Brittney Griner has officially returned back to the states, and it wasn’t long after her touch down that she hit the basketball court.
According to ESPN, shortly after her arrival at Fort Sam in Houston, Texas, Griner was back on the court, scoring a dunk for the first time in nearly 10 months. Her agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, said that despite the light workout, it is still unclear whether Griner has plans to return to the league.
“If she wants to play, it will be for her to share,” explained Colas, who says that although Griner has not spoken publicly since her return, she will most likely issue a statement this week. “She has the holidays to rest and decide what’s next without any pressure. She’s doing really, really well. She seems to have endured this in pretty incredible ways.”
Yahoo! Sports also reported that the WNBA superstar spoke with Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens for the bulk of the ride home. “When she finally got on to the U.S. plane, I said, ‘Brittney, you must have been through a lot over the last 10 months, here’s your seat. Please feel free to decompress. We’ll give you your space,'” shared Carstens, who played a significant role in securing Griner’s release from the Russian prison.
Apparently, Griner then revealed that she was actually ready to talk. “She said, ‘Oh no, I’ve been in prison 10 months now listening to Russian, I want to talk. But first of all, who are these guys?’ And she moved right past me and went to every member on that crew, looked them in the eyes, shook their hands and asked about them, and got their names, making a personal connection with them. It was really amazing,” he continued. Furthermore, he said that “on an 18-hour flight, she probably spent 12 hours just talking.” Carstens revealed that he and Griner “talked about everything under the sun.”