Phoenix Mercury Select Destiny Harden and Kadi Sissoko With the 27th and 29th Overall Picks in the 2023 WNBA Draft
April 10, 2023 - Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)
Phoenix Mercury News Release
PHOENIX - The three-time WNBA Champion Phoenix Mercury tonight selected Destiny Harden from the University of Miami with the 27th overall pick and Kadi (Kadiatou) Sissoko from USC with the 29th overall pick in the third round of the 2023 WNBA Draft.
"We are very pleased with the results of this year's draft," said Mercury General Manager Jim Pitman. "We had both Destiny and Kadi rated high on our draft boards and are thrilled to have acquired players of their caliber with our picks. We are excited to get them both into camp and see what they can do here in Phoenix."
A 6-0 forward from Chicago, Illinois, Harden played four years of collegiate basketball (one year as a graduate student) for the Hurricanes after spending her freshman season at West Virginia in 2017-18. She started 89 of 104 games at Miami, averaging career highs in points (11.9), rebounds (5.9), assists (2.0) and steals (1.7) during the 2022-23 season. In this year's NCAA tournament, Harden hit a game-winning buzzer beater to upset 1-seed Indiana and secure the Hurricanes a trip to the Sweet Sixteen.
Harden is no stranger to clutch performances. In 2022, she was named to the ACC All-Tournament Team after scoring the final 15 points and game-winning buzzer beater to upset No. 4 Louisville in the tournament quarterfinals. Harden finished the game with 27 points (11-of-15 shooting) and 10 rebounds. Her 27 points tied her career high and rank second in program history for most in an ACC Tournament game, while her 11 made field goals are tied for first and her 73.3 percent shooting clip ranks first in program history.
In her lone season at USC as a graduate transfer, Sissoko, a 6-2 forward from Paris, France, started in 26 games during the 2022-23 season, leading the team with a career-high 15.4 points per game. Sissoko added 6.2 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.2 steals per game, was named to the All-Pac-12 Team and helped the Trojans return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2014. Sissoko played her best game of the season against California on Feb. 19, 2023, scoring a season-high 30 points to go with 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal and 1 block.
Prior to USC, Sissoko spent two seasons at the University of Minnesota, where she started 46 games and led the Gophers in rebounding. She averaged 10.8 points and 5.7 rebounds per game as a redshirt junior and 12.6 points and 6.6 rebounds as a redshirt sophomore. During her junior year, Sissoko put up a career-high 32 points against Penn State while also adding 14 rebounds. She began her collegiate career at Syracuse as a true freshman before making the move to Minnesota in 2019. Sissoko has spent time as member of France's Under-23, Under-20 and Under-18 national teams, winning the Under-18 European Championship in 2016.
With the addition of Harden and Sissoko, the Mercury's training camp roster now stands at 17 players. A complete training camp roster will be available at a later date.
The three-time WNBA Champion Phoenix Mercury return to Footprint Center this summer, tipping off the season on Sunday, May 21 against the Chicago Sky in the Fry's Food Stores Welcome Home Opener. Tip-off is scheduled for 1 p.m. Tickets for Opening Day are available now at PhoenixMercury.com/Tickets.
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