As the WNBA season kicks off on May 19, one of the big attractions of the start of the 2023 campaign will be the return to the courts of Brittney Griner. If the latter announced that she would play this season, her level of play remains a mystery. As Mercury training camp begins next week, Diana Taurasi shares some news about her teammate.
“I think she is improving and progressing” remarked Diana Taurasi. “When you don’t do anything for 10 months, it’s a long ordeal for your body, mentally or physically. But every week, we see her improving a little more..
Imprisoned for 10 months
While in Russia in February 2022, the player was arrested at an airport for possession of drugs. Sentenced to nine years in prison, she was released and returned to the United States in December as part of a prisoner exchange between Russia and the United States,
“The pressure she went through, what she went through, we all felt it, not like her because she was the one who was in prison” continues Diana Taurasi. “Throughout this ordeal, every time I woke up and we had coffee, we were like, ‘I can’t believe she’s still in jail.’, ‘Well, she’s still in prison. We cannot feel sorry for ourselves. She’s the one who’s in jail.”.
An exceptional track record
Aged 32, Brittney Griner is one of the best players of her generation with 8 All-Star selections, two league leading scorer titles (2017,2019) and two defender of the year trophies (2014, 2015). Beyond her incarceration, her return is a sporting event, and she is gradually regaining her qualities.
“You see her doing things in practice and you’re like, ‘Oh, oh, okay. Backline spin move, I remember that’, or she’s doing a counter” details Diana Taurasi. “So there are all these little moments that she keeps accumulating and it’s going to be a big training camp to find the level she wants. But, we are all here to help and I hope we will all get through it together.”.
To get an idea of Griner’s impact on this team, the Mercury reached the WNBA Finals with her in 2021. Last season, Diana Taurasi’s band finished the regular season with a negative record of 15 wins for 21. defeats, before being eliminated from the start of the playoffs by the Las Vegas Aces.
A return to normal life
“There is no player like Brittney Griner in the world of women’s basketball” supported Diana Taurasi. “There’s her way of weighing on the game with her height, and there’s something that’s lost today, it’s the fact that she’s also good at counters and all those things”.
Since her return to the United States, Brittney Griner has still not spoken publicly. It should do so on Thursday, on the occasion of the “Media Day” of the franchise. With his return to the courts, the spotlight will be on the Mercury even more than usual this season.
“No one else has gone through what she went through. So she’s going to have to find a way to deal with the attention, the stares, the publicity, the mental pressure of it all while getting back into her basketball form.” concluded Diana Taurasi. ” It’s a lot. Very much. But I hope that when she comes here, she will feel at home. That’s all she knows”.
