
Brittney Griner played with her Phoenix Mercury for the first time since 2021 on Friday, taking the court far sooner than she expected for their preseason game against the Los Angeles Sparks, after nearly 10 months of detention in Russia.
The two-time Olympic gold medalist was released from a Russian penal colony in a high-profile prisoner exchange with the United States late last year after she was arrested in February 2022 on drug charges.