The Phoenix Mercury have fired head coach Vanessa Nygaard after a league-worst 2-10 start to the season.
“We have chosen to make a change at head coach,” Mercury general manager Jim Pitman said in a statement Sunday. “We thank Vanessa Nygaard for the way she endured and managed the adversity of the last year-plus. Our organization and our fans have high expectations for this team, and we have not reached those with our performance this year.”
Assistant coach Nikki Blue will serve as the team’s interim head coach for the rest of the season.
The move comes a day after a 97-74 loss to the rebuilding Seattle Storm, a game that saw both Brittney Griner and Diana Taurasi return from three-game injury absences.
“What’s happening isn’t going to cut it,” Griner said after the loss, the team’s fifth straight. “It’s the first time I’ve ever had a record like this. It’s really frustrating.
“I don’t know. I guess tear it down and rebuild it back up. I really don’t get it. It’s not going the way we want it to go. It’s not the Phoenix Mercury basketball we all know.”
Nygaard, 48, finished with a 17-31 record in regular-season play with the Mercury and went 0-2 in the playoffs. This season’s start ties the franchise’s worst through 12 games, which…
