{"id":422522,"date":"2026-01-21T00:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T00:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/422522\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T00:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T00:49:10","slug":"brittney-griner-makes-her-wnba-free-agency-intentions-clear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/422522\/","title":{"rendered":"Brittney Griner Makes Her WNBA Free Agency Intentions Clear"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"52\">WNBA veteran Brittney Griner&#8217;s decision to sign with the Atlanta Dream in free agency last season was one of the more surprising moves that was made. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"55\">This is because Griner had spent her entire 11-season WNBA career with the Phoenix Mercury at that point, and many within the women&#8217;s basketball community thought that she would eventually retire there. But Griner clearly wanted a fresh coat of paint on her career, or at least wanted to see whether there were greener pastures available to her. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"58\">It&#8217;s hard to quantify Griner&#8217;s 2025 campaign with the Dream. On one hand, Atlanta had the best regular season of the franchise&#8217;s history, as shown by their .682 winning percentage and being the No. 3 seed headed into the WNBA Playoffs.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5b\">Then Atlanta was upset by the Indiana Fever in the first round, which very few people expected, especially because the Fever were without Caitlin Clark, who was sidelined with injuries.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/01kfety77aassf2jjgam.jpg\" alt=\"Atlanta Dream center Brittney Griner (42) waits to enter a game\" title=\"Atlanta Dream center Brittney Griner (42) waits to enter a game\" width=\"3221\" height=\"3221\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"5k\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Sep 14, 2025; College Park, Georgia, USA; Atlanta Dream center Brittney Griner (42) waits to enter a game against the Indiana Fever in the first quarter during game one of round one for the 2025 WNBA Playoffs at Gateway Center Arena at College Park. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images<br \/>\n | Brett Davis-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5o\">One must also mention that Griner had the worst season of her career from a statistical perspective. She had career-low averages in every major stat, and her 9.8 points per game were close to 3 points per game less than her second-lowest season as a rookie. Plus, Griner was coming off the bench for a lot of the season&#8217;s second half. <\/p>\n<p>Brittney Griner\u2019s Latest Comments Hint at Easy Free Agency Decision<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5u\">None of this has impacted Griner&#8217;s desire to remain in Atlanta, despite becoming a free again this offseason. This was made clear by a January 18 interview she did with Sports Illustrated\u2019s Maria Clifton.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5x\">When speaking about her 2025 season with the Dream and if she&#8217;s looking forward to being with Atlanta in 2026, Griner said, &#8220;I&#8217;m looking forward to it. Everybody on that team, it was just easy. Basketball was the main focus; we showed up, we hooped, and that&#8217;s all you can ask for. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"60\">&#8220;And I&#8217;m looking forward to being there again. I&#8217;m looking forward to just being in the city. The city was amazing. They welcomed me so well, and I had a blast,&#8221; Griner continued. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"67\">Griner&#8217;s stance makes it sound like there&#8217;s no question that she&#8217;ll be back in Atlanta next season, which, given that she&#8217;s a free agent, is definitely interesting to hear.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6a\">It&#8217;s impossible to know how much she has spoken to the Dream&#8217;s front office. But Griner is clearly willing to make it known where she wants to be playing for the 2026 WNBA campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Recommended Reading:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WNBA veteran Brittney Griner&#8217;s decision to sign with the Atlanta Dream in free agency last season was one&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-422522","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\/422522","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=422522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}