No matter what happens, DeWanna Bonner is cemented in the WNBA tomes as a legend. She's been in the league since 2009, back when plenty of the league's current fans weren't even born. Bonner is part of the generation of players who poured blood, sweat, and tears, into tiny arenas and onto the court, the generation of players who willed the current state of the WNBA into existence.
Bonner surprised plenty of people when she requested a trade from the Phoenix Mercury toward the end of the regular season. She soon made her intent clear: Bonner wanted to go to a team that was championship-bound, or at least could support the possibility of another ring. And that's fair: few athletes get to go out on a high, and Bonner was, and is, well within her rights to try.
Of course, Bonner hasn't said if she's actually retiring at the end of the postseason; if the Dream keep playing the way they have been, we may find out sooner rather than later. It's also possible that joining the Dream has given Bonner a new lease on her WNBA life, and maybe she'll want to stick around for a few more seasons.
The fit with the Dream has been just about as seamless as anyone could have hoped. Bonner, who knew enough to know she didn't want to finish her career in Indiana, has given the team the kind of leadership you just can't manufacture, because it's the kind of leadership that's earned. She also brings a lot of practical stuff to the team, the kind of stuff you need: size, diversity, skill, length. A certain kind of "don't mess with me" attitude that fits in nicely with the rest of the roster. A respect for Karl Smesko, and a deep appreciation for the opportunity in front of her.
The Atlanta Dream is already in brand new territory: the last time the team made it to the WNBA Finals was in 2013, and up until this week, they'd never won a WNBA Finals match. When Bonner decided she wanted to go big, she ended up choosing the team that could take her the furthest, whether she knew that or not.
But it's likely that she did. Bonner, who was born in Alabama and graduated from Auburn University, was drafted by the Phoenix Mercury as the No. 5 overall pick in 2009. She and the team won a championship that season, an enormous feat for any rookie anywhere. They returned to the WNBA's biggest stage in 2014, when she took home another rock.
Bonner's career hasn't been without its challenges. Now a mom of twins, she opted out of the 2017 season due to her pregnancy; she bounced back and was named a WNBA All-Star in 2018. She was traded to the Connecticut Sun in 2020, where she became close to her now wife, Alyssa Thomas. The duo played together for several years for the Sun, and cultivated a kind of mind-meld chemistry that comes with being about as close as two people can get.
Her move to Indiana in 2025 was short-lived; Bonner headed back to the Mercury in the same season. She and Phoenix made it to the WNBA Finals in 2026 but fell short.
Bonner has been open about expecting to retire sometime, but has yet to put a date on anything. Though it's difficult to imagine the WNBA without her, every player has to retire sometime. If they're lucky, sometimes they get to choose how they go out.
Bonner can't win the WNBA Championship for the Dream on her own, but, luckily, she won't have to. And even more fortunately, whether the team wins or loses, Bonner can safely feel secure that she's navigated herself to quite possibly the best career ending: happy, healthy, strong, winning, motivated, a mom, a wife, and a person of character and experience. There's not much more any of us could want.
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