Brittney Griner not traveling on Mercury's 2-game road trip, will focus on mental health
Brittney Griner will miss the Phoenix Mercury's next two games to focus on mental health, the team announced Saturday.
The Mercury said they fully support Griner's decision to miss games against the Chicago Sky on Sunday and the Indiana Fever on Tuesday, while indicating her break might be indefinite. The team said it will work with her on a timeline for her return.
The Mercury's full statement:
Mercury center Brittney Griner will not travel with the team on its upcoming two-game road trip to Chicago and Indiana (July 30-August 1) to focus on her mental health. The Mercury fully support Brittney and we will continue to work together on a timeline for her return.
Griner is midway through her first season since returning to the United States after her nine-month imprisonment in Russia, a story that triggered enormous attention — and in some areas, scorn — for one of the WNBA's top centers. Rather than take time off, she resumed her career as soon as she could.
Earlier in the season, Griner was at the center of an incident in which she was harassed by a YouTuber in a public terminal at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. Before being pushed away by Mercury security, the attention-seeker asked her a series of intentionally inflammatory questions and claimed she hates America.
That incident pressured the WNBA to confirm Griner had approval to travel via charter jet, which the league had previously resisted for players. The league insisted Griner already such approval, while other reports indicated she only had the OK to fly privately twice in a "hybrid plan" that would have required her to get approval for additional flights.
In 20 games played this season, Griner is averaging 18.2 points, 6.7 rebounds, 2 assists and 1.7 blocks in 28 minutes per game, all numbers slightly behind her previous career norms but enough to be named a starter for the 2023 WNBA All-Star Game, where she was captain Breanna Stewart's first pick. Griner also missed three games in June with a hip injury.
The Mercury's record currently is 6-17.
