DeWanna Bonner appears to be a player who has earned the rare privilege of controlling her own WNBA destiny regardless of her contract. After leaving the Indiana Fever when they waived her in 2025, after just nine games, the six-time All-Star has now secured a mutual buyout with the Phoenix Mercury that will allow her to change teams to chase her third WNBA championship right before the playoffs. For Rachel DeMita, there’s another similarity between these two moves.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
“If this were any other league, I feel like she would be so scrutinized for this. But you can’t even blame her… With every team that she’s been on, or at least the last two teams. If she wants out, she gets out. She left the Indiana Fever, and they didn’t even trade for her. They got nothing in return,” Demita said, speaking on Tuesday’s episode of her Courtside Club podcast.
“They essentially just let her walk. And that’s kind of the same thing with the Phoenix Mercury. The Phoenix Mercury got nothing for her, and they had to pay her. So, it’s like Dana is literally doing whatever she wants to do.”
The Mercury, with a 13-25 record this season, are already mathematically eliminated from postseason contention. And as Mercury general manager Nick U’Ren noted, the franchise wanted to give the 38-year-old DeWanna Bonner, who is approaching the end of her career, the opportunity to play in the postseason and potentially chase another championship.
This was, however, not the case when she left the Indiana Fever in the summer of 2025. With the Fever, DeWanna Bonner played only nine games before completely stepping away from the team. In fact, the Fever were actually playoff-bound. And her departure did not seem quite as amicable or mutual as it does now with the Phoenix Mercury. Instead, her exit from Indiana became a highly publicized and sudden “divorce” that left both fans and the franchise stunned.
Also, unlike the Mercury, who actually bought her out of her contract, the Fever did not pay a lump-sum buyout. Because DeWanna Bonner wanted out, she requested a trade and ultimately left the team for personal reasons; the Indiana Fever waived her without any financial settlement or buyout penalties.
Makayla Timpson sits down with us for a rapid-fire interview covering her unique shoe habit, pre-game routines, film room mix-ups, and her bond with teammate Aliyah Boston and other @IndianaFever players! 🏀💙 What was your favorite answer from @MakaylaTimpson2 ?
However, Rachel DeMita isn’t the only analyst who has come up with parallels between these two incidents. In fact, Mick of Mick Talks Hoops came up with a far more concerning theory following Bonner’s buyout.
“If DeWanna immediately ends up on the Aces after the NaLyssa injury, the WNBA need to investigate the tampering around her… Phoenix already admitted to trying to sign her while she was still under contract in Indy a year ago,” he posted on X on August 24.
Following her departure from the Phoenix Mercury, DeWanna Bonner is now on the WNBA waiver wire. If she clears waivers without a non-contending team with cap space claiming her, she will become an unrestricted free agent. This would clear her to sign a rest-of-season contract with any playoff-bound team. At the moment, however, no team has announced any official interest.