Brittney Griner was sentenced last February to nine years in prison for drug offences after being caught in an airport checkpoint with cannabis oil in her luggage. However, she was released in December after a high-profile prisoner swap in which the United States simultaneously released the Russian arms dealer Viktor But.
It has already been clear that the 32-year-old will make a comeback with the WNBA team Phoenix Mercury later this spring and in her first press conference after being released from prison she now says that she will not play abroad again.
Has won the WNBA
She also says that she wants to fight for those around the world who have been wrongly convicted, because she can say from her own experience that knowing that there are those who are fighting for your release means a lot.
"Just being aware of it when you don't know anything else, the times where I had the opportunity to see what was happening definitely made me more calm. It made me feel hope," she says, referring to her own time in prison.
Brittney Griner has won the WNBA and two Olympic gold medals with the United States.