Friday, March 18th, will mark the full return for Brittney Griner to the WNBA. The Phoenix Mercury center will take part in her team’s opening game against the Los Angeles Sparks at 11 PM at ESPN.
It has been a long time coming.
It’s been 474 days since the last time since Griner last played competitive basketball, which was in Russia during January 2022. It’s been 578 days since she last set foot on an WNBA court, which was Game 4 of the 2021 WNBA Finals. After being detained in a Russian airport in February of last year, she was arrested, convicted on drug charges, and jailed in a penal colony for ten months. Her story made headlines around the world before she was ultimately freed in a high-profile prison swap with Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
The whole ordeal was politically thorny, and obviously amplified by the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but it also spotlighted the problem female basketball players face: terrible salaries and the requirement to play elsewhere during the offseason to make enough money.
“The whole reason a lot of us go over is the pay gap. A lot of us go over there to make an income and support our families, to support ourselves,” said Griner to Al-Jareeza, who was detained when on her way to play for local team UMMC Ekaterinburg.
In a 2021 report, it was found that WNBA players were paid 21% of the league’s $60m in revenue in 2019. By comparison, NBA players made approximately 50% of their league revenue that year. The conversation will not go away with Griner back, and she has spoken about her insistence that she will never play overseas again.
For the past five months after returning to the states and declaring her intention to play in the WNBA again, she has practiced and tried to scrape off the rust. Will she become the same player who was part of the MVP conversation in 2021? It remains to be seen. But the 6’9″ star center has always been offensively skilled, a capable rebounder, and a stout defender even at her worst. An exhibition game earlier in May saw her finish with 10 points and three boards–her offense and defense were at times iffy, but even then you could tell she had the potential to recapture her old form. Her biggest problem seemed to be her lack of stamina, which will likely be built back up during the grind of the WNBA season.
But the biggest impact of her return to the American game is as a positive symbol for the league and for women’s sports in general. Her reception at the exhibition game was, even for a low-stakes event, surreal.
“It is so good to have her back in this league,” Curt Miller, the head coach of the Sparks, said after their preseason win over the Mercury. “She is so talented. It doesn’t look like she missed a beat. She can have a heck of a year. She is just so talented. So happy for Phoenix, for the fans of the WNBA, for all of us. Brittney Griner is so important for the WNBA and women’s basketball. It is great to have her back in our league and on the court.”
