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Phoenix Mercury rookie Brittney Griner is clearly the story of the day for what she did on the court last night.

• Terrence Thomas of the San Antonio Express-News reports that coach Dan Hughes thought free throws were "a pretty big statistic" in the San Antonio Silver Stars' loss to the Phoenix Mercury last night and he's absolutely right. Although the Mercury also owned the offensive boards (29.03% - 14.89%), they only had 10 second chance points. Meanwhile, the Mercury shot 22-for-26 from the free throw line while the Silver Stars only had nine attempts as they tried to score from the perimeter. Read more >>>
• Jake Sundstrom of SilverStarsStream.com writes Brittney Griner was the story of last night's game on ESPN2 as she scored a career-high 26 points along with seven rebounds and five blocks. With Jayne Appel out with a concussion and Griner clearly having a found a rhythm as a pro, the Silver Stars didn't have enough to pull out a win despite an admirable performance. Read more >>>
• Mark Giannotto of the Washington Post explored whether Griner can "pull the WNBA out of its doldrums" in a balanced look at the "Griner Effect". Griner framed her impact on the league well in a quote at the end of the article: “I don’t look at it as me changing the game or changing the league, but adding on excitement.” Read more >>>
• Kate Fagan of espnW writes that Brittney Griner's response to being drafted by the Harlem Globetrotters was, "Thanks, but no thanks." Globetrotters CEO Kurt Schneider is quoted in the article as saying that their season wouldn't conflict with the WNBA season. Read more >>>
• Scott Davidson of Stacey Page Online reports that the Indiana Fever are now in the midst of their longest losing streak (7) since its first season in 2000. They'll try to end that skid on Skylar Diggins' first trip to Indianapolis as a professional when the Shock visit the Indiana Fever on Friday night. Read more >>>

• Andrew Hartsock of KUSports.com described former Kansas Jayhawks star Angel Goodrich's transition from college to professional basketball, from having to fight to survive a tryout for the first time she can remember and dealing with a couple of bumps and bruises. Read more >>>

• Mike Brown of the Tulsa World wrote about Tulsa Shock forward Glory Johnson winning the WNBA's Western Conference Player of the Week award with quotes from both coach Gary Kloppenburg and team president Steve Swetoha (rightly) advocating for her as one of the best forwards in the league. Read more >>>
• Max Ogden of Sheridan Hoops called Johnson the most under-appreciated player in the WNBA in his weekly review of the action around the league, but chose Phoenix Mercury guard Diana Taurasi as the top player of the week as she averaged 30 points per game and flirted with a triple-double in an overtime win against Johnson's Shock. Read more >>>
• Danny Ecker of ChicagoBusiness.com writes that the Chicago Sky's games are available to, "...more than 8 million homes in the greater Chicago area and, more important, given the eight-year-old franchise a real TV rating to help lure new sponsors." In their June 2 win over the Tulsa Shock they had a 0.9 rating. Read more >>>
• Jayda Evans of the Seattle Times caught up with Miami Heat assistant and former Miami Sol coach Ron Rothstein to talk about the Heat's NBA Finals win over the San Antonio Spurs and being the first WNBA team to be dunked on. Rothstein describes how he responded: "I called a 20-second timeout and said, ‘Look at the scoreboard. We’re kicking their (expletive), OK! What are we doing here? Get yourselves together; we’ve got a game to win.'" Read more >>>

And a non-basketball link...

• Every year WNBA teams celebrate women of inspiration and Joan Walsh of Salon.com made a case for a woman that should be recognized as inspiring in the fight for women's rights: Texas State Senator Wendy Davis, whose dramatic filibuster in the face of a controversial Texas bill that would have impacted women throughout the state gained national attention last night. Walsh's article was published when the outcome was still in doubt - and for more you can check out Storify's archive of tweets about the event and the Texas Tribune's live blog is also a solid account of how things unfolded - but it's worth a read if you don't know what all the buzz is about.

As usual, feel free to drop any additional links in the comments or write a fan post if you have extended thoughts you'd like to share.

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