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Saying she is ready to share her “unknown” experience of being arrested and imprisoned in Russia, basketball star Brittney Griner is working on a memoir scheduled for spring 2024.
Griner was arrested last year at an airport in Moscow on drug-related charges and held for nearly 10 months, much of that time in prison. His ordeal unfolded at the same time as Russia invaded Ukraine and heightened tensions between Russia and the US, ending only after he was released in exchange for notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
A WNBA All-Star with the Phoenix Mercury, Griner has flown to Moscow in February 2022 to rejoin UMMC Ekaterinburg, the Russian women’s team she has played in the off-season since 2014.
“That day (in February) was the beginning of an incomprehensible period in my life, which I am now ready to share,” Griner said in a statement released Tuesday by Alfred A. Knopf.
“The main reason I came back to Russia to work that day is because I want to make my wife, family, and friends proud. They will hear my story and understand why I am so grateful for the support of people all over the world.”
WATCH | Brittney Griner released from Russia in prisoner swap:
Women’s National Basketball Association player Brittney Griner, who has been detained in Russia since February, has been released from custody as part of a high-level prisoner swap. The United States agreed to release Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout in exchange for Griner’s freedom.
Increased awareness
Griner added that he also hopes his book will raise awareness of other Americans detained abroad, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was detained in Russia last month and accused of espionage; businessman Kai Li, serving a 10-year sentence in China on charges of leaking state secrets to the FBI; and Paul Whelan, a corporate security executive jailed in Russia on spying charges. When Griner was released, Whelan criticized the US government for not doing enough to help him.
Russia has been a popular playing destination for the WNBA’s top athletes this summer, with some salaries earning more than $1 million — nearly four times the base WNBA salary. Despite pleading guilty to having canisters with cannabis oil, the result of what he said was hasty packing, Griner still faces trial under Russian law.
Griner’s memoir is currently untitled and will eventually be published in a young adult edition. Financial terms were not disclosed.
In a press statement on Tuesday, Knopf said that the book will be “intimate and moving” and that Griner will tell “in great detail his terrifying experience of wrongful arrest (as classified by the State Department) and the difficulty of navigating the Byzantine Russian legal system. which is not said.”
“Griner also describes the stark and surreal time she spent in a foreign prison and the terrifying daily aspects of life in a women’s penal colony,” the announcement read. “At the heart of the book, Griner highlights the personal turmoil he experienced during his ten-month ordeal and the resilience he sustained until the day he returned to the United States last December.”
Advocate for pay equity
Griner, 32, is a 6-foot-9 two-time Olympic gold medalist, a three-time All-American at Baylor University, a prominent advocate for pay equity for female athletes and the first openly gay athlete to sign an agreement with Nike. . He is the author of a previous book, “In My Skin: My Life On and Off the Basketball Court,” published in 2014.
In February, he re-signed with the Mercury and will play the upcoming season, from May to September.
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