Notably, Griner was born and raised in Houston, where the Sun will relocate for the 2027 season after being sold to the Fertitta family last month.
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Griner joined Atlanta before last year, signing a one-year contract with the team. She played an average of 20:46 minutes per game while sharing time at center with Brionna Jones. Griner averaged 9.8 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game throughout the season.
Griner, a nine-time All-Star, spent the first 11 years of his career with the Phoenix Mercury, earning All-Star nods in nearly every season. (Griner missed all of 2022 while detained in Russia.) She won a championship with the team in 2014, earning All-WNBA First Team honors three times (2014, 2019, 2021) and Defensive Player of the Year twice (2014, 2015).
In Atlanta, however, Griner had less to do in a system that relied more on possession outside the arc than in the paint, Griner’s specialty, given the 6-foot-9 center’s towering height.
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Now, the 35-year-old will be a key veteran presence on a very young Connecticut team, especially considering the Sun just lost Marina Mabrey, one of their few veterans, to the Toronto Tempo. Of the players under contract, four (Aneesah Morrow, Saniya Rivers, Aaliyah Edwards, Leila Lacan) are under 24 years old; Diamond Miller, who was just acquired in a trade with the Dallas Wings, is only 25 years old.