Brittney Griner shed tears at an emotional news conference Thursday and said she’ll “never go overseas again” to play basketball, unless it’s to represent the United States.
It was the first time the 32-year-old WNBA Phoenix Mercury star has spoken to reporters since she was released from Russian custody in an extraordinary prisoner swap in December.
“I’m never going overseas to play again unless I represent my country at the Olympics. If I make that team, that’ll be the only time I leave U.S. soil and that’ll be to represent USA,” she said.
Griner became emotional when she was asked about her resilience in her nearly 10 months detained abroad.
“You know, I’m no stranger to hard times,” she said as her eyes welled with tears. “Just digging deep, honestly. You’re going to be faced with adversities throughout your life. This was a pretty big one. I just kind of relied on my hard work, getting through it.”
“Just put your head down and just keep going, just keep moving forward. You can never stand still,” she said. “Never get too focused on the now and just looking forward to what’s to come.”
In darker moments when she lost hope, she'd look at photos of her family for strength.
“Just being able to see their faces, that did it for me,” she said. “You know what you’re waiting on, you’re waiting to be back with family, with your loves ones in a safe place.”
Griner said there was a delay in getting news, but she was aware of the efforts stateside to bring her home and of the #WeAreBG hashtag that rallied for her release.
“It made me, a little bit, have hope … which is a really dangerous thing to have because when it doesn’t work it’s so crushing,” she said.
Griner was arrested on Feb. 17, 2022, on charges of possessing vape cartridges of cannabis oil in her luggage, which she said was unintentional. She was sentenced in August in a Russian court to nine years in prison and was held at a penal colony.
She was released in December in one of the highest-profile prisoner swaps between Moscow and Washington since the Cold War, in exchange for arms dealer Viktor Bout, who had served 11 years of a 25-year sentence in the U.S.
Calls for the release of Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich
At the time, her release raised concerns for Paul Whelan, a U.S. corporate security executive who remains jailed in Russia.
Asked on leaving other Americans behind, Griner said, “If I could’ve went and got them out or any of that, of course I would've."
She said that she comes from a military family and lives by the motto, "No man left behind."
"It hurts, because no one should be in those conditions," Griner said. "Hands down, no one should be in any of the conditions that I went through or that they’re going through. I hope that everyone continues to bring awareness and fight to bring home everyone."
She said her agent and management have been in contact with Evan Gershkovich, the American reporter for The Wall Street Journal who was arrested on spying allegations in Russia at the end of March.
The Journal has denied the espionage charges, and the U.S. State Department considers him "wrongfully detained."
Griner said her team has been "helping out with sharing knowledge, which is a big thing."
"It goes a long way because you're in foreign territory, you're in unknown waters. So, there’s a lot that we might know that they didn’t know so there’s been a lot of communication between both teams,” she said.
Back on the court
Griner quickly returned to the basketball court after her release.
She called the sport her “sanctuary,” but said reacclimating following her imprisonment "was hard.”
Griner explained that she, and many other players, played overseas because of the pay gap for female athletes in the U.S.
“The whole reason a lot of us go over is the pay gap. A lot of us go over there to make an income, to support our families, to support ourselves. So I don’t knock any player that wants to go overseas and make a little bit extra money," she explained.
She wants companies to invest in the WNBA and for the league to keep growing and ultimately close that wage discrepancy.