Mercedes Brianna Russell (born July 27, 1995) is an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player who is currently a free agent. She was drafted 22nd overall by the

New York Liberty The New York Liberty are an American professional basketball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Brooklyn. The Liberty compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member of the Eastern Confer ...

in the

2018 WNBA draft The 2018 WNBA draft was the league's draft for the 2018 WNBA season. On March 12, the league announced the draft would be held on April 12 at Nike New York Headquarters, a recently opened secondary headquarters for the athletic apparel giant loc ...

. Russell played

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...

for the

Tennessee Lady Volunteers basketball The Tennessee Lady Volunteers basketball team represents the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee in NCAA women's basketball competition. The team has been a contender for national titles for over forty years, having made every NCAA ...

team in college. In high school, she was named 2013 Gatorade Girls' Basketball Player of the Year. 20130403 Mercedes Russell MCDAAG Girls MVP

College

Russell played college basketball at the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (or The University of Tennessee; UT; UT Knoxville; or colloquially UTK or Tennessee) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee, United St ...

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in Knox County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located on the Tennessee River and had a population of 190,740 at the 2020 United States census. It is the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division ...

for the Lady Volunteers.

Statistics

, - , 2013–14 ,

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

, 35 , 5 , 18.5 , .596 , .000 , .514 , 5.0 , 0.5 , 0.4 , 1.1 , 1.2 , 6.3 , - , 2014–15 ,

, colspan="12", ''Injured'' , - , style="text-align:left;", 2015–16 , style="text-align:left;",

, 36 , 31 , 29.3 , .548 , .000 , .545 , 8.3 , 0.8 , 0.4 , 1.8 , 1.6 , 9.9 , - , 2016–17 ,

, 32 , 32 , 34.6 , .562 , .000 , .671 , 9.7 , 1.2 , 0.7 , 1.4 , 2.0 , 16.1 , - , 2017–18 ,

, 33 , 33 , 32.7 , .583 , .000 , .682 , 9.2 , 0.8 , 1.1 , 1.3 , 1.4 , 15.3 , - , Career , , 136 , 101 , 28.6 , .570 , .000 , .622 , 8.0 , 0.8 , 0.6 , 1.4 , 1.6 , 11.7

Career

WNBA

At the

, Russell was drafted in the second round by the

. After making her WNBA debut with the Liberty, Russell was waived and soon after picked up by the

Seattle Storm The Seattle Storm are an American professional basketball team based in Seattle. The Storm compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member of the Western Conference (WNBA), Western Conference. The team was founded by Gi ...

. In joining the Storm's line-up featuring players such as

Sue Bird Suzanne Brigit Bird (born October 16, 1980) is an American former professional basketball player who played her entire career with the Seattle Storm of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Bird was drafted first overall pick by t ...

Breanna Stewart Breanna Mackenzie Stewart ( ; Born, August 27, 1994), nicknamed "Stewie", is an American professional basketball player for the New York Liberty of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She is one of the most accomplished women in ...

and

Natasha Howard Natasha Howard (born September 2, 1991) is an American professional basketball player for the Indiana Fever of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Howard was the 2019 WNBA Defensive Player of the Year. She was drafted in 2014 by ...

, Russell would take home a WNBA Championship in her first professional season. Russell played with the Storm 2018-2024. On February 11, 2025, Russell signed with the

Los Angeles Sparks The Los Angeles Sparks are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Sparks compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member of the Western Conference. The team plays its home games at Crypto.co ...

. On July 12, she was waived by the Sparks.

WNBL

In 2019, Russell was signed by the newly rebranded

Southside Flyers The Southside Flyers are an Australian professional basketball team based in Melbourne, Victoria. The Flyers compete in the Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) and play their home games at the State Basketball Centre. For sponsorship pur ...

in Australia's

Women's National Basketball League The Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) is a professional women's basketball list of basketball leagues, league in Australia composed of eight teams. The league was founded in 1981 and is the Women's sports, women's counterpart to the Na ...

(WNBL). There she would play alongside the likes of

Leilani Mitchell Leilani Seamah Mitchell (born June 15, 1985) is an American-Australian professional basketball player for the Southside Flyers of the Women's National Basketball League (WNBL). Mitchell was drafted 25th overall by the Phoenix Mercury in the 2008 ...

and

Jenna O'Hea Jenna O'Hea (born 6 June 1987) is a former Australian professional basketball player and former captain of Australia's national team, the Opals. O'Hea was the captain of the Australian Women's basketball team (Opals) at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic ...

. With the Flyers in the

2023–24 WNBL season The 2023–24 WNBL season is the 44th season of the competition since its establishment in 1981. The Townsville Fire were the defending champions, but were defeated in the Semi-Finals by Perth. The Southside Flyers won their fifth championship ti ...

, Russell helped the team win the

championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

while earning grand final MVP honours.

Career statistics

WNBA

Regular season

''Stats current through game on July 14, 2025'' , - , align="left" rowspan=2 ,

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

, align="left" ,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, 2 , , 0 , , 16.0 , , .333 , , – , , .750 , , 1.5 , , 1.0 , , 1.0 , , 0.5 , , 0.5 , , 2.5 , - , align="left" ,

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

, 22 , , 0 , , 4.6 , , .484 , , – , , .500 , , 1.4 , , 0.1 , , 0.0 , , 0.1 , , 0.3 , , 1.6 , - , align="left" ,

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, align="left" ,

, 34 , , 30 , , 25.6 , , .520 , , – , , .646 , , 6.1 , , 1.0 , , 1.1 , , 0.5 , , 1.0 , , 7.5 , - , style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;",

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

^† , style="text-align:left;",

, 22 , , 2 , , 13.8 , , .410 , , – , , .560 , , 3.2 , , 0.6 , , 0.4 , , 0.4 , , 0.7 , , 3.5 , - , align="left" ,

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

, align="left" ,

, 30 , , 28 , , 24.7 , , .617 , , – , , .766 , , 6.1 , , 1.6 , , 0.9 , , 0.4 , , 1.3 , , 7.3 , - , align="left" ,

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

, align="left" ,

, 5 , , 0 , , 10.8 , , .500 , , – , , .667 , , 1.8 , , 0.2 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 1.4 , , 2.0 , - , align="left" ,

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

, align="left" ,

, 37 , , 13 , , 19.1 , , .516 , , .000 , , .605 , , 4.0 , , 1.3 , , 0.4 , , 0.5 , , 1.5 , , 5.0 , - , align="left" , , align="left" ,

, 37, , 6, , 15.7, , .517, , —, , .636, , 3.0, , 0.8, , 0.6, , 0.2, , 0.7, , 3.9 , - , align="left" , , align="left" ,

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, 20, , 0, , 8.2, , .444, , – , , .714, , 1.2, , 0.6, , 0.3, , 0.2, , 0.4, , 1.7 , - class="sortbottom" , align="left" , Career , align="left" , 8 years, 3 teams , 209, , 79, , 17.0, , .521, , 0.0, , .653, , 3.8, , 0.9, , 0.6, , 0.3, , 0.9, , 4.6

Playoffs

, - , align="left" ,

, align="left" ,

, 1 , , 0 , , 4.0 , , – , , – , , – , , 1.0 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , - , align="left" ,

, align="left" ,

, 2 , , 2 , , 32.0 , , style="background:#d3d3d3;", .769° , , – , , 1.000 , , 8.5 , , 2.0 , , 0.0 , , 1.0 , , 1.0 , , 11.5 , - , style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;",

^† , style="text-align:left;",

, 6 , , 0 , , 17.5 , , .619 , , – , , 1.000 , , 3.8 , , 1.0 , , 0.2 , , 0.2 , , 0.8, , 5.2 , - , style='text-align:left;',

, style='text-align:left;',

, 1 , , 1 , , style="background:#d3d3d3;", 45.0° , , .556 , , – , , – , , style="background:#d3d3d3;", 12.0° , , 4.0 , , 0.0 , , 2.0 , , 0.0 , , 10.0 , - , style='text-align:left;',

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

, style='text-align:left;',

, 2, , 1, , 23.0, , .500, , —, , 1.000, , 7.0, , 0.0, , 0.5, , 0.0, , 2.5, , 5.0 , - class="sortbottom" , align="left" , Career , align="left" , 5 years, 1 team , 12 , , 4 , , 22.0 , , .627, , – , , 1.000 , , 5.6 , , 1.2 , , 0.2 , , 0.4 , , 1.0 , , 6.2

References

External links

*
Tennessee Lady Vols bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Russell, Mercedes 1995 births Living people American expatriate basketball people in Australia American expatriate basketball people in Turkey American women's basketball players Basketball players from Oregon Centers (basketball) Galatasaray S.K. (women's basketball) players Los Angeles Sparks players McDonald's High School All-Americans New York Liberty draft picks New York Liberty players Parade High School All-Americans (girls' basketball) People from Springfield, Oregon Seattle Storm players Tennessee Lady Volunteers basketball players Southside Flyers players 21st-century American sportswomen Athletes Unlimited basketball players