Former NBA executive, collegiate assistant coach, two-time WNBA champion and no. 2 overall pick named to newly created front office role
PHOENIX – The Phoenix Mercury today announced that the team has named two-time WNBA Champion and NBA executive Monica Wright Rogers as assistant general manager. Wright Rogers will serve as a key connector between the front office, coaches, business operations staffs and players, assist with salary cap management, as well as overseeing operations and administration for the team at the Verizon 5G Lab. Additionally, she will assist with both collegiate and professional player evaluation and scouting.
“Monica brings great perspective to our newly-created role of assistant general manager as a former player, coach and most recently as an evaluator of international talent,” said Mercury General Manager Jim Pitman. “We are excited to welcome Monica and her family to our organization and the Valley, and we look forward to adding her expertise to our operation as we pursue another WNBA championship.”
“I am extremely excited to join a world-class organization in the Phoenix Mercury. I was immediately drawn to this opportunity to learn from reputable leaders in Jim Pitman and James Jones, and to work alongside our tremendous coaching staff and athletes. As a former WNBA athlete, I know first-hand the high standards and the championship mentality embedded in the Mercury culture, and look forward to joining the team,” said Monica Wright Rogers.
Wright Rogers joins from the NBA league office where she most recently served as the Elite Basketball Women’s Operations Lead, overseeing global grassroots women’s initiatives, including building the elite international women’s roster for the Basketball Without Borders camps. Her grassroots work has been essential in the trajectory of women’s youth basketball to the WNBA, EuroLeague and other professional leagues across the world. Prior to joining the executive ranks, she served as an assistant coach at her alma mater, the University of Virginia (2019-2021), Liberty University (2018-19) and served as the women’s basketball director of student-athlete development at University of the Incarnate Word (2017-18).
Selected second overall in the 2010 WNBA Draft by the Minnesota Lynx, Wright Rogers was named to the 2010 WNBA All-Rookie Team, averaging 11.1 points per game in her first season in the league and won two WNBA titles with the Lynx in 2011 and 2013. Wright Rogers, whose career was cut short by injury, also spent time with the Seattle Storm (2015-16)during her five-season career and served as a secretary and treasurer for the WNBPA during the 2015 season.
Wright Rogers finished her four-year collegiate career at the University of Virginia as the Cavaliers’ all-time leader in points (2,540), scoring average (19.1 ppg), field goals made (962) and field goal attempts, a three-time All-American, was honored as the 2010 Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year, ACC Defensive Player of the Year and was named WBCA National Defensive Player of the Year after averaging 23.7 points per game and 3.7 steals per game.