The
WNBA's
Phoenix Mercury are a
basketball team in
Phoenix, Arizona that began in
1997 as one of the league's original eight teams. In their six years of playing, they have had mixed success.
Their uniform is white, yellow and orange at home with a logo of the planet
Mercury in reddish orange, and the word Mercury in yellow; it is orange and yellow on the road.
With a cast that included hall-of-famer
Nancy Lieberman[?], possible future hall-of-famers
Michele Timms of
Australia, and
Jennifer Gillom[?], plus the energetic and hyper-active star
Bridget Pettis[?], the Mercury reached the playoffs at various times during the late
1990s, including a trip to the
WNBA Finals[?] in
1998, where they lost to the
Houston Comets as the league's
Eastern Conference[?] champions. (Strange as it might seem, Phoenix was an Eastern Conference team back then.)
After league expansion, the team was relocated to the Western Conference; all of the above-mentioned players (except for Gillom) left, because of retirement or trades, and the Mercury stopped being a playoff contender. In addition, player Lisa Harrison[?] has become a sex symbol, and Playboy Magazine offered her money to pose in their magazine. The Mercury had hoped to get a chance to draft college star Tameeka Catchings[?], who is one of the best basketball players in the country, but Catchings went to the Indiana Fever instead.
- Nancy Lieberman
- Cheryl Miller (coach)
- Marlies Askamp
- Bridget Pettis