Brittney Griner is happy to be home. The WNBA star went to Instagram on Friday to break her silence on her return to the United States after being in a Russian prison since February. Griner said the last 10 months “have been a battle at every turn.”
“I dug deep to keep my faith and it was the love from so many of you that helped keep me going. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone for your help,” Griner wrote in the Instagram post. “I am grateful to each person who advocated for me, especially my wife, Cherelle Griner, my family, Lindsay Kagawa Colas and Casey Wasserman and my whole team at Wasserman, Vince Kozar and the Phoenix Mercury, the players of the WNBA, and my entire WNBA family, Terri Jackson and the WNBPA staff, my Russian legal team Maria Blagovolina and Alex Boykov, the leaders, activists, and grassroots organizations, Gov. Richardson and Mickey Bergman of the Richardson Center, the Bring Our Families Home Campaign, Roger Carstens and the SPEHA team, and of course, a special thank you to President Biden, Vice President Harris, Secretary Blinken and the entire Biden-Harris Administration.”
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Griner, who was arrested in February for possession of vaping cartridges containing hashish oil, also wrote that she “will use my platform to do whatever I can” to help the Biden administration get other Americans in Russian prison released, including Paul Whelan. She also thanked “the entire PISA staff and medical team at the San Antonio Fort Sam Houston Base. I appreciate the time and care to make sure I was okay and equipped with the tools for this new journey.”
As for Griner’s WNBA career, the 32-year-old is ready to return to the Phoenix Mercury for the 2023 season. She wrote: “I also want to make one thing very clear: I intend to play basketball for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury this season, and in doing so, I look forward to being able to say ‘thank you’ to those of you who advocated, wrote, and posted for me in person soon.” Griner missed the entire 2022 season due to her imprisonment. In her WNBA career, Griner has been named to the WNBA All-Star team eight times, named Defensive Player of the Year twice and led the Mercury to a WNBA championship in 2014.
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