Former Mercury guard Celeste Taylor made a surprising announcement on Tuesday. Taylor will forgo the rest of the 2025 WNBA season, instead deciding to take an assistant coaching job at Grand Canyon University.

Taylor was selected by the Indiana Fever in the second round of the 2024 WNBA Draft. The Fever cut Taylor during the 2024 WNBA season. She spent brief stint in Connecticut before finding a home in Phoenix. Unfortunately, she was unexpectedly cut before the 2025 season.

Taylor will coach at Grand Canyon during the 2025 season and intends to return to the WNBA in 2026.

She had opportunities to sign with another WNBA team this season. However, Taylor believes she will be better served with a chance to fully recover.

“There have been teams who wanted me to come back this season, and I think for me, it's trying to get healthy and trying to maintain in the space of being fit and looking at what's right for my body, listening to my body,” Taylor said.

Taylor will now join her former college assistant coach at Duke, Winston Gandy, who is now in charge of Grand Canyon's staff.

Celeste Taylor excited to gain coaching experience during gap year from WNBA

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Taylor jumped at the opportunity to join Grand Canyon because coaching is a long-term goal of hers.

“When the opportunity presented itself, it honestly worked out perfectly with timing and everything,” Taylor said. “Once I had explained to [Gandy] what the situation is, of wanting to get healthy but also wanting to follow in this path of being a coach and having the opportunity of giving back to younger kids and being in that leadership role and just continuing to pour into student-athletes and give them the best experience, it's a no-brainer to take it.”

Taylor had an unconventional path to the WNBA, so pivoting to Grand Canyon is well within her comfort zone.

“The journey that I've been on, it's never linear,” Taylor said. “There's a lot of up-and-down, so just being ready for everything, but at the same time, I feel like it has grown me into the person that I am today. I'm honestly just grateful for everything that I've been through.”

Hopefully Taylor can get her body right and return to the WNBA in 2026.