Olympic champion Brittney Griner made her comeback in the WNBA professional league with US Vice President Kamala Harris as a guest star.
The basketball player, who was imprisoned in Russia for ten months, was between her Phoenix Mercury and the Los Angeles Sparks celebrated loudly in California by the fans of both teams. Even with their first goals for the guests there was loud cheering in the arena in Los Angeles.
Vice President Harris had come on the court before the game, and tennis legend Billie Jean King and former Lakers star Magic Johnson were in the audience at the Mercury’s 71:94 defeat.
Griner missed the entire past season
“The love from the fans when I came out was extraordinary,” said Griner afterwards. Despite her 18 points, 6 rebounds and 4 blocks, she wasn’t satisfied. “It wasn’t good enough to win.” On Harris’ visit, Griner said: “That was great. It was nice to be able to talk to her face to face and say thank you. The team really enjoyed her coming too.”
Released by prisoner exchange
Because of the ten months in Russian custody, Griner missed the entire past season. She was arrested at Moscow airport in February and convicted of possession of vape cartridges containing marijuana oil. She was released in December following a prisoner swap between the US and Russia. Friday’s game was her first WNBA game in 579 days. At that time she had lost the fourth game in the final series with Phoenix against Chicago Sky.
Griner reported that since then many little things mean more to her, “because the day tomorrow is just not guaranteed”. However, she also has to be careful“that I don’t get too distracted by everything. I’m here to work. I can feel it, but I also have to put it aside.”
