Rumors

For Ishbia's majority ownership to be in jeopardy, the judge in the lawsuit would need to decide that Ishbia failed to fund the capital call by his own deadline and therefore, per the terms of the operating agreement, Ishbia must offer the minority owners the opportunity to fund his unfunded share at the $10 million per unit price set in his capital call notice. If that were to happen, Seldin and Kohlberg could take over the majority ownership of the Suns and Phoenix Mercury with a stake of approximately 60%.

ESPN

The Athletic: NEWS: The Phoenix Mercury have announced a complete rebrand that includes an updated logo 👀 A new uniform is expected to be released on Tuesday.

bsky.app

The next head coach of the WNBA's New York Liberty, according to league sources, will be one of these three finalists: Phoenix Mercury assistant coach Kristi Tolliver, former Nets assistant Will Weaver and Raptors assistant Jama Mahlalela.

marcstein.substack.com

The Las Vegas Aces defeated the Phoenix Mercury 97-86 in a dominant performance Friday night to win their third WNBA championship in four years and cement their status as the league's reigning dynasty. The Aces completed a four-game sweep of the Mercury in the first best-of-seven WNBA Finals in league history. Aces superstar and four-time league MVP A'ja Wilson led the way in Game 4, finishing with 31 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 blocks en route to earning Finals MVP honors. She averaged 28.5 points, 11.8 rebounds and 2 blocks in the Finals. "You have your Mount Rushmore, she's alone on Everest," Aces coach Becky Hammon said. "There's no one around."

ESPN

For all the tumult off the court, the WNBA audience keeps growing in ways that would have been hard to fathom just three years ago. Friday’s Mercury-Aces WNBA Finals Game 1 averaged 1.9 million viewers on ESPN, up 62% from Lynx-Liberty last year (1.1M) and the most-watched Finals opener since the inaugural edition in 1997, a single-elimination Liberty-Comets game that averaged 2.8 million on NBC.

Sports Media Watch

The Suns and Mercury signed a 10-year, nearly $115M naming rights partnership with United Wholesale Mortgage to name the Phoenix arena after UWM’s Mortgage Matchup brand. The deal, one of the largest in the NBA and WNBA, will see the arena renamed Mortgage Matchup Center. In addition to arena naming rights, the partnership establishes Mortgage Matchup as the official mortgage partner of the Suns, Mercury and the G League Valley Suns. Mortgage Matchup has also been the official mortgage partner of the NBA and WNBA since May 2024 (Suns).

Sports Business Journal

Wilson and the Aces now open the WNBA Finals on Friday against the Phoenix Mercury in Las Vegas. Despite being a regular at Wilson’s games during the NBA offseason, Adebayo will need to watch the championship series from afar with the Heat in the middle of training camp and the preseason. “A lot of stress, a lot of prayer,” Adebayo, 28, said of watching Wilson and the Las Vegas Aces push for another title. “That’s really what it is, man. But the No. 1 one thing is just praying obviously they come out unscathed and she comes out unscathed. And obviously you want to see her win. That’s the biggest thing I want in life, I want her to win. “I want her to keep being and setting a higher standard for everybody to where people think it’s impossible until it’s done. I want people, when she’s done, to be like this is the greatest women’s basketball player to ever touch a basketball. From the time she touched it to the time she left.”

Miami Herald

Two years after being the first NBA team to abandon its struggling regional television network partner, the Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury are celebrating a proof of concept with a new local media rights deal that has virtually replaced the revenue. The Suns and Mercury have agreed to a two-year extension with Gray Media to broadcast their games free over the air across Arizona through the 2027-28 season. The deal is worth more than $30 million per season, sources familiar with the matter told ESPN, restoring the money they left on the table when walking away from a long-standing partnership with then bankrupt Diamond Sports in 2023.

ESPN

The offer follows a surge in national attention for Cunningham after a hard foul against the Connecticut Sun in June, where she appeared to step in as an enforcer to protect rookie phenom Caitlin Clark. Cunningham was fined but gained notoriety and a wave of endorsement interest. Cunningham, 28, joined the Fever in February after spending five seasons with the Phoenix Mercury. Known for her outside shooting and gritty play, she’s averaged 7.3 points and 2.5 rebounds per game over her WNBA career.

thesportingtribune.com

Dana Scott: Phoenix Suns’ new addition Dillon Brooks (cornrows, unzipped hoodie) is sitting courtside at the Aces-Mercury game. Brooks was dealt to Suns on June 22 as part of the Kevin Durant trade to Rockets.

Twitter

In 2023, Traylor submitted a presentation for management, which was reviewed by ESPN, that outlined specific incidents, including these three: In March 2023, an unnamed former part-time employee was found to have stolen more than $40,000 in shoes, merchandise and apparel during their employment. In April 2023, a "disgruntled subject" interrupted a Suns photo-op with team executives, including team president Josh Bartelstein. And in June 2023, a political influencer "harassed" former Phoenix Mercury player Brittney Griner at the Dallas/Fort Worth airport, delaying a team flight by 3.5 hours. Traylor alleges the presentation led Suns management to retaliate against him, including having him demoted nearly a year later. He also alleges the team discouraged him from taking protected leave after he was diagnosed with cancer.

ESPN

The NBA’s Phoenix Suns and WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury‘s arena naming rights deal with Footprint, an environmental tech company, has ended early, as removal of arena signage and branding began on Monday. The Footprint Center, where the Suns and the Mercury play their home games, will have a new name next year as the naming rights contract has been reworked. Player 15 Group, the parent company for the Suns and Mercury, will handle the naming rights negotiations internally and expects to name a new partner before the 2025-2026 NBA season. Footprint, based in Gilbert, Ariz., will remain a team partner but at a lower level of sponsorship. The arena-rights deal began in 2021. The new partner will be the fourth title sponsor for the 18,000-seat, multi-purpose arena that opened in 1992.

Sportico

After the Phoenix Suns were handed a 121-113 home loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday, Kevin Durant told the media he was "definitely shocked" about Brittney Griner's Tuesday announcement to leave the Phoenix Mercury for the Atlanta Dream in WNBA free agency. Durant immediately shifted his tone as he reflected on his close friend's 11-year WNBA career in the Valley. "Well, that’s just part of professional sports, but BG is just been a staple here in the city for so long," Durant said. "It’s kind of weird seeing her with a new team, but everybody needs a change."

Arizona Republic

Kendra Andrews: BREAKING: the Phoenix Mercury are acquiring Satou Sabally from the Dallas Wings in three-team trade, sources tell me and @Alexa Philippou. One of the top free agents, Sabally made her desire to leave Dallas known, but because she is a cored player it had to be done via trade.

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