Brittney Griner has played professional basketball through a pandemic, a wrongful detention, and a cross-country reinvention. Through all of it, one record stayed at the top of her mind.
On Monday night in Uncasville, Griner made history. The Connecticut Sun center blocked her 878th career shot in the third quarter of a 92-63 rout over the Chicago Sky, passing Margo Dydek for the most blocks in WNBA history. The previous record had stood since 2008.
Griner was direct about what this one meant to her.
“It’s something that I’ve always went after, the one record that I really cared about and paid attention to,” she said after the game. “Blocking shots, I’m helping my team out on defense, keeping them out of the paint, challenging shots, so it’s always made me a good defender when I try to lock in on that.”
The record-breaking block came against Sky center Kamilla Cardoso with 6:24 left in the third quarter. It was Brittney Griner’s fourth block of the night. She also added 14 points on 6-for-10 shooting and pulled down eight rebounds. The performance was complete, but the swat was everything.
Dydek held the record with 877 career blocks across an 11-year career and 323 games. Griner surpassed that total in 364 games, but that number does not account for the full 2022 season she missed while detained in Russia on drug-smuggling charges. Her path back to this moment was not a straight line.
And her family was there to see it.
“Having my family here is big for me. Everything I do, I do for them. So, for them to see that was special, sitting there at courtside, my wife is amazing. I have a lot of emotions right now,” Griner said in the postgame conference. “But also, getting the win here, we wanted to put on a good show for these fans, and I hope they know that we are working hard every single day.”
The win itself was emphatic. Connecticut broke a 23-all tie late in the first half with a 14-0 run and never looked back. The Sun held Chicago to just 23.3% shooting from the floor and 13.3% from three-point range. Olivia Nelson-Ododa posted 11 points and a season-high 15 rebounds. Charlisse Leger-Walker added 13 points, seven rebounds, and five assists. It was Connecticut’s first win since May 30.
Brittney Griner’s Legacy As The Last Of A Kind
The record places Brittney Griner in a category with almost no one else. She and Dydek are the only players in WNBA history to average at least 3.0 blocks per game for a full season, each doing it four times. Griner also holds the single-season record of 129 blocks, set in 2014. She has led the league in blocks eight times, matching Dydek’s total.
What separates Griner from most elite defenders is what she has done at the other end. She won two scoring titles during her Phoenix peak and averaged 21.9 points per game in 2017. Now 35 and averaging 12.3 points and 1.7 blocks per game for Connecticut this season, she is still producing at an elite level in a league that has moved away from rim-protecting bigs.
The timing adds another layer to the milestone. This season is Connecticut’s last before relocating to Houston, Griner’s hometown, where the franchise will rebrand as the Comets. The Sun sit at 3-15, a tough record, but Monday night offered a glimpse of what Brittney Griner still brings. With the move looming and the record now secured, she heads to her hometown not as a story of return but as the greatest shot-blocker the WNBA has ever seen.
