{"id":922386,"date":"2026-10-06T05:26:25","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T05:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/922386\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T05:26:25","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T05:26:25","slug":"dewanna-bonners-wnba-future-is-unclear-but-her-legacy-is-cemented","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/922386\/","title":{"rendered":"DeWanna Bonner&#8217;s WNBA future is unclear, but her legacy is cemented"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6g\">DeWanna Bonner&#8217;s decision to ask the Phoenix Mercury if she could be traded to a championship-bound team surprised plenty of people \u2014\u00a0fans, reporters, analysts, and probably even a few teams included. Bonner hasn&#8217;t said she&#8217;s retiring after this WNBA season, but she also hasn&#8217;t said she isn&#8217;t. Bonner knows her next moves, and the rest of us will find out about them when she&#8217;s good and ready for us to.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6l\">But for now, the focus is on how Bonner is <a href=\"https:\/\/highposthoops.com\/it-took-one-playoff-game-dewanna-bonner-vindicate-dream-move\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">playing with the Atlanta Dream<\/a>, because she&#8217;s playing incredibly well. Bonner brought veteran leadership to a team that needed it, and it&#8217;s clear that having her on the roster has already been an enormous asset. The Dream are in the WNBA semifinals, and they just beat the New York Liberty on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6q\">They&#8217;ll have to win the next two games if they want to sweep the Liberty, which may be a tall order. But it&#8217;s clear Bonner is playing with persistence and dedication, and it&#8217;s clear that she wants this playoff run to matter.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6v\">Bonner, of course, has been here before. She&#8217;s won two championships \u2014 one in 2009 with the Mercury, and the second in 2014, with the same team. Since then, she&#8217;s gotten close with the Connecticut Sun, and again with the Mercury last year. If she&#8217;s ring chasing, that&#8217;s understandable: 12 years have elapsed since her last one.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"70\">But Bonner could be doing even more than that. Sure, a ring is a powerful and incredible thing \u2014 but a lasting legacy is even more powerful. Bonner has impacted nearly every part of the game, and could have a strong career in coaching if that&#8217;s something she&#8217;s interested in. It&#8217;s not clear she is, and it&#8217;s not clear that she isn&#8217;t \u2014\u00a0again, that seems to be what Bonner prefers.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"75\">For now, WNBA fans have a gift: they get to watch one of the greats play what may well be her final season, and she&#8217;s getting to do so in a huge, and so far successful, way. That&#8217;s not always afforded to the legends of the game, and it&#8217;s the type of rewarding scenario that is special, and that matters. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7a\">The Dream have a tall order ahead of them. They beat the Liberty without Allisha Gray in for most of the game after she suffered a hand injury, and may have to play without her again. Bonner will be there through thick and thin, and if she keeps doing what she&#8217;s doing&#8230; they <a href=\"https:\/\/highposthoops.com\/dewanna-bonner-jordin-canada-proving-the-doubters-wrong-with-huge-playoff-performances\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">may go very far indeed<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow highposthoops.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=highposthoops.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" preventdefault:click=\"\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\" on:click=\"q-BKH5TN-7.js#s_lDqay9E5m5g[0]\" q:id=\"7l\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DeWanna Bonner&#8217;s decision to ask the Phoenix Mercury if she could be traded to a championship-bound team surprised&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":922387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-922386","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\/922386","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=922386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/922387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=922386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=922386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=922386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}