Saying she’s ready to share the «unfathomable» experience of being arrested and jailed in Russia, basketball star Brittney Griner is working on a memoir that’s slated for spring 2024.
Griner was arrested last year at a Moscow airport on drug-related charges and was held for nearly 10 months, much of that time in prison. His plight developed at the same time that Russia invaded Ukraine and further increased tensions between Russia and the US, which ended only after he was released in exchange for notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
A WNBA All-Star with the Phoenix Mercury, Griner had flown to Moscow in February 2022 to rejoin UMMC Ekaterinburg, a Russian women’s team she has played for in the off-season since 2014.
“That day (in February) was the beginning of an unfathomable period in my life that I am only now ready to share,” Griner said in a statement released Tuesday by Alfred A. Knopf.
“The main reason I went back to Russia for work that day was because I wanted to make my wife, family and teammates proud. After an incredibly challenging 10 months in detention, I am grateful to have been rescued and to be home. Readers will hear my story and understand why I am so grateful for the outpouring of support from people around the world.»
Griner added that he also hoped his book would raise awareness about other Americans detained abroad, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, arrested in Russia last month and charged with espionage; businessman Kai Li, who is serving a 10-year sentence in China on charges of revealing state secrets to the FBI; and Paul Whelan, a corporate security executive jailed in Russia on espionage charges. When Griner was released, Whelan criticized the US government for not doing enough to help him.
Russia has been a popular gaming destination for the WNBA’s top athletes in the offseason, with some earning salaries of more than $1 million, nearly quadruple what they can earn as a WNBA base salary. Despite pleading guilty to possessing canisters of cannabis oil as a result of what she said was hasty packaging, Griner still faced trial under Russian law.
Griner’s memoir is currently untitled and will eventually be published in a young adult edition. Financial terms were not disclosed.
In Tuesday’s press release, Knopf said the book would be «intimate and moving» and that Griner would reveal «in vivid detail his harrowing experience of his wrongful detention (as classified by the State Department) and the difficulty of navigating the Byzantine Russian legal world». system in a language she didn’t speak.»
“Griner also describes her stark and surreal time living in a foreign prison and the terrifying aspects of daily life in a women’s penal colony,” the ad read. «At the heart of the book, Griner highlights the personal turmoil she experienced during the nearly ten-month ordeal and the resilience that led up to the day she returned to the United States last December.»
Griner, 32, is a 6-foot-9 two-time Olympic gold medalist, three-time All-American at Baylor University, a leading advocate for equal pay for female athletes, and the first openly gay athlete to reach to an endorsement deal with Nike. . She is the author of a previous book, «In My Skin: My Life On and Off the Basketball Court,» published in 2014.
In February, he re-signed with the Mercury and will play in their next season, which runs from May through September.