WNBA Star Brittney Griner Reflects on Russian Freedom in Exclusive ’20/20′ Special

WNBA star Brittney Griner reflected on the moment she learned the United States won its freedom from Russian detention and expressed her support for bringing home other Americans wrongfully detained abroad in a special edition of ” 20/20″ airing Wednesday night at 10 pm ET on ABC. “Good Morning America” ​​will air a first look earlier in the day.

“I saw that newspaper and I got really excited,” Griner told “GMA” co-host Robin Roberts, as she reflected on a note she received saying she was being released from Russian detention after nearly ten months.

“It said, ‘Prepare to leave,'” Griner said, remembering reading the note.

Griner, 33, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and nine-time WNBA All-Star who plays for the Phoenix Mercury, was detained on Feb. 17, 2022, at Sheremetyevo International Airport in Khimki after being accused of having live ammunition. of vaping. It contains cannabis oil, which is illegal in the country. Griner was returning to Russia to play during the WNBA offseason.

She was detained a week before the Russian invasion of Ukraine began. The war stoked tensions between Russia and the United States, and some U.S. officials, including lawmakers in Griner’s native Houston, expressed concern that Americans imprisoned in Russia could be used as leverage in the ongoing conflict.

The US State Department classified Griner’s case as “wrongfully detained” in May 2022 and the Biden administration worked for months to secure her freedom.

Griner pleaded guilty to drug charges on July 7, 2022, and said vape cartridges containing cannabis oil were inadvertently in his luggage. She testified that she had “no intention” to violate Russian law and packed the cartridges by accident.

Amid growing pressure on the United States to secure her freedom, the WNBA star was released on December 8, 2022, after US officials agreed to exchange Griner for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, whose capture in Thailand in 2008 marked the end of a nearly decade-long search by the United States to stop him.

“Being traded for a person known as ‘the merchant of death’ — there were some Americans who thought it wasn’t a fair deal,” Roberts told Griner. “That this was a heinous criminal and that he should be traded when it should have been, perhaps, someone else. What do you say to those who felt it wasn’t a balanced trade?”

“If that business was up to me, I would have gone to find Paul and brought him home,” Griner said, referring to the case of Paul Whelan, a former US Marine accused of espionage in Russia, where he has been detained. since December 2018 and is serving a 16-year prison sentence.

Roberts asked Griner about an excerpt from her upcoming memoir, “Coming Home,” to be published May 7, where Griner writes that she hoped someone else would accompany her on the plane back to the United States.

“You wrote that you hoped to see someone else on that plane,” Roberts said. “You were hoping to see Paul Whelan.”

Griner nodded and said, “When I walked in and didn’t see him, I thought, ‘Okay, maybe I’m early. Maybe he’s next. Maybe they’ll bring him in next,'” he said of Whelan. .

“And when they closed the door, I thought… you’re seriously not going to let this man come home right now?” Griner added, recounting his disappointment.

Since her release, Griner has become an outspoken advocate for Americans wrongfully detained abroad, including Whelan and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was detained in Russia in March 2023 and charged with espionage. The U.S. government designated both Whelan and Gershkovich as “wrongfully detained,” a classification that allows additional resources to be applied to their cases as the United States works to secure their release.

Griner promised in a heartfelt Instagram post on December 16, 2022, where he thanked those who advocated for his release, to “do everything I can to help” bring home other Americans wrongfully detained abroad.

“President Biden, you brought me home and I know you are committed to bringing Paul Whelan and all Americans home too,” Griner wrote. “I will use my platform to do everything I can to help them. I also encourage everyone who helped bring me home to continue their efforts to bring all Americans home. Every family deserves to be whole.”

Griner’s full exclusive interview will air May 1 on a special edition of “20/20.”

Eboni Griffin, Joseph Diaz, Gail Deutsch, Susan Welsh, Netsanet Negussie, Kaitlin Amoroso, Danielle Genet and Chris Donovan of ABC News contributed to this report.

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