Prior to February 2022, you may not have known who Brittney Griner was, unless you followed women’s basketball: The power center who hails from Baylor University. A three-time All-American, number one overall WNBA draft pick, WNBA All-Star, two Olympic golds, four EuroLeague titles. The cornerstone of the Phoenix Mercury.
Brittney arrived in Moscow on February 17, 2022, ready to spend the WNBA off-season playing for the Russian women’s basketball team for which she had been the centerpiece for seven years. But at a security checkpoint, everything went terribly wrong when she was arrested for carrying medically prescribed cannabis oil — that she forgot to remove from her bag.
In her new memoir, Coming Home, Brittney shares the full story of what happened to her during the 293 days she was detained in a Russian prison. More importantly, she shares how her deep love for her wife Cherelle anchored her during their biggest storm and how her family’s support pulled her back from the edge.
My prayers were with Brittney since the beginning, and they still are. I followed and wrote about her story from the time she was arrested, until she returned safely to U.S. soil. We all knew she had much healing to do and that it would take time for her to share with us what happened. But she was home. Finally, home. So, we gave her the time she needed.
The truth is that I’ve been afraid to know what happened to her. The very thought of a Black woman wrongfully detained in a foreign land, who happens to be a famous athlete, used as a political pawn, and knowing that the worst was happening to her was too much to sit with. So, I braced myself within these pages to learn Brittney’s truth.
Brittney grew up in Texas with her religious mother, Sandra, and Vietnam veteran and cop father, Raymond. She speaks of her family with such love and admiration, not to mention being a daddy’s girl through and through. I can relate to that; I never wanted to disappoint my daddy, even though he tells me I never could.
Growing up Black, female, gay and toweringly tall, Brittney was used to being different. But that didn’t make it any easier. She talks about never growing breasts, and the girls in the locker room being cruel — always teasing about her deep voice and height. As she explains in the book, finding basketball at the age of fifteen was her saving grace. It was the only thing that made her feel normal. At sixteen, a YouTube video of her dunking went viral. The rest is history.
Her history also includes marrying her college sweetheart, Cherelle, the “cute and classy girl with a scarf on her neck and curves for days.” Relle, as she affectionately calls her, represents all things freedom and love. The two married in 2019 and promised: “We do, we will.”
The taunting never quite seemed to end once Brittney became an adult. Once, when ordered to leave a women’s restroom by two airport employees who had addressed her as “sir,” she pulled down her sweatpants to prove that she was not a man. “I get mistaken for male so frequently I’ve learned to just keep it moving,” she says. “My heart, however, can’t always.”
Brittney gives us an up close view of the Russian penal system: the filth, the inhumane conditions, the interrogations by prison psychiatrists about her sexuality, and the casual cruelty by the guards in vivid detail. After months in detention, she was sent to Corrective Colony No. 2 in Mordovia, more than 300 miles from Moscow. She was assigned to “a military uniform sweatshop” and forced to work for at least 10 hours a day — with no bathroom breaks and only 20 minutes for lunch.
Once, the power shut off for three days in winter and the temperature dropped; she became ill and her signature dreadlocks froze. She slept on a bed that was too short for her 6-foot-9 frame, with her legs hanging over the edge. Several prisoners befriended her, translating for her what the guards were saying and trying to lift her spirits, but she often felt defeated and wanted to give up.
Brittney spoke about being in a cell that basically had a sh–hole in the ground and her tearing up her T-shirts to wipe herself; being left outside in a blizzard for hours at a time; being chained up like a dog on a leash. She talks about slowly forgetting how to speak English and being thrown into the male prison. She said that she wanted to die, and that was heartbreaking to read. But what hurt her the most is thinking that she shamed her father’s name.
There is something about Brittany Yevette Griner’s story that has hit me very deeply. It’s the Black woman being abroad scenario, but there is more. Brittney experienced horror in a place she thought she knew, in a place she called her second home. They once welcomed her and praised her. She says, “It’s the memory of what I left behind and the gut-wrenching truths I encountered. It’s the diary of my heartaches, my regrets, my questions about what a Black life is worth.” Yes, that part.
Another thing is her fear of being forgotten. She thought that the United States was going to forget about her, and she again was just ready to give up. Immediately, while reading, I was struck by Brittney’s vulnerability. We all knew that she had went through something terrible, yet still, we couldn’t have imagined this.
Physically, BG is good. I saw for myself on a trip to Phoenix to see her play last summer. I prayed hard for her to come home, and to see her on the court was the best thing ever. You would have thought we were related, the way I screamed and cheered.
Brittney also acknowledges everyone, particularly the work of Black women, that rallied to get her home and kept her story alive in the news. She thanks us in the book.
On the last page of the book, there is a list of 10 American detainees in the Bring Our Families Home (BOFH) Campaign who are still awaiting their freedom. Brittney has taken up the torch as an advocate, and I believe her experience will make a difference in this BOFH effort. She says, “It’s the acknowledgment of a hostage’s humanity that restores hope.” No single tactic will get hostages home, but several together might: letters, petitions, repeated phone calls to legislatures. Advocacy makes a difference.
I give Coming Home a 5/5. The book was difficult to read because of learning the details of all that happened to Brittney in that Russian prison. But it is a remarkable story of resilience, together with a love story that endured the most challenging test. Even if you know nothing about women’s basketball or Brittney Griner herself, you will find this story of survival inspiring.
Welcome home, BG.
Coming Home is available now on Amazon and wherever books are sold.
What's Your Reaction?
