basketball player “for freedom”
Griner celebrates emotional comeback after imprisonment in Russia
05/15/2023, 2:08 p.m
Brittney Griner missed last season of the WNBA because she was in a Russian prison. Her fate moves people worldwide, now the basketball player is making an emotional league comeback. Her trainer reports “goosebumps”. Griner has big plans – even off the court.
Even in Los Angeles, Brittney Griner’s emotional comeback will feel like a home game. 579 days after her last WNBA game to date, the Olympic basketball champion is back on the field in a game in the North American professional league and can expect to be enthusiastically celebrated by LA fans in her Phoenix Mercury duel with the Los Angeles Sparks becomes. Because what has happened since that final defeat in October 2021 and the upcoming game on the German night on Saturday offers enough material for a cinema film. And Griner is now a person that people around the world know.
“I never thought I’d be sitting here,” Griner said after her first friendly since imprisonment in Russia. Last Friday she played with Phoenix against Los Angeles, in the end it was 71:90 against the Sparks. “I didn’t think I would be playing basketball again so soon. Even when I came back, I didn’t know what it would be like. I’m grateful to be here. Today doesn’t come naturally, but I had to process a lot.”
Like: an arrest at Moscow airport a week before Russia attacked Ukraine. a process. Ten months in prison for possession of vape cartridges containing marijuana oil. Negotiations, diplomacy and threats between the great powers Russia and the USA. An exchange for a gun runner. Then in December: the return to the USA.
Prisoner griner
Griner is 2.06 meters tall and according to official information weighs 93 kilograms, but very few people have seen the 33-year-old for a long time. Here and there Griner appeared spontaneously, but there were no interviews or big appearances. Because in addition to the regained freedom, Griner also had to get used to it: being a celebrity that people know far beyond the small world of women’s basketball.
“She now has such a big global presence and stands for freedom,” said Germany’s best basketball player, Satou Sabally. “It’s very cool for the sport that she can contribute her stories.”
That’s exactly what Griner intends to do: use celebrity and reach to stand up for others. Other prisoners, but also other basketball players. There were no private flights for WNBA professionals, like there were for their NBA colleagues, who were paid millions. For safety reasons, Griner will probably not board airliners for a long time – not all Americans think their exchange for a Russian arms dealer is a good and right thing to do. But she wants it to become standard for all teams in the WNBA to go away on chartered planes.
“Goosebumps” at the comeback
And the pay should be better overall. After all, Griner was in Russia for several months every year to earn extra money as a player for Yekaterinburg during the WNBA break. Sabally also played in Turkey until a few weeks ago – but also so as not to have to do without competitions for months.
Griner’s now being invited to the Met Gala and being a guest at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner helps the force and importance of her demands — as does her central role in marketing the WNBA. Above all, Griner is still a very good basketball player, having won two Olympic gold medals with the US team and the WNBA championship with the Mercury in 2014.
Mercury trainer Vanessa Nygaard reported “goosebumps” when Griner ran back onto the field for the first time last week in a friendly. The number 42 noticed more dust and “cobwebs” in her game than hoped, but still felt good on the court and had ten points and three rebounds in her 17 minutes.