PHOENIX -- Forward Brandy Reed, the Phoenix Mercury's
leading scorer and rebounder last season who was allowed to sign
days after the WNBA deadline, is suspended indefinitely.
Reed warmed up with the team Thursday in Seattle, but didn't
show up for the team bus, and general manager Seth Sulka suspended
her indefinitely for conduct detrimental to the team. The Storm
went on to beat Phoenix 83-70.
Sulka said the suspension applies "until further notice."
"This is new territory for us," he added.
The 6-foot-1, 160-pound Reed was not on the bench during the
game.
New coach Cynthia Cooper, still looking for a win after two
regular season losses, said that "she didn't talk to me so I don't
really know the ins and outs of it and if it can be fixed."
"But I don't know if you want a player that just walks away
from her team," Cooper added.
Cooper said later she didn't know what effect Reed's absence had
on the game "but I do know how I felt. I kind of felt betrayed,
and I kind of felt surprised. I'm sure it was a blow to the team
also."
Reed supposedly was suspended by the league when she didn't sign
a contract by the May 1 deadline, but the WNBA took her back when
she accepted a $50,000 contract on May 4.
The agreement included an offseason community-relations job for
the Mercury, which will pay Reed $32,000 and keep her from playing
in Europe, as she had been doing.
Reed, who had three points in the Mercury's opening 81-62 loss
to the Utah Starzz on Wednesday night, is in her fourth WNBA
season. She averaged a career-best 19 points last season along with
5.8 rebounds and 2.06 steals in 34.1 minutes.
In the 1999 season with Minnesota, she was held out of several
games for disciplinary reasons. Then, reacquired by the Mercury,
she made the West All-Star team as a special exception.
Reed is a 1996 graduate of Southern Mississippi. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories |
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