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BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Less than a week after she was waived by the Indiana Fever, former Indiana Hoosier Grace Berger has a new WNBA home.
Berger, who played for the Hoosiers from 2018-23, was claimed off waivers by the Minnesota Lynx on Friday.
Berger will get a fresh start with the Lynx, who are coached by four-time WNBA Coach of the Year Cheryl Reeve, a one-time head coach at Indiana State from 1995-2000.
Berger will be joining one of the WNBA’s best teams. The Lynx finished second in the league with a 30-10 record and lost in the WNBA Finals. The Lynx fell to the New York Liberty 3-2 in the best-of-five Finals.
Courtney Williams (5.5 apg) is the established distributor for the Lynx. Berger will compete for a roster spot behind her and other guards like Kayla McBride.
Berger was waived by the Indiana Fever on Sunday. She played two years for the Fever after she was drafted in the first round of the WNBA Draft in 2023.
In her rookie season, Berger played 36 games and averaged 4.2 points and 1.9 assists at 14.6 minutes per game.
Berger helped the franchise sell tickets at a time when they were struggling to do so, particularly in her first game of her career at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. But perhaps in a sign of things to come, Berger did not play in that game, leaving her Indiana Hoosiers fans upset.
The Fever were a struggling franchise and only finished 13-27 in 2023. The Fever had the first pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft as a result.
The Fever used that draft pick on Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, a point guard like Berger is, and Berger’s already limited playing time slipped even further.
Berger only played in 11 games in the 2024 season. She had suffered a thumb injury while playing in the Spanish league during the WNBA offseason. She averaged 2.8 points and 0.6 assists and played only 9.3 minutes per game.
Berger has been playing for OGM Ormanspor, based in Turkey’s capital, Ankara. She averaging 13.3 points, 6.3 rebounds and 3.9 assists.
