Brittney Griner returns to basketball court docket one yr after Russia arrest

WNBA star Brittney Griner was all smiles because the returned to the basketball court docket along with her crew Phoenix Mercury one yr since she was arrested at a Russian airport.

The 32-year-old athlete, who missed all the WNBA season final yr, picked issues up proper the place she left them after the Phoenix Mercury shared a number of snaps of their star participant beaming throughout follow.

“There she is,” the crew’s official Instagram account wrote Tuesday.

Whereas she’s acquired just a little methods to go till the season kickstarts in Could, Griner made it identified that she’s able to placed on her sport face, writing on the whiteboard within the crew’s locker room, “I’M BACK MF!!”

The exercise got here simply days after Griner inked a one-year deal to stick with Phoenix — the crew that drafted her first total again in 2013.

The eight-time All-Star final performed in 2021, when she led the crew on a run to the WNBA Finals. 

Throughout that season, Griner averaged among the greatest numbers of her profession, placing up 20.5 factors and 1.9 blocks a sport. She additionally averaged a career-high in rebounds with 9.5 boards a contest.

The previous Baylor standout will swimsuit up for the crew’s residence opener on Could 21, the crew introduced.

Griner’s world was momentarily turned the wrong way up after she was arrested for carrying hashish oil at a Russian airport in Feb. 2022.

She was then moved to a penal colony after a court docket rejected the attraction of her nine-year sentence, earlier than being swapped on Dec. 8 in trade for Russian arms supplier “Service provider of Demise” Viktor Bout in December.

In mid-December, Griner first spoke out after her launch, saying she had “dug deep to maintain my religion” that she would ultimately be returned to residence soil.

Griner’s trade put a highlight on former US Marine Paul Whelan. The Biden administration tried to deliver Griner and Whalen to the US in trade for Bout however negotiations broke down, based on the New York Occasions.

The Mercury revealed its management crew spent Tuesday afternoon writing letters to Whelan.

Whelan, who was detained ​at a Moscow lodge and accused of espionage in Dec. 2018, stated he appears like he’s been left behind by the Biden White House as he stays captive in Russia.

Whelan stated he was “dissatisfied” that the Biden administration has not performed extra to get him out ​after Griner was sprung, telling CNN in December, “I don’t perceive why I’m nonetheless sitting right here.”

“I’m enormously dissatisfied that extra has not been performed to safe my launch, particularly because the four-year anniversary of my arrest is developing,” ​the 53-year-old stated. “I used to be arrested for against the law that by no means occurred.”