After spending a horrifyingly long time in a Russian prison, WNBA star Brittney Griner has finally returned home to the United States.
The former WNBA champion was held in Russian captivity for nearly 300 days after Russian customs found vape cartridges containing hashish oil. She was sentenced to nine years in prison, but rumors of a prisoner swap proved to be accurate.
Bringing her home came at a very heavy cost, sending the imprisoned international arms dealer Viktor Bout to Russia, but the sports world was overjoyed to have Griner back on domestic soil.
Griner is at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, per T.J. Quinn, where she reportedly had a light basketball workout on Sunday (via ESPN):
“Brittney Griner pulled on a pair of black Chuck Taylor sneakers, Phoenix Suns shorts and a T-shirt touting Title IX, and picked up a basketball Sunday for the first time in almost 10 months, her agent told ESPN. Her first act was a dunk.”
After everything that she has been through and all of the uncertainty that she has faced, dunking that basketball once again must have felt like the purest form of catharsis.
Griner’s agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, told ESPN that the two-time WNBA scoring champion has no immediate plans to leave Fort Sam Houston.
The eight-time WNBA All-Star hasn’t yet spoken publicly and reportedly “isn’t ready” to say if or when she will return to her professional basketball career, which is more than understandable.
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