Lynx Announce Multi-Year Contract Extension with Damiris Dantas

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL – Minnesota Lynx Head Coach and General Manager Cheryl Reeve today announced the team has signed forward Damiris Dantas to a multi-year contract extension. Per team policy, terms of the deal were not released.

“Damiris has been such an important part of the Lynx culture since she first became a member of our organization in 2014,” said Reeve. “She has made great strides as a player over the last couple of years and remains an important element in our path forward.”

The 27-year-old Dantas, originally selected by the Lynx in the first round (12th overall) of the 2012 WNBA Draft, arrived in Minnesota for the 2014 season. She was re-signed with Minnesota on February 8, 2019, making her the fourth player to serve separate stints with the Lynx (Kristen Mann, Janel McCarville, Renee Montgomery).

This season, Dantas is averaging 12.8 points on 46.5% shooting, including 43.0% from deep, 6.0 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game. She’s been Minnesota’s top scorer in each of the last three games while averaging 21.3 points on 57.7% shooting and 9.5 rebounds over the last four, shooting 14-for-21 from three-point range. Over her last 10 starts, she’s shooting 52.4% (55-for-105) from the field. Dantas pulled down a career-high 13 rebounds on Sept. 4 vs. Dallas, part of her sixth career double-double (fifth in a Lynx uniform). She erupted for a career-high 28 points Sept. 2 vs. Chicago (her fourth career 20+ effort) while swiping a career-best three steals.

On July 27, 2015, Dantas was traded to Atlanta as part of a three-team deal that saw Minnesota acquire center Sylvia Fowles from Chicago. In three seasons with the Dream, she appeared in 69 games (with 18 starts), averaging 7.2 points and 3.7 rebounds in 18.3 minutes per contest with percentages of 39.8% from the field and 83.7% from the line.

The São Paulo, Brazil native has been a mainstay on her country’s senior national team since 2010, playing in the 2012 (London) and 2016 (Rio de Janeiro) Olympic Games as well as the 2010 (Czech Republic) and 2014 (Turkey) FIBA World Championships. She enjoyed her best performance on the international stage during the 2016 Olympics as she averaged 16.8 points, 7.6 rebounds and 2.2 steals in five appearances. At the youth level, Dantas was named Most Valuable Player at the 2011 FIBA U19 World Championship, held in Chile, after averaging 20.9 points and 12.9 rebounds in nine games. She capped the tournament with a 26-point, 13-rebound performance in Brazil’s bronze-medal-game victory over Australia.