| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | August 11, 1971 Fort Defiance, Arizona, U.S. | ||||||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||||||
| High school | Window Rock (Fort Defiance, Arizona) | ||||||||||||||
| College |
| ||||||||||||||
| Position | Guard | ||||||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||||||
| 1997 | Phoenix Mercury | ||||||||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| Stats at Basketball-Reference.com | |||||||||||||||
Medals
| |||||||||||||||
Ryneldi Becenti (born August 11, 1971) is a retired American professional basketball player. She became the first Native American to play in the WNBA when she played for the Phoenix Mercury in 1997. [1]
Becenti attended Window Rock High School in Fort Defiance, Arizona, and in 1989, Scottsdale Community College in Phoenix. She was the country's top junior college point guard in 1990–91, and left Scottsdale a two-time NJCAA All-American. [1]
Becenti was an All-Pac 10 First Team selection in both her seasons at Arizona State University, and a two-time honorable mention All-America honoree. She also turned out for the US at the 1993 World University Games in Buffalo, New York, where her team won the bronze medal. [1] [2] [3]
In 1995, Becenti was playing professional basketball in Sweden. She also played in Greece and, briefly, Turkey. She was the first Native American woman to play professional basketball for a foreign nation. [4] In 1997, she signed with the Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA as a free agent and played in their inaugural season. In 1998, she was drafted by the Chicago Condors in the American Basketball League. [5] [6] [7]
In 1996, she became the first and only female basketball player to be inducted into the American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame. [1]
in 2013, she was the first women's basketball player to have her jersey (No. 21) retired by ASU. [2]
| GP | Games played | GS | Games started | MPG | Minutes per game | RPG | Rebounds per game |
| APG | Assists per game | SPG | Steals per game | BPG | Blocks per game | PPG | Points per game |
| TO | Turnovers per game | FG% | Field-goal percentage | 3P% | 3-point field-goal percentage | FT% | Free-throw percentage |
| Bold | Career best | ° | League leader |
Source [8]
| Year | Team | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | TO | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Phoenix | 1 | 0 | 8.0 | – | – | – | .0 | .0 | 1.0 | .0 | 1.0 | .0 |
| Year | Team | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | TO | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991–92 | Arizona State | 29 | - | - | 36.6 | 28.1 | 68.9 | 4.6 | 6.9 | 2.9 | 0.2 | - | 13.2 |
| 1992–93 | Arizona State | 27 | - | - | 37.9 | 34.0 | 72.9 | 3.5 | 7.2 | 2.6 | 0.1 | - | 14.0 |
| Career | 56 | - | - | 37.3 | 31.3 | 70.3 | 4.1 | 7.1 | 2.8 | 0.2 | - | 13.6 | |
| Statistics retrieved from Sports-Reference. [9] | |||||||||||||
Diana Lorena Taurasi is an American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Mercury of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA).
Scottsdale Community College is a public community college just outside of Scottsdale, Arizona. It is on the city's eastern boundary, on 160 acres of land belonging to the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. The lease was taken out in 1970 and expires in 2069. The college is part of the Maricopa County Community College District.
Ann Meyers Drysdale is an American retired pro basketball player and a sportscaster. She was a standout player in high school, college, the Olympic Games, international tournaments, and at professional levels.
Vanessa Nygaard is a professional basketball coach and former player in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She is the former head coach for the Phoenix Mercury.
Lisa Harrison is a former American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Mercury in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA).
Kayte Lauren Christensen is an American color commentator for the Sacramento Kings and former professional basketball player in the Women's National Basketball Association.
Kelly Anne Mazzante is an American retired professional women's basketball player who last played for the Atlanta Dream of the WNBA. After her collegiate career, she was the all-time leading scorer in Big Ten basketball history. The record stood until she was surpassed on the scoring list by Rachel Banham in 2016. The record was subsequently surpassed by Kelsey Mitchell in 2018 and Caitlin Clark in 2024.
Corey Yasuto Gaines is an American professional basketball coach and former player. He played five seasons in the NBA, and was a four-time Israeli Premier League Assists Leader, in 1999 and in 2001 to 2003. He was also a former head coach of the Phoenix Mercury of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA).
Bridget Pettis was an Assistant Coach of the Chicago Sky Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) professional basketball team. She is an American former college and professional basketball player who was a guard in the WNBA for eight seasons during the 1990s and 2000s. Pettis played college basketball for the University of Florida, and professionally for the Phoenix Mercury and the Indiana Fever of the WNBA.
Victoria Andrea Bullett is an American former professional basketball player and current women's basketball head coach at West Virginia Wesleyan College. She played for the Charlotte Sting and Washington Mystics in the WNBA, as well as for European and South American professional teams, the U.S. Olympic team, and the University of Maryland Terrapins. Bullett played at various times as a center, small forward, and power forward. She was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011.
Brittney Yvette Griner is an American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Mercury of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She is a two-time Olympic gold medalist with the U.S. women's national basketball team and a six-time WNBA All-Star. Griner was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2023.
Briann January is a former American professional basketball player for the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and current assistant coach for the Connecticut Sun. After a successful college career at Arizona State University, January was drafted by the Indiana Fever with the sixth overall pick in the 2009 WNBA draft. She has also played for the Phoenix Mercury, the Connecticut Sun, and the Seattle Storm.
Charli Turner Thorne is a former head coach for the Arizona State Sun Devils women's basketball team and assistant coach for the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA. She has coached for 28 seasons from 1993 to 2022. She is the winningest Sun Devil coach since the team was established and as of 2019, stood as No. 2 all-time in the Pac-10/Pac-12 for career wins.
Marta Xargay Casademont is a retired Spanish professional basketball player. She played for Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA, and for several European teams in Czech Republic, Russia and Spain. She played for the Spain women's national basketball team from 2011 to 2020. She won EuroLeague Women 2010–11 with Perfumerías Avenida Baloncesto. She left Spain in 2015, joining both USK Praha of the Czech League in 2015 and the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA on 11 February 2015. In September 2018, she signed for Dynamo Kursk of the Russian Premier League and in January 2020, she returned to her youth club Uni Girona CB. After not playing in the 2020-21 season, she announced her retirement in July 2021.
Shoni Schimmel is an American former professional basketball player. She is a former All-American college player at the University of Louisville and was selected with the eighth overall pick in the first round of the 2014 draft by the Atlanta Dream.
Sports in Phoenix include several professional sports franchises, and is one of only 13 U.S. cities to have representatives of all four major professional sports leagues, although only one of these teams actually carry the city name and play within the city limits. Phoenix was the last of the metropolitan areas with teams in all four leagues to gain its first major professional sports team, when the Suns were granted a franchise in 1968.
Angel Goodrich is an American former professional basketball player, who played for the Tulsa Shock and Seattle Storm in the WNBA.
Jewell Loyd nicknamed the “Gold Mamba” is an American professional basketball player for the Seattle Storm of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She was drafted first overall in the 2015 WNBA draft by the Seattle Storm. She played college basketball at Notre Dame.
Tahnee Robinson is an American former professional basketball player now actively coaching in the NCAA Division I. She is the first enrolled Native American woman to be drafted into the WNBA being a member of the Northern Cheyenne tribe. She was also the first player to be drafted into the WNBA from the University of Nevada-Reno (UNR).
Amber Cox is a sports executive and current chief operating officer (COO) of the Kansas City NWSL since 2021. Before joining Kansas City, Cox had various sports positions at William Woods University and Columbia College from the 1990s to 2000s. Cox went on to join the Phoenix Mercury in 2004 and began working as the director of marketing and promotions for the WNBA team. During her tenure with the Mercury, Cox became the team's chief operating officer and president in the 2010s. She also was an interim general manager for the team in 2013.
