What began as a routine trip in February 2022 quickly turned into a nightmare for Brittney Griner. Detained at a Moscow airport after THC vape cartridges were found in her luggage, the WNBA star was thrust into the heart of an international crisis. Over the next 10 months, she would endure life in a Russian penal colony, where she faced inhumane living conditions. Stripped of freedom and isolated from the world, Griner’s experience became a story of survival and resilience, one she hasn’t been afraid to discuss since her release in December 2022.
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The 9x All-Star recently gave a detailed synopsis of her detainment and imprisonment in Russia during a discussion with former NFL star Cam Newton. Griner knew as soon as the cartridges were found in her bag, her life was about to change for the worse. The fact that she was recognized at the airport only added to the spectacle of her arrest.
At an airport she frequently travels through, Griner immediately knew something felt different that time around. She had never seen so many people working at once and noticed that those who appeared Russian weren’t forced to walk through metal detectors while everyone else was.
Both Newton and Griner acknowledged that the 34-year-old had a lot working against her, including her race, gender, status and appearance. The 2x Defensive Player of the Year didn’t know for what reason she was being targeted, but she new that she was.
“Especially once they had found what they had found and they had me basically just sitting off to the side. When I say they were coming out, looking at me, going back in, coming back out, smiling, going back in, getting other people, like it was a show … You knew it was a spectacle,” Griner explained.
Once she was detained, Griner was subjected to a full-body search and forced to sign foreign papers without translation. She couldn’t read anything on the paper but believed she’d only be making things worse if she didn’t do as she was told. Either way, she knew things wouldn’t be getting any easier. Griner wasn’t expecting nearly as long of a sentence as she was handed, though.
“[The lawyer] throwing out numbers like, 10, 15. I’m like, ‘Wait, years? Like, 10, 15 years?'” Griner questioned in disbelief. “Yeah, I got that feeling. I’m sick, I’m like, ‘Ain’t no way.’ He was like, ‘Don’t worry, don’t panic.'” Newton couldn’t believe Griner’s lawyer told her not to panic with such dire consequences looming.
Griner was driven around Moscow as law enforcement determined which prison to place her in. She was also probed with body searches, drug tests, COVID tests and a respiratory exam. She was forced to stand in the cold while guards smoked cigarettes with little urgency to finish their job with her.
Once arrived, without much more than the clothes on her back, Griner had to take advantage of the little she had in solitary. “I got two, three shirts. I got sweats. I got my Nike slides,” Griner continued, sharing that she wasn’t immediately given a prison uniform. “No shower, no toilet paper, no toothbrush … toilet in the room is a hole. It’s feces, urine over everything.”
Griner managed through her first few days by ripping one of her shirts into multiple pieces in order to dry and clean herself. The six-time All-WNBA member described that setting as the nastiest conditions she’s ever lived in.
“I felt worse than a d*** stray dog. At least a stray dog get some food every now and again. Like get something,” Griner continued. “I didn’t feel like a human. Trying to be strong, I got a little Sudoku book that I had with me when they took me. So I’m writing in it, like I knew what day it was. So I would write the date and I would write a little something like how I’m feeling.”
Griner was subjected to some of the worst living conditions modern humanity can offer. Yet she still knew it could be worse. During her lowest times, she would think about her wife, mother and father, knowing they likely wouldn’t receive her body if she decided to end her life in prison.
Griner also found strength by remembering her father’s war stories, reminding herself that, while she was sleeping on a steel bed in a foreign prison, at least she wasn’t facing gunfire. Fortunately, her sentence didn’t last nearly as long as originally feared. Still, Brittney Griner endured an ordeal that few could imagine and even fewer could withstand.
