Brittney Griner is a well-known basketball player for the WNBA. Brittney was playing for the Phoenix Mercury before she was imprisoned in Russia for bringing vaporizer cartridges containing less than a gram of hash oil into the country, which was prescribed legally to her in Arizona. Stay up to date on all of the latest Brittney Griner news here!
Before all of the Brittney Griner Russia news, Brittney was frequently in the press for her sensational abilities on the court and her work for the LGBTQ community off of the court. The nation’s number one high school women’s basketball player in 2009 went on to play college ball for Baylor. Griner led Baylor to a Division 1 Women’s Basketball Championship over Notre Dame in 2012.
Brittney Griner was the number one overall draft pick in the 2013 WNBA Draft, and along with Diana Taurasi and Candice Dupree, helped lead the Mercury to their third championship in franchise history. Griner missed the first seven games of the 2015 season due to domestic violence allegations with her ex-wife Glory Johnson. She won a gold medal with the U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
On February 17th, 2022, Brittney Griner was detained at a Russian airport and arrested on smuggling charges. With what could potentially be a political move from Russia due to Western sanctions, Griner was found guilty in August and sentenced to nine years in prison. Brittney Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner, has been a strong advocate for the star American athlete, and there are still negotiations in the works to trade Griner for a Russian prisoner being held in the United States.
