Phoenix Mercury

Brittney Griner is planning on returning to the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury next season.

She announced Friday on Instagram she intends to play for the team in 2023 after returning to the United States following a 10-month stint under detention in Russia.

Griner also wrote she was "grateful to each person who advocated for me," including her wife, Cherrelle.

President Joe Biden announced on Dec. 8 that Griner was on her way back to the United States after the Russian government agreed to a prisoner swap.

A Russian court sentenced Griner to nine years in prison on a drug charge in August. She was originally arrested in February for bringing vape cartridges containing cannabis oil into the country.

Maria Blagovolina and Alexander Boykov, Griner's attorneys, announced on Nov. 17 she had been transferred to a Russian penal colony.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during an Aug. 1 press briefing that Russia wasn't negotiating in good faith when the two sides were discussing a prisoner swap that would bring Griner back to the U.S.

Griner was in Russia playing for UMMC Ekaterinburg of the Russian Premier League. She has played for the club since 2014 between WNBA seasons.

The 32-year-old has spent her entire WNBA career with the Mercury since being drafted No. 1 overall by the club in 2013. She has been named to the All-Star team eight times, led the league in blocks eight times, won two scoring titles and led Phoenix to a title in 2014.

Phoenix will open the 2023 season on May 19 against the Los Angeles Sparks at Crypto.com Arena.

Phoenix Mercury star center Brittney Griner dunked as part of a light basketball workout at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio on Sunday and is doing "really, really well" after returning to the United States, agent Lindsay Kagawa Colas told ESPN's T.J. Quinn.

Colas said the seven-time WNBA All-Star hasn't decided if or when she will resume her career with Phoenix.

"If she wants to play, it will be for her to share. She has the holidays to rest and decide what's next without any pressure," Colas told Quinn. "She's doing really, really well. She seems to have endured this in pretty incredible ways."

Griner was detained in Russia for 294 days and had been serving a nine-year prison sentence for possession of hash oil.

The U.S. government considered Griner "wrongfully detained" and organized her release via a prisoner swap that freed international arms dealer Viktor Bout.

For now, Griner is staying at Fort Sam Houston with her wife, Cherelle, and has reunited with family as well. Per Colas, Griner should issue a statement "this week."

On the night he was honored as Sports Illustrated's Sportsperson of the Year, Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry used his platform to pay tribute to Brittney Griner as she makes her way back to the United States.

Curry opened his speech at the ceremony with thoughts on Griner:

President Joe Biden announced on Thursday morning Griner was on her way back to the United States after Russia agreed to a prisoner swap

Griner was arrested in Russia on a drug charge in February. She was sentenced to nine years in prison in August after pleading guilty in an attempt to accelerate the process for a potential exchange of prisoners.

Athletes from all sports used their platform to speak out for Griner to keep her name at the front of people's minds and potentially help speed the process of getting her home.

After Biden's announcement that Griner was on her way back to the U.S., there was an outpouring of support for the Phoenix Mercury star from her fellow WNBA players:

A United States official told CNN that Griner is expected to land in San Antonio, Texas. She is expected to be back in the country at some point on Friday.

Brittney Griner's lawyers, Maria Blagovolina and Alexander Boykov, and agent, Lindsay Colas, confirmed Thursday the WNBA star has been relocated to a Russian penal colony in Mordovia, which is approximately 210 miles east of Moscow.

Griner is serving a nine-year sentence after her appeal was denied Oct. 25.

"Brittney is doing as well as could be expected and trying to stay strong as she adapts to a new environment," her lawyers said in a statement Thursday while also confirming they visited with her this week.

"Despite the fact she is alone and now nearing her ninth month in detention separated from her loved ones, she is trying to stay strong," Colas said in a statement. "At this time, we will not be sharing any further details, but want to express our deepest thanks to the Biden Administration, the Richardson Center, and to everyone who has reached out to offer words of encouragement to her."

Griner, who the United States government has classified as "wrongfully detained," was arrested at a Moscow-area airport Feb. 17 after vape cartridges containing hashish oil were found in her luggage.

She pleaded guilty to drug smuggling charges in July but said she was prescribed cannabis to treat chronic pain and packed the canisters inadvertently. The appeal of her nine-year sentence was denied.

Frederik Pleitgen, Kylie Atwood, Eliott C. McLaughlin and Rob Picheta of CNN noted the United States State Department said Wednesday it was in touch with Griner's legal team and "strongly protest[s]" the transfer.

CNN cited a human rights report from the State Department, which revealed prisoners in such penal colonies can be subjected to "solitary confinement or punitive stays in psychiatric units."

Prisoners are also forced into labor at times, although it depends on the specific penal colony.

"Built during the Soviet Union, most of the colonies have been likened to Soviet-era gulags; prison camps that expanded across the region during Josef Stalin’s rule in the mid-20th century," Pleitgen, Atwood, McLaughlin and Picheta wrote.

President Joe Biden told reporters he is "determined" to get WNBA star Brittney Griner back to the United States and is hopeful Russian president Vladimir Putin will be willing to work together on a prisoner exchange.

"My hope is that now that the [midterm] election is over, that Mr. Putin will be able to discuss with us and be willing to talk more seriously about a prisoner exchange," Biden said.

Griner was sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison following a conviction for drug smuggling in August after initially being detained for having hashish oil in her luggage at a Moscow airport in February. She is currently in the process of being transferred to a Russian penal colony after an appeal of her conviction was denied Oct. 25.

"Our primary concern continues to be BG's health and well-being," Griner's agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, said in a statement. "As we work through this very difficult phase of not knowing exactly where BG is or how she is doing, we ask for the public's support in continuing to write letters and express their love and care for her."

The U.S. State Department has categorized Griner as being wrongfully detained. Biden has attempted to work with Putin for months on a potential prisoner exchange but has not gotten much cooperation from the Russian president, who has long had an adversarial relationship with the United States.

Tensions have skyrocketed between Russia and the United States over aid the Biden administration has sent to Ukraine after Putin ordered an invasion of the bordering country earlier this year. There has not been a direct link between the Griner case and the war in Ukraine, but it's unlikely the relationship between the U.S. and Russia has helped matters.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Biden administration made a "substantial proposal" over the summer for the release of Griner and ex-Marine Paul Whelan. Biden said last month that his administration was in "constant contact" with Russia regarding her release.

Several experts have called Griner a political prisoner.

The WNBA and several of its stars have released statements calling on the Biden administration to bring Griner back to the United States.

WNBA star Brittney Griner, who has been detained in Russia since February, is being moved to a Russian penal colony.

According to ESPN's T.J. Quinn, Griner's Russian legal team announced the move Wednesday and noted that the process began Friday. Her team also said that neither they nor Griner's family are aware of exactly where she will be taken.

Quinn added that the lawyers told him transfers can take "weeks or months."

Griner's lawyers, who said they were not told she had been moved until Tuesday, added that it could take up to two weeks before Griner's family receives an update on her location via official mail.

Russian authorities first took Griner into custody on Feb. 17 at an airport near Moscow when she was found to be in possession of vape cartridges containing hashish oil.

Griner pleaded guilty to drug smuggling charges and was sentenced to nine years in prison. She appealed, but the conviction was upheld, prompting United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken to call it "another failure of justice, compounding the injustice of her detention."

Griner was declared "wrongfully detained" by U.S. officials in May.

Per Quinn, the United States made an offer in June for a potential prisoner swap, but the offer was turned down and the White House said in a statement that there has been a "lack of good faith negotiation" from the Russian government since then.

Despite the lack of success thus far, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday that the government continues to work to bring Griner home:

"Every minute that Brittney Griner must endure wrongful detention in Russia is a minute too long. As the Administration continues to work tirelessly to secure her release, the President has directed the Administration to prevail on her Russian captors to improve her treatment and the conditions she may be forced to endure in a penal colony."

According to Quinn, Griner last spoke to her lawyers Nov. 2, and she hasn't had outside contact with anyone since Thursday, when she met with U.S. embassy officials.

The 32-year-old Griner is widely regarded as one of the best women's basketball players in the world, having earned eight WNBA All-Star selections, two WNBA scoring titles, two WNBA Defensive Player of the Year Awards and one WNBA championship during her nine seasons with the Phoenix Mercury.

Griner, who has also played professionally in Russia for UMMC Ekaterinburg since 2014, is a two-time Olympic gold medalist for Team USA as well.

Officials from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow met with Phoenix Mercury star Brittney Griner, who has been wrongfully detained in Russia for 259 days.

State Department spokesman Ned Price provided an update Thursday on Twitter:

Griner's wife, Cherelle, was a guest Tuesday on ABC's The View and shared a harrowing account of a conversation they recently had.

"Her mental it's not there, and she told me, 'I'm really just trying to hold on to the last bit of you that I can remember,'" Cherelle said.

A Russian court found Griner guilty of drug charges in August and sentenced her to nine years in prison, one year short of the maximum sentence. Her appeal was formally denied in October, and she expected to be moved to a penal colony to serve out her sentence.

CNN's Kylie Atwood, Evan Perez and Jennifer Hansler reported in July the Biden administration was prepared to release convicted arms trafficker Viktor Bout in exchange for Griner and Paul Whelan. Whelan is a former U.S. Marine who was found guilty on espionage charges in 2018.

Natasha Bertrand and Frederik Pleitgen of CNN followed up to report Russian officials lobbied to include convicted murderer Vadim Krasikov, who's in custody in Germany, as part of the prisoner swap.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre acknowledged Thursday there had been conversations regarding a possible exchange.

"The U.S. government made a significant offer to the Russians to resolve the current unacceptable and wrongful detentions of American citizens," she said, per NBC News' Lauren Egan.

Cherrelle Griner said her wife, WNBA star Brittney Griner, is "at her absolute weakest moment in life right now" as she awaits an appeal hearing in Russia on Oct. 25.

Speaking to Gayle King of CBS Mornings, Cherrelle explained she became very concerned after a recent phone call with Brittney.

"You could hear that she was not okay," she said. "If you think about just a person's suffering and when they have suffered to a max…she was at the max that day."

Cherrelle noted Brittney's tone was in stark contrast to what she was like during the first phone conversation they had.

"The first time, she was delighted. It was just so delightful just to hear her voice," Cherrelle said.

Brittney Griner is awaiting an appeal hearing after a Russian court sentenced her to nine years in prison on charges of drug possession and smuggling.

Per ESPN's T.J. Quinn, the sentence was expected after Griner pleaded guilty to the charges in July.

"But she and her supporters have also been aware that Russia was not going to move forward with a trade that could bring her home until her trial was completed," Quinn wrote. "A guilty verdict was considered a foregone conclusion, and Griner pleaded guilty July 7, though the case continued under Russian law."

The Russian government originally detained Griner in February at Sheremetyevo International Airport for having vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage.

She has been held in Russia for 231 days.

Griner was entering the country to play for UMMC Ekaterinburg of the Russian Premier League. She joined the team in 2014 and has played for the club in between WNBA seasons as one of a number of WNBA players who play elsewhere during offseasons for supplemental income.

In the wake of Griner's sentencing, President Joe Biden issued a statement calling on Russia to release her. He added the administration will "continue to work tirelessly and pursue every possible avenue to bring Brittney and Paul Whelan [a former U.S. Marine arrested on espionage charges in Russia in 2018] home safely as soon as possible."

Russia's foreign ministry said on Aug. 18 it was engaged in "quiet diplomacy" with the U.S. about a potential prisoner exchange involving Griner. The U.S. government has offered to send Viktor Bout, a convicted Russian arms dealer, to bring Griner and Whelan home.

National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said the U.S. received a counterproposal from Russian officials that he described as "a bad faith attempt to avoid a very serious offer and proposal that the United States has put forward" in an interview with CNN (h/t Insider).

Cherrelle Griner told King she hopes a deal can be reached before the appeal hearing because Brittney could be "moved to a labor camp" if her appeal is denied.

Biden met with Cherrelle and Elizabeth Whelan, sister of Paul Whelan, in the Oval Office on Sept. 16 to assure the families the United States is doing everything in its power to get Brittney and Paul back to the country.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Tuesday the U.S. has yet to receive a serious response to its offer of a prisoner exchange and it needs "to see a serious counter-offer."

Brittney Griner will appeal her nine-year prison sentence during a hearing in Russian court on Oct. 25, according to Vladimir Isachenkov of the Associated Press.

The WNBA star has been detained for 228 days, since her arrest at the Moscow airport on Feb. 17 for drug possession. After pleading guilty to carrying cannabis oil in her luggage, she was sentenced to nine years in prison in August, just short of the 10-year maximum sentence.

Her lawyers later announced plans to appeal the conviction.

The United States State Department considers Griner to be "wrongfully detained" and is attempting to bring her home.

Cherelle Griner, Brittney's wife, met with president Joe Biden last month to discuss the administration's plan of action.

"The President held the meetings to reiterate his continued commitment to working through all available avenues to bring Brittney and Paul [Whelan] home safely," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

In July, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said the administration had made a "substantial proposal" to Russia to facilitate the return of Griner and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who is serving 16 years after being convicted of espionage.

According to ESPN's T.J. Quinn, Griner's lawyers would be willing to drop the appeal if it helps facilitate a deal to free her.