{"id":404805,"date":"2026-01-12T15:04:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T15:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/404805\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T15:04:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T15:04:07","slug":"why-the-1997-mercury-set-the-tone-for-future-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/404805\/","title":{"rendered":"Why The 1997 Mercury Set The Tone For Future Teams"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Phoenix Mercury<\/a> made their debut in 1997, and they got off to a good start. They finished the season with a record of 16-12, and they made their first playoff appearance. <\/p>\n

Phoenix faced the New York Liberty in the postseason, and New York picked up a 59-41 win. That was a lackluster performance from the Mercury, as Jennifer Gillom and Marlies Askamp were the leading scorers. They both had nine points. <\/p>\n

\"Jennifer<\/p>\n

Aug 9, 2010; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Sparks coach Jennifer Gillom during the game against the Indiana Fever at the Staples Center. The Fever defeated the Sparks 82-76. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee\/Image of Sport-Imagn Images \/ Kirby Lee-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Gillom also had seven rebounds, two steals and an assist. Then, Askamp had two rebounds, an assist and a steal. <\/p>\n

The Mercury started the season with a win over the Charlotte Sting, as they beat them 76-59. Bridget Pettis was the leading scorer in that game, as she had 17 points. She also had three rebounds, three assists and a block. She made history during that game, as she became the first player to score a basket for the Mercury. <\/p>\n

\"Bridget<\/p>\n

Jul 18, 2013; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Sparks coach Carol Ross (right) and assistant coach Bridget Pettis react during the game against the Phoenix Mercury at the Staples Center. The Mercury defeated the Sparks 90-84. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images \/ Kirby Lee-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Outside of Pettis, the Mercury had another player who scored in double figures, as Toni Foster had 14 points, eight rebounds, three steals, two assists and a block. <\/p>\n

Phoenix ended the season with a win over the Los Angeles Sparks. The Mercury beat the Sparks 73-68, and Gillom had a big game. She had 29 points, eight rebounds, three steals, an assist and a block. Then, Askamp had 15 points, nine rebounds and two assists. <\/p>\n

The Mercury started off strong, and the following year, they would have an even better season. They finished that season with a record of 19-11, and they reached the WNBA Finals. Since then, the franchise has made it five more times. <\/p>\n

\"WNB\"<\/p>\n

May 25, 2023; Los Angeles, California, USA; Wilson official basketballs with WNBA logo go through the net during the game between the LA Sparks and the Las Vegas Aces at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images \/ Kirby Lee-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

As far as the 1997 season, their winning percentage was 57.1. That is a solid number, and it is the franchise’s 11th-best percentage. They have had better seasons, such as the 2025 season, and they have had worse. The 2023 season is a great example, as they had a record of 9-31. <\/p>\n

The Mercury are one of WNBA’s best teams, and as the first season<\/a> showed, they were bound to win a championship. While it did not happen right away, it happened when the team had stars like Diana Taurasi and Cappie Pondexter. Phoenix went through a difficult period, and when the franchise added those two, it put itself on the path towards greatness<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Please follow us on X to read more about the Mercury’s first season when you click right here<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Phoenix Mercury made their debut in 1997, and they got off to a good start. They finished…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-404805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}