WNBA star Brittney Griner has officially broken her silence since bring released from prison in Russia. Griner was traded for notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout just a few days ago and prior to this has not made any comments…
Griner was sentenced to almost ten years in Russian prison after she was convicted of having illicit drugs while playing basketball in Russia this past summer. Griner only served ten months in prison before the prisoner swap took place.
Interestingly enough, Brittney Griner mentions former Marine Paul Whelan who is imprisoned still in Russia despite Griner being released so soon. Whelan has been kept in Russia since 2018 and many people have criticized Joe Biden for not ensuring Whelan’s return within the prisoner swap.
The WNBA star made a post on instagram for her first comments back where she thanked her family for advocating for her, the WNBA and President Joe Biden’s Administration. Check out what she had to say in the quotes below:
“It feels so good to be home! 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.”
“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.”
“President Biden, you brought me home and I know you are committed to bringing Paul Whelan and all Americans home too. I will use my platform to do whatever I can to help you. I also encourage everyone that played a part in bringing me home to continue their efforts to bring all Americans home. Every family deserves to be whole.”
“As I transition home to enjoy the holidays with my family, I want to acknowledge and thank 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.”
“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.
Love always,
BG #42“
Check out pictures of her comments in the tweet below:
Brittney Griner says she's returning to basketball this season. pic.twitter.com/jjuo1QPQom
— Kim Bhasin (@KimBhasin) December 16, 2022
The lengthy post concluded Griner’s first comments back but were just recently announced so commentary of the release at this time has been minimal. Be sure to check back to see how people respond to these comments.
While Griner appears grateful for being released from prison, many have voiced their opinions on being her release including a former MLB MVP who ranted about Griner being imprisoned but not in the way you may think. To view that story CLICK HERE.
