According to the Associated Press, Brittney Griner, returning to her first WNBA game since being held prisoner in Russia for 10 months, said the national anthem “definitely felt different,” comparing it to the Olympic scene with gold medals, flags and the national anthem playing in the background.
It all came to fruition Sunday, as Griner and the rest of the U.S. team were honored for winning a one-point victory over France to secure the gold medal in women’s basketball at the 2024 Olympics.
Griner, who in 2020 called for the WNBA to stop playing the national anthem at games amid nationwide protests against racism, became emotional as the anthem was played and began crying while standing alongside her teammates.
“It means a lot to me,” Griner told reporters on Sunday. According to USA TODAY“Like I said before, I never thought I’d be here and my country fought so hard to get me here and now to be here winning a gold medal for my country, this gold medal will hold a special place in my heart.”
Griner wasn’t a key player for the U.S. team this summer, playing just five minutes on the Sunday of the final, scoring four points and collecting two rebounds, but he still helped the team to a record-breaking Olympic streak that included 61 straight wins and eight straight gold medals.
But there was a 10-month period in 2022 where we weren’t guaranteed to experience that.
Griner was detained in Russia on drug charges after e-cigarette cartridges containing cannabis oil were found in her luggage at a Moscow airport in February of that year, and spent a harrowing time in prison, which she first detailed in an interview with ABC’s Robin Roberts in May, then finished off in a memoir published later that month, leading to a prisoner swap in December 2022.
2024 Paris Olympics
Before her detention and eventual return to the United States, Griner had called for the WNBA to stop playing the national anthem at its 2020 games and made it clear she planned to protest if the league continued to play it. According to the Washington Post.
She said her attitude changed after her experiences in Russia and her return to the United States, and she has since returned as a mainstay in the Mercury lineup.
“You have the right to protest, you have the right to speak, you have the right to question, you have the right to challenge, you have all of those rights,” Griner told reporters in 2023. According to Fox News“What I went through and everything means a little bit more to me now, so I want to be able to stand up. I was literally in a cage. [in Russia] And I couldn’t stand up the way I wanted to.
“If I hear the anthem and see the flag, I will definitely stand. I fully support 100 percent everyone who doesn’t stand or doesn’t come. It’s our right as Americans living in this great country.”
