Tag Archives: Griner

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Brittney Griner stays in Phoenix on 1-year, $150K deal  Yahoo Sports Source link

The top priority of the Phoenix Mercury front office has been to help bring Brittney Griner home safely after she was wrongfully detained by Russia in February. It didn’t matter if their eight-time All-Star center never played in the WNBA again. On Friday, Griner put speculation on her basketball future to rest in her first public statement since touching down on U.S. soil. And it surely brought jubilation to the Mercury, some of whom surprised Griner with a visit that morning. “I also… Source link

The top priority of the Phoenix Mercury front office has been to help bring Brittney Griner home safely after she was wrongfully detained by Russia in February. It didn’t matter if their eight-time All-Star center never played in the WNBA again. On Friday, Griner put speculation on her basketball future to rest in her first public statement since touching down on U.S. soil. And it surely brought jubilation to the Mercury, some of whom surprised Griner with a visit that morning. “I also… Source link

Brittney Griner shed light on her time in Russia and plans for the future with an Instagram statement on Friday. After being released from Russian prison, the WNBA star was medically evaluated 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,” Griner wrote. “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… Source link

Brittney Griner was ready to talk on her 18-hour flight back to the United States earlier this week. According to special presidential envoy for hostage affairs Roger Carstens, who helped secure Griner’s release from a Russian prison, the WNBA star spoke with him and others for nearly two-thirds of the flight from the United Arab Emirates to San Antonio on Thursday. “When she finally got onto the U.S. plane, I said, ‘Brittney, you must have been through a lot over the last 10 months…. Source link

Tom Pasquarello’s phone started buzzing around 7 a.m. on Thursday. “Did you hear the news?” a friend asked. “What news?” Pasquarello responded. The news turned out to be the undoing of one of Pasquarello’s proudest achievements from his tenure as a regional director with the Drug Enforcement Administration. The U.S. had released the notorious Russian arms trafficker who Pasquarello helped take down 14 years ago with an audacious sting operation. Viktor Bout, the so-called “Merchant… Source link

WNBA star Brittney Griner has been released from a Russian prison, President Joe Biden confirmed Thursday. In exchange for her release, the U.S. government will reportedly send convicted international arms dealer Viktor Bout back to Russia, according to CBS News. Bout, nicknamed the “Merchant of Death,” was sentenced to 25 years in prison after being convicted of, among other things, conspiracy to kill Americans. Retired U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who is also currently imprisoned in Russia… Source link

What had been feared for Brittney Griner has come to pass far sooner than expected. The process has begun for the WNBA All-Star to be transferred to a Russian penal colony, her legal team in Russia announced Wednesday in Moscow, a move her camp has dreaded since her August conviction on drug charges. A long-shot appeal for Griner was denied on Oct. 25, opening the possibility she would be moved from her previous jail in Moscow to the significantly harsher conditions of a penal colony, where… Source link

Cherelle Griner’s most recent call with her wife, Phoenix Mercury star Brittney Griner, left her distraught. Brittney is still in prison in Russia awaiting an appeal hearing after she was first arrested in February. After Cherelle spoke with her recently, she told CBS News’ Gayle King that she cried for “two, three days straight.” “It was the most disturbing phone call I’d ever experienced,” Cherelle told CBS on Thursday. “It’s just the most still, I think, moment I’ve just… Source link

If Dennis Rodman received “approval” for his plan to travel to Russia and help secure Brittney Griner’s release, it doesn’t look like it came from the White House. An anonymous senior official in President Joe Biden’s administration has told Reuters the White House is not a fan of Rodman’s plan, and believe it could actually hurt Griner’s chances of being released. “It is public information that the administration has made a significant offer to the Russians and anything other than negotiating… Source link