WNBA superstar Brittney Griner survived a harrowing 11-month saga in foreign custody after pleading guilty to brining a small amount of medical hashish oil aboard a flight with her Russian Premier League team.
After President Joe Biden successfully negotiated for her release, Griner returned to America, re-signed with the Phoenix Mercury, and dedicated future efforts working to free other Americans wrongly incarcerated.
Unsurprisingly, her harrowing tale is inspiring to her teammates.
Phoenix Mercury guard Brianna Turner spoke to Bally Sports and detailed what Griner’s story means to her.
“It’s definitely opened my eyes more to all the different things in society going on,” Turner said. “Even the Bring Our Families Home campaign, which was really heavily involved in BG’s return. It just kind of opened my eyes to the dozens of Americans that are still detained abroad.
Griner inspired Turner by wanting to work with the group that helped free her.
“BG commented when she first came back that she wanted to continue to do work with them. So I think that’s really great. And I think it’s really opened my mind up to the different things that I don’t even think about or don’t even realize is going on at the moment.”
She said that, in her research, she’s also come to defend transgender people’s participation in sports.
“I think just knowing me and the big impact that like sports had on my life, I couldn’t imagine just restricting a kid from playing sports,” Turner said. “Obviously, there’s a lot of legislation going on trying to restrict trans access to sports, and it’s really starting at the youth level in elementary and middle schools.”
Turner thinks everyone should be allowed to play what they want.
“I’ve always been going to advocate for letting kids play and letting them see themselves. Through the different readings I’ve done, like everything I’ve read in scholarly settings, has stated how important sports and inclusion is for youth and development, and how trans youth have the worst mental health, out of all kids and even amongst like LGBT kids.”
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