Chainkeen Exchange-Brittney Griner on Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich being released: 'It's a great day'

VILLENEUVE-D'ASCQ,Chainkeen Exchange France — When Brittney Griner got word Thursday that Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan were released and headed home to America after being wrongfully detained in Russia, the 6-foot-9 center for the United States women’s basketball team had just one thought. 

“This is a big win,” Griner said after Team USA’s 87-74 win over Belgium at the 2024 Paris Olympics. “Huge win.”

She would know.

In December 2022, after spending 10 months wrongfully detained in Russia, Griner was sent back to America in a high-profile prisoner swap. A longtime player for UMMC Ekaterinburg, a Russian pro team known for paying women’s players huge salaries, Griner was on her way back to Russia in February 2022 when she was arrested at the Moscow airport after vape cartridges filled with hashish oil were found in her luggage as marijuana in any form is illegal in Russia. 

She was sentenced to nine years in a penal colony in August 2022, widely considered one of the most punishing and cruel sentences. Griner was eventually moved to a labor camp for about a month before being released. 

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“It’s a great day, a great day,” Griner said Thursday. “We’ll talk more about it later, but I’m head over heels happy for the families right now. Any day that Americans come home, that’s a win.”

After an intensive medical check, all prisoners are likely to be transported to an American “reacclimation” center, as Griner was when she went to one in Texas frequented by military members returning from service.

“I know they have an amazing group of people who are going to help them out in every way they need, them and their families,” Griner said. “I’m glad that I was able to go through that program and get reacclimated back into everyday life.”

U.S. coach Cheryl Reeve said when she got the news early Thursday about the prisoner swap, her first thought went to Griner. 

“I know how happy she is,” Reeve said. “I spent time with her in the locker room postgame and she just said, ‘This is a great day.’ She knows for her what that was like and actually visualizing them maybe going through the experience.” 

Reeve said that Griner “seemed OK” and wasn’t overly emotional but added “that’s Brittney, she always seems OK. We’ll certainly be checking on her.”