“You’re waiting to be back with your family, with your loved ones, in a safe place,” Brittney Griner said of detention in Russia
What: AP/Matt York
More than four months after being released from Russian custody, US basketball player Brittney Griner speaks publicly for the first time. She shares insights into what gave her hope while in prison. She never doubted returning to professional sports.
SShe laughed, she cried, she thanked and she made some important announcements. Brittney Griner’s emotions at her first press conference after her ten-month confinement in Russia were very close. More than four months after her return home, the American basketball player spoke to more than 100 people.
For example, Griner recalled the many people who supported her during her incarceration, including US President Joe Biden. “It gave me hope, even though it was hard to have any hope at all, and even though hopes can also be dangerous because when they don’t come true, it gets you down,” said the Phoenix Mercury WNBA player. Pictures of her family also gave her hope. “You’re waiting to be back with your family, with your loved ones, in a safe place,” Griner said.
Griner spent ten months behind bars
Source: pa/dpa/TASS/Mikhail Metzel
Griner did not talk about the details of her detention, instead she spoke about her resilience through her experiences as a professional athlete. “I’m no stranger to tough times,” she said. “You will face adversity in life. That was a pretty big one. I just relied on my hard work to get through it.” Also present at the press conference were her wife, Cherelle, and Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs.
“There was no question that I would come back”
A return to the basketball field was out of the question for Griner. “Not to sound arrogant, but I just know I have a bet,” she said. “I have all the resources here to help me get back to where I can play, so there was no question that I would come back.”
However, the 32-year-old no longer wants to appear for a foreign team outside the USA. “I will never play abroad again unless I’m representing my country at the Olympics,” said Griner. “If I make the team, it would be the only time I leave American soil.”
Griner was arrested at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport in early February 2022 and later sentenced to nine years in prison for illegal drug possession and attempted smuggling. Vape cartridges and hash oil were found in her luggage, but only in small amounts of less than a gram. At that time she was playing for the UMMC Yekaterinburg team in the Urals. At the beginning of December last year, she was released as part of a prisoner exchange for the Russian arms dealer Viktor But. At the beginning of April, Griner announced that she wanted to publish a book about her imprisonment.
With the Phoenix Mercury, Griner completed the first preparatory game against the Seattle Storm on May 9th. The season then begins on May 19 with an away game at the Los Angeles Sparks.
