PHOENIX – Bottom-placed Phoenix Mercury fired coach Vanessa Nygaard and replaced her with her assistant Nikki Blue for the remainder of the season, the team announced on Sunday.
The Mercury got off to a rough start, losing ten of their first 12 games, including a 97-74 loss in Seattle on Saturday night.
Nygaard took over the team last season and have a 17-31 record. It hasn’t been an easy year and a half for Nygaard as star center Brittney Griner missed all of last season while incarcerated in Russia.
“We have made the decision to make a change as head coach,” Mercury general manager Jim Pitman said in a statement. “We thank Vanessa Nygaard for the way she weathered and coped with the adversity of the last year. Our organization and our fans have high expectations of this team, and our performance this year has not met them. We have confidence in the role that Nikki Blue will take on as interim head coach for the remainder of the 2023 season.”
Griner returned to the court on Saturday after missing the last three games with a hip injury.
“What happens won’t be enough,” Griner said after the team’s fifth loss in a row. “It’s the first time I’ve had a record like this. It’s really frustrating. I don’t know. I guess I’ll tear it down and rebuild it. I really don’t get it. It’s not going the way we want it to. It’s not the Phoenix-Mercury basketball we all know.”
Blue joined the Mercury coaching staff last season and has 15 years of WNBA and collegiate coaching experience.
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