PHOENIX – The three-time WNBA Champion Phoenix Mercury today announced that the team has signed forward Brianna Turner to a multi-year contract extension.
Mercury General Manager Jim Pitman: “As I’ve said many times, we want high character, high effort players on our team, and Brianna Turner exemplifies that. We also want players who want to be here in the Valley, as members of our Mercury and Suns organization, and in our community, and Breezy exemplifies that, as well. Getting this extension done speaks to how highly we value her now and how much we believe in her potential moving forward.”
A three-year WNBA pro, Turner already has two All-Defensive First Team selections (2020, 2021) and an All-Rookie Team honor (2019) to her name. A leading candidate for WNBA Defensive Player of the Year in each of the last two seasons, Turner finished tied for third in voting a season ago. The 6-3 forward started all 32 games and averaged career highs in scoring (7.8) and rebounding (9.4), while shooting over 50 percent from the field for the third consecutive season. Turner ranked eighth in the league in blocks per game (1.3), fourth in field goal percentage (55.4) and seventh in rebounding (9.4). Turner’s 302 rebounds in 2021 set a franchise record for most by an individual in a season.
A draft day steal, Turner’s rights (11th overall pick, 2019) were acquired from the Atlanta Dream, and she has been an impact player ever since. Breezy followed up an All-Rookie Team campaign in 2019 with a sophomore season in which she became the first Mercury player to average 9.0 rebounds. Turner ranked second in the league in both total blocks (43) and blocks per game (2.0), while raking third in total rebounds on the season (198) and fourth in rebounds per game (9.0). Turner set the Mercury franchise record for rebounds in a game (21), becoming the first player in franchise history to grab at least 20 rebounds during an overtime win against the Connecticut Sun on September 9. That night, she also became the first player in WNBA history with at least 10 points, 20 rebounds, five assists and four blocks in a single game.
A native of Manvel, Texas, Turner was a five-year standout at Notre Dame (medical hardship) where the Irish went to consecutive Final Fours and won the 2018 National Championship.
Led by the 2021 Olympic gold-medal winning trio of Diana Taurasi, Skylar Diggins-Smith and Tina Charles, and coming off the club’s fifth WNBA Finals appearance in franchise history, the three-time WNBA Champion Phoenix Mercury return to Phoenix this summer as the trio attempts to lead the Mercury to a WNBA-record tying fourth championship in 2022.