The Phoenix Mercury star's return to the court — with Vice President Harris is attendance in Los Angeles — cemented one of the greatest comeback stories in sports history.
Griner’s return Friday to professional basketball, as Phoenix took on the Los Angeles Sparks to open the 2023 WNBA season, has already cemented one of the most unlikely comeback stories in sports history — and one of the most unusual.Griner, a top star in her league, faced a dark future in a penal colony as a pawn in international relations after custom officials in Russia, where she played for a professional team during the WNBA offseason, found vape cartridges with cannabis oil in her luggage.
It’s a road contest for Griner, but there is no question as to who is the star attraction at Crypto.com Arena for a game broadcast on ESPN. Before tip-off, Griner’s every movement was followed by a gaggle of video and still photographers. Fans waved cutout photos of her face, and the announcer led the arena in a chant of, “Welcome home BG!” Griner motioned to her heart as she received a standing ovation.
When the anthem was played before the game Friday, Griner lined up on the court with her teammates. Griner said recently that since her detainment and rescue, the anthem “hits different.”Before the game, Mercury Coach Vanessa Nygaard called it a “day of joy" that she at times doubted might ever happen, and one that made her proud of her country. “We brought home this woman, this Black gay woman from a Russian jail. And America did that because they valued her. ...
Griner was stopped at a Moscow-area airport on Feb. 17, 2022 — a week before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — but her detention was not reported in the press for weeks afterward. For most of 2022, the American public — and Griner’s family and teammates — only received sporadic glimpses of her plight via images of her in chains or behind jail cell bars.
. In remarks announcing Griner’s return, Biden said that Griner “didn’t ask for special treatment,” and that her only request was that his administration not “forget about me and the other American detainees.” Griner has since attempted to put a focus on those detainees still in Russia, including by posting a message to her social media upon her return encouraging “everyone that played a part in bringing me home to continue their efforts to bring all Americans home.
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Brittney Griner set for first WNBA game since detainment in RussiaBrittney Griner and the Phoenix Mercury visit the Los Angeles Sparks as part of a four-game slate on the first day of the WNBA season. sports bg brittneygriner kprc2 click2hou phoenixmercury htx hounews
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Brittney Griner set for first WNBA game since detainment in RussiaBrittney Griner and the Phoenix Mercury visit the Los Angeles Sparks as part of a four-game slate on the first day of the WNBA season.
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