PHOENIX — Brittney Grenier’s life and career have taken a drastic turn over the past 18 months after nearly 10 months in detention in Russia on drug charges ended in a prisoner swap in December.
To say that the Phoenix Mercury Center’s journey has been complicated would be an understatement.
Now, it will be the next chapter for everyone to see how good a basketball player she is.
Early returns suggest the 31-year-old is still a formidable talent, even if she’s a little rusty. She scored 10 points and grabbed three rebounds in her only preseason game against the Los Angeles Sparks on Friday, showing her great skills but also showing that there is some work to be done.
“The coach keeps telling me to give myself grace,” Griner said. “But it’s hard.”
The WNBA regular season starts on Friday.
With everything that happened off the field, it’s easy to forget that Griner had her best season in 2021. She finished second in MVP voting after averaging 20.5 points, 9.5 rebounds, and nearly two blocks per game. She was a major reason the Mercury reached the WNBA Finals before losing to the Chicago Sky.
Mercury coach Vanessa Nygaard said she was amazed by Grenier’s ability to recover from an experience few athletes can comprehend.
“This is someone who’s been out for over a year and she’s been struggling really hard, and I thought she’d done some really good things,” Nygaard said. “I thought she did some great things, she’s very engaged, and it was a really fun day for her and her family.”
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Although Griner said she had “a few more cobwebs than I thought” after her first preseason game, there is no doubt that her comeback was a huge positive for Mercury. Without Griner last season, Phoenix finished with a 15-21 record.
“I love playing with PJ (Brittney Griner) and who wouldn’t,” Mercury guard Moriah Jefferson said after last Friday’s preseason game. “She’s a huge body and a great teammate off the field and she put in a great game. She comes out aggressive and has a lot of board and returns with some good finishing.”
“It was great to have her back, and we’ll be even better next game.”
Of course, playing Greener on the basketball court is just one part of her comeback. She’ll be touring the country this season playing WNBA games with the Mercury — making stops in Los Angeles, Dallas, Indianapolis and Washington, D.C.
The exposure that came from her detention in Russia of having vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in his luggage has given Griner a platform to advocate for other Americans detained abroad. She has already been active in the LGBTQ+ community since coming out publicly in 2013 and becoming the first openly gay athlete sponsored by Nike.
Greiner announced in April that she is working with Bring Our Families Home, a campaign formed last year by family members of American hostages and illegal detainees held abroad. She said her team is in contact with the family of Wall Street Journal reporter Ivan Gershkovitch, who is being held in Russia on espionage charges.
WNBA fans are widely expected to support her return — she received a standing ovation before Mercury’s preseason game last week — and Nygaard said navigating the onslaught of the media would be a welcome challenge.
“I expect the first time we go everywhere, it will be a ‘BG’ match, it will be something,” Nygaard said. “So maybe we’ll have to go through all the cities, and then it’ll be more normal. But it’s going to be a great tour. You’re going to a bunch of places where people are really passionate and supportive.
“We know she’s a somewhat divisive media personality now, too. We can’t ignore that fact. In the WNBA arenas, there will be a lot of love for her.”
Nygaard said last year’s experience gives Mercury an idea of what to expect. The big difference is that instead of hoping and praying for Griner’s safe return, she’ll be right there in the yard playing basketball.
“We were never allowed to find joy,” Nygaard said of the 2022 season. “Her return brings joy.”
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