Jones are two of the best big in the WNBA in the basket.)
Between the first and second quarter of the opening of the Atlanta pre-season against the mystics of Washington, Griner provided clear comments on the defense of the dream, despite the mention of 20 points.
Advertisement
And while the fever was making a late race in Tuesday’s match against Atlanta, Griner helped calm his teammates on the bench and in defense.
“She just has natural leadership qualities about her,” said PMEMESKO. “She has shown a big leadership. He is someone who makes sure that we keep things going.”
“Having him on the field with me, I can breathe deeply,” Howard told a Tuesday victory at the Indiana.
Howard assured the responsibilities of being a centerpiece of franchise. All-star twice, it remains full of the present and the future of Atlanta, but Padover noticed a new freedom in the 25-year wing.
Advertisement
“The people we have brought here really help her feel comfort she doesn’t have to do it herself,” he said.
“BG makes everyone be difficult for everyone to be silent,” said Howard. “It’s like, we have to match his energy.”
Griner also plays a different role. The dream hired Smemesko partly due to the 3 -point FGCU success and offensive creativity. Atlanta, who had a third offensive note in the league in 2024, has already been well improved. He scored at least 90 points in his first two games.
Despite his size advantage, Griner has not only camped in the block this season. She opened the two Atlanta pre-season games with 3S. Expect that she and Jones play with each other in high actions as the season progresses, although their post -ins also remains important.
Advertisement
Gottesdiener said he expects this dream season to be “savoring” and Griner said that she was doing exactly that, finding happiness with the franchise and the city.
After having trained camp practices, she regularly returned home and withdrew to a new favorite chair on the rear porch of her house in the suburbs of Atlanta, and relaxed alongside Chellelle and Bash. She looked at squirrels running in her backyard and heard birds sing.
“It seems so small, but these things mean a lot to me,” said Griner. “It’s my peace, and I have it here. It gave me a new life. ”
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Advertisement
Atlanta Dream, Phoenix Mercury, Wnba
2025 The Athletic Media Company
