Brittney Griner‘s return to the WNBA with the Phoenix Mercury will be the first of 25 regular-season broadcasts on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 this season, it was announced Wednesday.
The networks will also air playoff games, and the WNBA All-Star Game will make its ABC primetime debut July 15 in Las Vegas (8:30 p.m. ET).
Griner, who missed last season after she was detained for 10 months in Russia before her release in a high-profile prisoner swap, will make her return with the Phoenix Mercury as they visit the Los Angeles Sparks when the season tips off May 19 (11 p.m. ET, ESPN/ESPN App).
Griner, who also played pro basketball in Russia, was arrested at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport in February 2022 after Russian authorities said she was carrying vape canisters with cannabis oil. The U.S. State Department had declared Griner to be “wrongfully detained.” She returned to the United States in December and signed in February with the Mercury, who drafted her No. 1 in 2013.
As part of the broadcast coverage, there also is “WNBA Countdown presented by Google,”…
