Brittney Griner sat behind a microphone, her gold wedding ring on her left hand, a barely touched bottle of water sitting to her right. She sported a short, cropped haircut, a shirt that read “Bring our Families Home” and a smile.

After spending 294 days in Russian detainment on drug charges, Griner returned to the United States in December through a prisoner swap. On Thursday, the Phoenix Mercury center spoke to the public for the first time, touching on her journey, basketball and her fight to help other wrongful detainees return home during a press conference before WNBA training camp opens next week.

There were tears during the conversation, like when Griner addressed the resilience that kept her going when she was in Russia.

“I’m no stranger to hard times,” she said. “Just digging deep, honestly. You are going to be faced with adversities throughout your life. This was a pretty big one.”

"You find a way to just grind it out."

- Brittney Griner

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— Just Women’s Sports (@justwsports) April 27, 2023

But mostly, the press conference was full of smiles and laughs, with Griner’s self-described “jokester” personality on full display.

She called 40-year-old teammate Diana Taurasi a “walking fossil” and teased her wife Cherelle, saying that the first thing she did when she touched a basketball again was to dunk on Cherelle.

Griner’s ability to share emotions, while staying poised and answering difficult questions, truly showed the resilience she described. Griner endured conditions that others can’t even begin to imagine during her 10 months in Russian prison, yet the 32-year-old has managed to stay true to herself and the qualities that have long endeared the WNBA veteran to the basketball community.

"Who wouldn't want to play with a walking fossil." 💀

- Brittney Griner on playing with Diana Taurasi

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— Just Women’s Sports (@justwsports) April 27, 2023

During those 10 months, Griner said the little things kept her going. When she felt hopeless, she looked at photos of her family. She read letters and she heard about the various displays of support that were happening back home — such as fans at a Mercury game giving Cherelle a standing ovation and WNBA players wearing Griner’s No. 42 jersey in the second half of the All-Star Game.

Those things gave her hope, which stirred up mixed emotions.

“It made me a little bit more comfortable,” she said. “It made me have a little bit of hope, which is a hard thing to have, a really dangerous thing to have. Because when it doesn’t work, it’s so crushing. I would say to everyone who is wrongfully detained right now, across the world, ‘Stay strong. Keep fighting. Don’t give up.’”

That’s what Griner’s “Bring Our Families Home” shirt is about: “Campaigns to bring attention to the individuals being wrongfully detained overseas and calls on the White House to take immediate decisive action to #bringthemhome,” the organization’s website reads.

Griner and the Mercury will be partnering with Bring Our Families Home throughout the season. The WNBA star wants to use her platform and following to bring awareness to other detainees who don’t have the same reach.

The Mercury will have a letter-writing station at their games, where fans can send their support to people in wrongful imprisonment, just like they did for Griner.

“You don‘t understand how good it felt to get a letter from your family, from random people that I’ve never even met,” Griner said. “It just lets you know that you’re not forgotten. And it’s easy to feel forgotten, to feel like no one is thinking of you. And then you get a letter from people that you know and people that you don’t even know. It does something to you. It gives you a spark of life, to keep holding on, keep fighting and not to give in.”

As for basketball, it’s a process. Griner says simple things, “like doing a plank,” are much harder than they were before her imprisonment, when she closed out the 2021 season in the WNBA Finals against the Chicago Sky.

“As an athlete, you always want to be where you left off,” she said. “And I left off the playoffs, Finals, Chicago, and I wanted to be that player when I started back.”

Griner’s family, teammates and coaches have reminded her to give herself grace, and to understand that getting back to the player she was will take time. As frustrating as that is for Griner, it also gives her a sense of excitement and something to work toward.

“It’s liberating as well, just as a release, getting back to my craft and then being here in Phoenix,” she said.

Eden Laase is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @eden_laase.

US tennis star Jessica Pegula defeated Sofia Kenin 6-3, 7-5 at the Charleston Open on Sunday, winning her first clay court title in the tournament’s first all-US final since 1990.

The victory marks Pegula’s second of the season, with the 2025 Miami Open finalist overtaking fellow US star Coco Gauff in the No. 3 spot in the newly updated WTA rankings — matching her career high.

"I was playing a lot of matches over the previous couple years, and I was just burnt out," Pegula told reporters afterwards. "So I'm just really happy that this year I feel so much fresher, so much better, and I think the results are kind of showing this early in the year."

Equal pay heads for Charleston Open

Charleston organizers also announced on Sunday that the Open will provide equal prize money to both the men’s and women’s pools starting with next year's edition, becoming the first standalone WTA 500 event to level the financial playing field — and doubling the winner’s approximately $1,000,000 purse in the process.

The move follows a 2023 WTA announcement outlining a pathway to equal pay, with the goal of achieving purse equity across combined WTA 1000 and 500 events by 2027 and single-week WTA 1000 and 500 events by 2033.

"People often assume there's equal prize money across the board, but it's really only at the Slams, and maybe one or two of the 1000-level tournaments," Pegula explained. "So just starting that trend toward better equity is huge for us. It's amazing."

The USWNT will take the pitch for their second Olympic championship rematch against Brazil on Tuesday night, when the world No. 1 team will look to close out April’s international break with a two-match sweep as the squad continues strengthening its new-look player pool.

Bolstered by a quick goal from returning striker Trinity Rodman and solid net-minding from national team debutant Phallon Tullis-Joyce, the US took the pair's opening friendly 2-0 on Saturday.

"Obviously, it's a quick turnaround against the same team," forward Jaedyn Shaw told reporters on Monday. "The last game was a good building block."

"It's a fun test for us, especially against Brazil," echoed defender Emily Fox. "It’s a great opponent — with how physical they are, how attacking-minded they are — to rebound [against] and get another win, hopefully."

USWNT veterans to lead fresh faces against Brazil

Balancing the desire for positive results with developmental roster rotation, the US will rely on their veterans to guide less experienced players through Tuesday's tough matchup.

"One of the great things about our team is not just the quality that we’ve got in depth, but the quality of our senior leadership," noted head coach Emma Hayes on Monday. "And I think that showed so much the other day in the Brazil game."

With Hayes focusing on testing starting goalkeepers as well as players' overall health amid active club seasons in both Europe and the US, Tuesday's starting XI will likely be a departure from Saturday’s lineup.

Hayes assured media that the team isn’t carrying any injury concerns, and that the coaching staff "will be experimenting again with players, and looking forward to those changes."

How to watch the USWNT vs. Brazil friendly on Tuesday

The USWNT's second April friendly against Brazil will kick off in San Jose at 10:30 PM ET on Tuesday. Live coverage will air on TBS.

The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced this year’s inductees on Saturday, with WNBA legends Sue Bird, Sylvia Fowles, and Maya Moore headlining a star-studded Class of 2025.

The Hall of Fame mandates a two-year post-retirement waiting period for eligibility, with both Bird and Fowles qualifying for the shortlist following their 2022 retirements from the WNBA.

Moore officially retired from the WNBA in early 2023, despite stepping away from professional basketball in 2018.

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2025 Hall of Fame class highlights WNBA accolades

This year's class is the first to ever feature three WNBA players, proving the iconic trio's monumental contributions to the sport.

All three players won multiple Olympic gold medals with Team USA in addition to competing in at least three NCAA Final Fours, with UConn alums Bird and Moore counting two national championships among their accolades.

Moore is a four-time WNBA champion with the Minnesota Lynx, earning her last two titles with Fowles as her teammate, while Bird won four WNBA titles with the Seattle Storm.

Both Moore and Fowles have picked up WNBA MVP awards, while Bird retired as the league’s career assists leader.

How to attend the Hall of Fame's 2025 Enshrinement Weekend

The Naismith Hall of Fame’s 2025 Enshrinement Weekend tips off on September 5th, with both weekend packages and single event tickets currently available for purchase online.

Two-time WNBA MVP and seven-time All-Star Elena Delle Donne is officially retiring from pro basketball, with the 2016 Olympic gold medalist calling the decision "one of the hardest parts of my career" in a Friday announcement.

After the Chicago Sky chose Delle Donne as the overall No. 2 pick in the 2013 WNBA Draft, she quickly established herself as a force on the court, winning her first MVP title with the Sky in 2015 before a trade sent her to the Washington Mystics in 2017.

Delle Donne thrived with Washington, earning her second MVP honor while leading the Mystics to their first-ever WNBA championship in 2019 — and recording the only 50-40-90 season (shooting over 50% from the field, over 40% from beyond the arc, and over 90% from the foul line) in league history along the way.

"She put us over the top," former Mystics head coach Mike Thibault told reporters on Friday. "We were trying to build to where we could have a team that somebody like her would want to play with and we could win the championship that she was seeking and that we were seeking."

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Injuries and illness fueled Delle Donne's decision

At the same time, however, Delle Donne struggled with injuries, later undergoing back surgery after competing in that 2019 title run with three herniated disks. Those injuries, plus a chronic Lyme disease diagnosis, eventually led Delle Donne to sit out the 2024 season — despite earning a core tag from the Mystics.

Taking last season off gave Delle Donne the space to come to terms with retirement, with the 35-year-old stating "my body seemed to make this decision before my mind accepted it."

Despite exiting the competitive court, however, Delle Donne will remain close to the game, with the Mystics announcing that the star will serve as a special advisor to the WNBA team's ownership group, Monumental Sports.

"This game has been my life, and I am grateful for the memories and how much it’s given me," Delle Donne said on social media. "It feels good to close this chapter knowing I gave it my all and I can’t wait for what’s next!"