Brittney Griner returns to practice for Mercury as she prepares for first media day since release

The WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury were given a pre-season glimpse of Brittney Griner on Monday as the 6-foot-9 heart prepares to face media for the first time since being launched from a Russian penal colony on December 8.

‘It’s something to be again at the court docket, it is some other factor to be again at house,’ learn the caption at the Phoenix Mercury Twitter account, which inspired group enthusiasts to see her go back to motion on the group’s first house sport on May 21. Prior to that, Griner and the Mercury will play the Sparks in Los Angeles on Opening Day, May 19. 

Griner is noticed doing one-on-one drills in opposition to a male trainer within the social media clip. Playing with out her dreadlocks, which she shaved whilst imprisoned in Russia on drug fees, Griner hits various pictures whilst appearing off her deft ball dealing with abilities.

The eight-time WNBA All-Star is scheduled to talk at Mercury’s media day on Thursday. Griner has shied clear of journalists since being launched in prisoner switch that allowed palms broker Viktor Bout to go back to his local Russia. 

However, she has made a number of notable public appearances, starting from a girls’s empowerment luncheon held via Reverend Al Sharpton’s National Action Network to Super Bowl LVII in Arizona, the place she used to be noticed with spouse Cherelle.

Griner is noticed doing one-on-one drills in opposition to a male trainer within the social media clip

ESPN selected Brittney Griner’s go back as its game-opening protection of the brand new WNBA season

A countrywide champion at Baylor in 2012 and WNBA champion with the Mercury two years later, Griner were supplementing her source of revenue via taking part in within the Russian league since 2014. But whilst returning to the rustic in February of 2022, the Houston local used to be arrested at an airport out of doors Moscow with what Russian safety claimed have been cartridges of hash oil.

Amid the backdrop of Russia’s ongoing warfare with Ukraine, Griner used to be discovered to blame and sentenced to 9 out of a conceivable 10 years in a Russian penal colony, the place she reported in November. However, she used to be freed a month later after the United States State Department negotiated the prisoner alternate for Bout.

Griner re-signed with group in February and is making ready to earn $165,000 for the approaching season.

Griner’s first press convention is on Thursday

Griner is making ready to release a memoir subsequent 12 months about her 2022 arrest in Moscow, drug trial, and next 10-month detention, the previous couple of weeks of that have been spent in a Russian penal colony.

‘That day [in February] used to be the start of an unfathomable length in my lifestyles which simplest now am I in a position to proportion,’ Griner stated in a remark launched Tuesday via writer Alfred A. Knopf.

Griner hopes her e-book will lend a hand different Americans detained in another country, together with Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who used to be arrested in Russia final month and accused of espionage; and Paul Whelan, who’s being hung on spying fees.

‘By penning this e-book, I additionally hope to elevate consciousness surrounding different Americans wrongfully detained out of the country such as Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich, Emad Shargi, Airan Berry, Shahab Dalili, Luke Denman, Eyvin Hernandez, Majd Kamalmaz, Jerrel Kenemore, Kai Li, Siamak Namazi, Austin Tice, Mark Swidan and Morad Tahbaz.’

‘The number one explanation why I traveled again to Russia for paintings that day used to be as a result of I sought after to make my spouse, circle of relatives, and teammates proud,’ wrote Griner. ‘After a shockingly difficult 10 months in detainment, I’m thankful to were rescued and to be house. Readers will listen my tale and perceive why I’m so grateful for the outpouring of make stronger from other people the world over.’

The heart, 32, is about to play for the Phoenix Mercury after being held in Russia for 10 months

Russia has been a well-liked taking part in vacation spot for best WNBA athletes within the offseason, with some incomes salaries over $1 million — just about quadruple what they are able to make as a base WNBA wage. Despite pleading to blame to possessing canisters with hashish oil, a results of what she stated used to be hasty packing, Griner nonetheless confronted trial underneath Russian legislation.

Griner’s memoir is lately untitled and can sooner or later be printed in a tender grownup version. Financial phrases weren’t disclosed, and spokespeople for Penguin Random House didn’t reply to DailyMail.com’s request for extra information.

Griner makes her legit go back to the court docket on May 19, when she and the Mercury will take at the Los Angeles Sparks on ABC/ESPN. She has now not performed for the Mercury since 2021, when she led Phoenix to the WNBA Finals ahead of shedding to the Chicago Sky.

Regardless, Griner used to be just about unstoppable that season, averaging 20.5 issues, 1.9 blocks, 2.7 assists, and career-highs with 9.5 rebounds in line with sport.

Griner hopes her e-book will lend a hand imprisoned Evan Gershkovich (left) and Paul Whelan (proper)

Griner were assigned to a penal colony in Mordovia, a area recognized for its brutal jail machine, till the Biden management used to be in a position to safe her release previous his month.  

‘President Biden, you introduced me house and I do know you might be dedicated to bringing Paul Whelan and all Americans house too,’ she wrote in a remark following her release. ‘I can use my platform to do no matter I will be able to to will let you. I additionally inspire everybody that performed an element in bringing me house to proceed their efforts to deliver all Americans house. Every circle of relatives merits to be entire.’

The Biden management negotiated with the Kremlin for months to get Griner and Whelan again from Russia, however simplest controlled to get the WNBA celebrity in alternate for Bout.

In December, Griner and Bout crossed paths on a tarmac within the United Arab Emirates to whole the industry. Bout, referred to via some as the ‘Merchant of Death,’ used to be arrested on terrorism fees in 2008 and later convicted in the United States. 

The deal drew grievance from Republicans, who have been disenchanted that the White House failed to get Whelan as neatly. In reaction to assaults from the appropriate, White House officers stated prisoner swaps are expensive, including that they felt pressured to deliver Griner house whilst that they had the danger.

Griner used to be in short imprisoned on the IK-2 penal colony within the the city of Yavas in Mordovia

Griner used to be dealing with torturous prerequisites in a Russian penal colony in Yavas. 

Founded for the Soviet gulag machine in 1931, Yavas stays one of the crucial greatest hubs within the Russian community of prisons and penal colonies. It lately has 3 establishments, together with a girls’s colony, a males’s colony, and a co-ed colony. 

The infamous penal colony is understood as a rat-infested sweatshop for prisoners, a few of whom have misplaced hands throughout lengthy hours at their stitching machines. To take care of the rat inhabitants, the guards enlisted stray cats, that have been later discarded into furnaces to stay their numbers down, in accordance to a 2019.

Veronika Krass, one former IK-14 prisoner, informed Radio Free Europe {that a} signal studying ‘welcome to hell’ greets new inmates on the penal colony.

Notable political prisoners have served time at IK-14, together with Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, a founding member of the punk team, Pussy Riot, and a vocal opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

‘As the inmates say, ”If you have not finished time in Mordovia, you have not finished time,” Tolokonnikova wrote in a letter printed in 2013.

She described IK-14 as having ‘slavery-like prerequisites,’ the place she labored in a stitching store for ’16 to 17 hours a day’ whilst getting ‘4 hours of sleep an evening.’

Tolokonnikova’s description of IK-14 used to be characterised as ‘proper’ via Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) director, Valery Maksimenko. In December of 2019, Maksimenko asked prosecutors open an investigation into slave-labor accusations on the facility in Mordovia. Ultimately IK-14 director, Yury Kupriyanov, used to be brushed aside, along side different officers.

‘When the women to find out that they are going to Mordovia, they reduce their wrists, do the whole lot conceivable: get in poor health, swallow nails, simply so they do not have to cross there. Its recognition is understood, particularly after the letter via Nadia Tolokonnikova,’ stated Gelena Alekseyeva, a former deputy minister who used to be sentenced in 2013 to 3 1/2 years in jail for abetting business bribery.