WNBA superstar Brittney Griner’s feelings are still very raw from spending nearly a year in a Russian prison in 2022, languishing amid disgusting and deplorable conditions.
Griner, 33, opens up in an exclusive interview with Robin Roberts for ABC News about how the Phoenix Mercury center lived in “a cage” in abject fear and battered by suicidal ideations during her 10-month confinement.
“My life is over right here,” Griner recalled the moment in February 2022 when two cannabis vape cartridges were discovered in her carry-on luggage at a Russian airport. Griner flew there annually to play for a Russian basketball team in order to supplement her paltry WNBA income.
Brittney Griner was plagued with thoughts of taking her own life
After Griner was arrested, she later pleaded guilty to drug smuggling charges and was sentenced to nine years of hard labor in a Russian prison camp.
Griner was transported to the Female Penal Colony IK-2 in Yavas, called one of the most brutal penal colonies for women in the communist country.
“It was a huge knife sitting on the table and I was just like, now this is going to be a ride. You got to do what you got to do to survive,” she recalled to Roberts.
“The mattress had a huge blood stain on it. I had no soap, no toilet paper. That was the moment where I just felt less than a human.”
Griner said there were times when “I didn’t think I could get through what I needed to get through. I was just so scared for everything ’cause it [was] just so much unknown.”
Brittney Griner’s horrific story shared in a book, documentary, and TV series
Finally, the U.S. State Department and the Biden White House were able to procure Griner in December 2022 in a person swap for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
Since returning to the U.S. and playing last season for the Mercury, Griner revealed plans to pen a memoir about that “unfathomable period” of her life. Meanwhile, her horrific journey will reportedly be the subject of an upcoming documentary and a scripted television series.
11 Responses
You and your family are in my prayers. When you are playing basketball try to keep your head clear. You can make sure that you are playing for the team all out. It maybe the only thing keeping you sane at this time. Take care of your wife. Take care of the baby when it gets here. We love you and hope you get to see the baby. Take care of yourself and your family.
HY
We prayed every day morning and night. We wrote and followed CNN and every story and article we could get. We cried many times worring what you were going thru. Love you
Too bad she didn’t take her own life.
We all make our own bed.
What about Paul Whelen?
FJB
U r stupid sir…d
Watch what happens to you and your family when u wish things upon people. The same thing that makes you laugh, will make you cry. You’re going to be around to witness it, and then you’ll come back to what I told you. Furthermore, Brittany has nothing to do with Paul.
Love you Britney, praying for you and your family, Always . Stay strong, God’s got y’all
I cannot wait to see this series. I’m sure she’s gonna let us know what actually goes on in prison in foreign countries to think that they are living in deplorable conditions. It breaks my heart for them. We shouldn’t treat people any kind of way because they come out in the end up worse.
You broke the law and because of that a very dangerous human was released back into society. I’m glad your safe but your decisions created your problem you are not a victim you are a convicted drug smuggler. Plan and simple
I don’t even know where to begin here. Do you require laws to let you know what is right or wrong? Is the fact that rape is illegal all that stops you from it? If so I would say you are likely far more dangerous then a Russian arms dealer.
The law broken by this woman was not justified to begin with and the sentence certainly not. I wonder, would you feel the need to leave such remarks if it was your family member in her place? If so, I’m certainly glad not to be in your family.
Griner, you were and always will be about you! What have you done for those Americans and their families who truly love their country (unlike you) while you took their “get out of jail card” and they remain locked up in Russia? You seek to financially capitalize on it!!! 🙁