Lynx, Damiris Dantas agree to multi-year contract extension

The Minnesota Lynx and forward Damiris Dantas have agreed to a multi-year contract extension, the team announced Thursday.

Dantas, 27, was originally drafted by the Lynx No. 12 overall in the 2012 WNBA Draft, and she arrived in Minnesota for the 2014 season. The team re-signed her on Feb. 8, 2019.

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.

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

A native of São Paulo, Brazil, Dantas 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. During the 2016 Olympics, she averaged 16.8 points, 7.6 rebounds and 2.2 steals in five appearances, according to the Lynx. 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.