Brittney Griner, a famous WNBA player who was once held in Russia, talked about her time in custody in a recent interview, saying she considered suicide while she was detained.
Griner plans to publish her book “Coming Home” next week. spoke with The New York Times about her 10 month stay in a Russian prison and her life after being released.
“I will never forget any of it,” Griner said, emphasizing each word during the interview with the Times’ K Wortham.
The Phoenix Mercury star was going to Russia in February 2022 to play during the WNBA’s off-season when Russian authorities detained her. They found vape cartridges with cannabis oil in her luggage during a search at Sheremetyevo International Airport, which is illegal in Russia.
She admitted to drug charges in July 2022 and stated that the cartridges were in her bag by mistake. She didn't plan to break Russian law but still got a nine-year sentence in a penal colony.
The U.S. called her detention unjust, and it gained global attention. She was released on Dec. 8, 2022, after nearly 10 months in prison due to a prisoner exchange.
Griner described life in Russia in the interview. When she arrived at a local detention center, she could only keep some clothes and her Sudoku book. She tore T-shirts into pieces for cleaning her teeth, body, and as toilet paper.
“I’ve never been so dirty in my life,” Griner said, while describing the neglect and mistreatment that made her have suicidal thoughts. “I felt horrible.”
At night, Griner would stay awake, worried and thinking of her family and the stereotypes about Black people as drug users, according to the Times.
During her time there, she became friends with her bunkmate, who spoke English and helped her order food and water and warned her about illnesses in the prison. Surprisingly, Griner picked up two habits while in prison: smoking cigarettes, up to a pack a day, to cope with stress, and finding comfort in reading the Bible.
After her release, she faced mixed reactions, receiving hate for being viewed as unpatriotic and un-American, and even being told she shouldn't be alive.
Griner expressed unease about returning to basketball, especially in a season marked by injuries that led her to step away temporarily.
“People say its OK to not be OK,” she said in the interview. “But what the hell does that mean? Just cry when I want to cry? Or be angry when I want to be angry? Or does that mean talking about it? Like, I had to figure that out.”
