Brittney Griner happy to return to WNBA grind after 10 months in Russian prisons

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Brittney Griner says two-a-day basketball practices have nothing on being imprisoned in a Russian penal colony.

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Oh, really?

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Nearly five months after being freed on a Russian prisoner exchange with the United States, the women’s basketball superstar on Thursday held her first news conference back with her WNBA team, the Phoenix Mercury, as training camp began.

Griner, 32, spent 10 months of last year jailed in Russia, after being detained and arrested on drug-smuggling charges on Feb. 17, 2022. She pleaded guilty to possessing medically prescribed hash oil while travelling with her Russian Premier League team, during the WNBA off-season. On Aug. 4 she was sentenced to nine years in prison. The U.S. government eventually argued Griner was wrongfully detained, and on Dec. 8 exchanged her with a Russian arms dealer.

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How did the two-time U.S. Olympic gold medallist get through last year’s awful ordeal?

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“Just digging deep, honestly,” she told the news conference, in uniform, after tearing up at the start. “You’re going to be faced with adversities throughout your life. This was a pretty big one. But I just kind of relied on my hard work, getting through it.

“I know this sounds so small, but (just like) dying in practice, and hard workouts — you find a way to just grind it out. Just put your head down and keep going, keep moving forward. You can never stand still. And that was my thing.”

Among her takeaways from 10 months in hell, Griner effectively said you’ll never see her playing ever again for a basketball team in Russia— or, in fact, go anywhere outside the U.S. — with one big exception.

“I can say for me, I’m never going overseas to play again, unless I’m representing my country at the Olympics,” the 6-foot-9 centre said. “If I make that team, that would be the only time I would leave U.S. soil.”

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And her top life lesson?

“Not taking anything for granted. Life is short,” Griner said. “Things can change at the strike of a match. So (I’m) going into this season just appreciating everything … It’s so true. Once something like this happens to you, like when people say that, it hits home, it hits closer to you. So (I’m) just taking it all in.

“I missed all of it. I would have rather been doing two-a-days,” Griner added, cutting herself off to parenthetically interject, “Coach, don’t get any ideas.”

Resuming after a chuckle, she said: “I would rather have been in a two-a-day (practice), dying, than to be where I was. So I’m just looking forward to getting back to all that.”

The Mercury play their first of two preseason games on May 9, before their regular-season opener on May 21.

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@JohnKryk