Basketball star Brittney Griner has broken her silence in the wake of her release from a Russian prison.
The Olympic medalist was arrested in February for possession of less than 1 gram of marijuana oil in Moscow and was immediately detained. After six months behind bars, she was officially convicted of drug smuggling in August and sentenced to 9-years in prison.
In a shock move on December 8, US President Joe Biden negotiated a prisoner swap between the US and Russia, effectively trading Griner (who would be free upon her return home) for arms dealer Viktor Bout.
Now, the WNBA performer is reflecting on her ordeal as well as the support she received.
Full story below…
Via Instagram, she wrote:
“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″
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finally
Biden did NOT care about Britney simply re-election if this was an off year she would have live in that jail trust that this a move to appeal to The black base , Woman base , Gay base all in one this crazy and the man they swap it insanely connected and dangerous Smh 🤦♂️
Exactly. And Trump has already done this. Also whilst releasing tons of blacks from prison that Biden had put there under the 1994 crime bill. Oh, but Trump is the “racist” 🤦🏽♀️
He very much is a racist along with Biden. Both can be true at the same time.
Writing $hit and responding to yourself in agreement to cultivate a false support. Pathetic ass lol. Stand tall in your b******* fool
Just shut up Jynkx. Don’t making me feed you some of my fake p***
Should’ve let this Oreo b**** rotten in Russia prison
You’re an “Oreo” yourself Shayla. Dumbass lol
Bulldyke Griner is a real woman unlike Shayla
Now that’s the real 🍵 MS
Monica
😂 😂
Glad she’s safe and sound. Jail is the worst thing in life esp in a foreign country. Hope others are freed too