The Phoenix Mercury Fired Head Coach Vanessa Nygaard

The Phoenix Mercury made the one move a struggling club can make to try to turn their season around on Sunday, announcing that they are firing someone.

Head Coach Vanessa Nygaard is that person. She is fired after season opening 2-10 record.

Nikki Blue, an assistant coach with 15 years of experience in the NBA and WNBA, has been named interim head coach.

“We have chosen to make a change at head coach.”

“We thank Vanessa Nygaard for the way she endured and managed the adversity of the last year and more. Our organization and our fans have high expectations for this team, and we have not met those with our performance this year.”

Mercury GM Jim Pitman said in a press release

He also stated,

“We have confidence in the job Nikki Blue will do as interim head coach for the remainder of the 2023 season.” 

The Phoenix Mercury have had a terrible season and have the worst record in the WNBA (2-10). That is tied for the poorest 12-game record in Mercury history, which dates back to 1997 because the Mercury is one of the league’s founding clubs.

Sandy Brondello, the longstanding head coach, had his contract not renewed. Therefore, Nygaard was hired in January 2022 to take over. The Mercury reached the playoffs in 2022 under the leadership of Nygaard, who had a 15-21 coaching record, but they were eliminated in the first round.

One day after the Mercury suffered their fifth straight loss—97-74 against the Seattle Storm—and the second consecutive defeat of 20 points or more, she was fired.

After his tenure with the Mercury ended, Brondello was hired by the New York Liberty. Young talents Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu are being coached by Brondello, as the Liberty are 8-3 in 2023 and ranked third in the WNBA.

On June 27, when the Mercury play the Dallas Wings, Blue will take charge of his debut game.

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