Brittney Yevette Griner is an American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Mercury of the Women’s NBA, now Brittney Griner in Jail.
Brittney Griner : Who is, Smuggling, Jail, In Russia
She played college basketball for the Baylor Lady Bears in Waco, Texas and She is the only NCAA basketball player to both score 2,000 points and block 500 shots.
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 18, 1990 Houston, Texas, U.S. |
| Listed height | 6 ft 9 in (206 cm) |
| Listed weight | 205 lb (93 kg) |
| Career information | |
| High school | Nimitz (Houston, Texas) |
| College | Baylor (2009–2013) |
| WNBA draft | 2013 / Round: 1 / Pick: 1st overall |
In 2012, the three-time All-American was named the AP Player of the Year and the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four.
In 2009, Griner was named the nation’s No. 1 high school women’s basketball player by Rivals.com.
She was selected to the 2009 Phoenix Mercury All-American basketball team.
In 2012, she received the Best Female Athlete ESPY Award. In 2013, Griner signed an endorsement deal with Nike.
Standing 6 ft 9 in (206 cm) tall, Griner wears a men’s U.S. size 17 shoe and has an arm span of 87.5 in (222 cm).
Who is Brittney Griner
Griner was born in Houston, the daughter of Raymond and Sandra Griner. Her father is a former Harris County sheriff and Marine veteran who served in Vietnam in 1968 and 1969. She has three older siblings.
Griner attended Nimitz High School in Houston. In addition to lettering in basketball throughout high school, she played varsity volleyball as a freshman.
| Women’s basketball | ||
|---|---|---|
| Representing the United States | ||
| Olympic Games | ||
| 2016 Rio de Janeiro | Team | |
| 2020 Tokyo | Team | |
| World Cup | ||
| 2014 Turkey | ||
| 2018 Spain | ||
Starting in her sophomore year, Griner practiced with the boys’ basketball team, and worked with a Nimitz football coach to develop her leg strength in preparation for learning to dunk.
Griner is one of 11 women to receive an Olympic gold medal, an NCAA championship, a FIBA World Cup gold medal and a WNBA championship.
Griner was on the United States women’s Olympic team in 2016, and led them to victory at the Rio Olympics.
In 2020, Griner protested the Star Spangled Banner and stated she would not be on the court while the national anthem was played during game openers.
In 2021, Griner was named to the United States women’s national team for the 2020 Olympics, where she won her second gold medal.
Smuggling
The verdict comes about six months after the 31-year-old was arrested at a Moscow airport and accused by Russian prosecutors of trying to smuggle less than 1 gram of cannabis oil in her luggage.
The two-time US Olympic basketball gold medalist pleaded guilty to drug charges last month and said she accidentally packed the drugs while in a hurry.
Griner’s lawyers, Maria Blagovolina and Alexander Boykov, said in a written statement they will appeal the decision and criticized the court for ignoring their evidence. They have 10 days to appeal.
“We are very disappointed by the verdict. As legal professionals, we believe that the court should be fair to everyone regardless of nationality. The court completely ignored all the evidence of the defense, and most importantly, the guilty plea,” they said in the statement. “This contradicts the existing legal practice. Taking into account the amount of the substance (not to mention the defects of the expertise) and the plea, the verdict is absolutely unreasonable. We will certainly file an appeal.”
Speaking outside court, Boykov said that the average time in jail for this type of crime is five years, adding that almost a third of those convicted get parole.
Griner “is not doing fine today,” said Blagovolina, a partner at Rybalkin, Gortsunyan, Dyakin and Partners law firm.
The defense team is hopeful that Griner will be able to talk to her family next week. Blagovolina added that Griner will return to the detention center where she is being held.
Brittney Griner jail
A Russian court on Thursday sentenced US basketball star Brittney Griner to nine years in prison over drug smuggling as US President Joe Biden called the ruling “unacceptable”.
The court “found the defendant guilty” of smuggling and possessing “a significant amount of narcotics”, judge Anna Sotnikova told a court in the town of Khimki just outside Moscow.
Sotnikova sentenced Griner, 31, to nine years in prison and said she would also have to pay a fine of one million rubles ($16,590).
US President Joe Biden immediately released a statement, calling the Russian court’s sentencing of Griner “unacceptable.”
“Russia is wrongfully detaining Brittney. It’s unacceptable and I call on Russia to release her immediately so she can be with her wife, loved ones, friends and teammates,” Biden said in the statement.
The US president reiterated that he would “work tirelessly and pursue every possible avenue” to repatriate Griner.
In Russia
Griner has been in Russian custody for over four months by now. As per reports, Brittney Griner was arrested at Sheremetyevo airport near Moscow around February.
Her luggage reportedly contained vape cartridges that had oil containing cannabis extract. She was found to have hash oil in her possession, which is an illegal substance in Russia.
At the time, Griner was charged with smuggling drugs, which, per Russian laws, could lead to a sentence of around three to ten years in prison.
Brittney Griner flew to Russia to play for the UMMC Ekaterinburg basketball team of the country, which a third-party corporation reportedly backs.
The Yekaterinburg-based team competed in the Russian Premier League and the FIBA Europe’s EuroLeague Women until February of this year.
The team was disbarred from competing in the EuroLeague after the country’s war on Ukraine. The conflict had begun a week after Griner’s arrest in Russia.
As per Advocate.com, Griner received much larger pay for UMMC Ekaterinburg than her WNBA salary. For her first year in the privately-backed Russian basketball team, Griner reportedly made just shy of $1 million. Meanwhile, the WNBA compensation was around $250,000 at max.