Brittney Griner makes official return to WNBA following Russian imprisonment

Brittney Griner made her official return to the WNBA and the Phoenix Mercury during her team’s 2023 season opener against the Los Angeles Sparks Friday.

Ahead of tip-off, Griner received a standing ovation from the Crypto.com Arena crowd.

Brittney Griner receives a standing ovation at https://t.co/qiCMWv8ut3 Arena. pic.twitter.com/TAKNnl5ivc

— John W. Davis (@johnwdavis) May 20, 2023

She wasted no time making an impact, connecting on her first jump shot off the dish from Diana Taurasi.

BRITTNEY GRINER IS BACK pic.twitter.com/6mWXeVGvEi

— Steve Jones Jr. (@stevejones20) May 20, 2023

Griner inked a one-year, $165,100 deal this offseason to return to the Mercury for a 10th season. She signed her deal shortly after returning to the U.S. after spending 10 months in Russian detainment on drug charges. Griner was part of a one-on-one prisoner swap for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

She last suited up for the Mercury in 2021, where she averaged 20.5 points and a career-high 9.5 rebounds per game. Griner led her team to the WNBA Finals, where the Chicago Sky ousted the Mercury in four games. She has been an All-Star in seven of her nine seasons, with career averages of 17.7 points, 7.6 rebounds and 2.8 blocks per game.

Speaking with reporters after a preseason game last Friday, Griner admitted she didn’t believe she’d be back out on the court this quickly.

“I didn’t think I would be sitting here and playing basketball this quickly,” Griner said. “Coming back, I didn’t know how it was going to go, getting back into it. I’m not going to take a day for granted, but it was a lot to take it all in and it was good to get this one out of the way before we go out to LA.”

Brittney Griner stands for national anthem during WNBA return

Griner, who said in 2020 she would not come out for the playing of the national anthem amid the George Floyd protests, reversed course during the Mercury’s season opener. She stood alongside her teammates, as she did during the preseason tilt.

Griner’s agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, recently wrote an op-ed in TIME, and explained why Griner made the decision to stand for the national anthem this season.

“Having been put in a literal cage, too small for her frame, stripped of her essential American freedoms, and deprived of even her most basic rights during a sham trial and unjust sentencing, Brittney, supported by many other players, will make a statement this WNBA season by standing tall for those uniquely American freedoms,” Kagawa Colas wrote, “the most important of which being the absolute and inviolable and constitutionally protected freedom to stand, sit, kneel, praise, protest, and otherwise make your voice heard.”