Coming Home

by Brittney Griner

The club handled all my business and kept a bubble around the players, which kept a lot of the real Russia out of view.

This is Russia. Alex said that a lot in those first weeks, I think to lower my expectations. He knew his country inside out, understood that things rarely went the way you thought they would.

You are, of course, optimistic when you think that your attorneys will be allowed to do their jobs. In a country with a 99.9 percent conviction rate, a defense attorney is more like a friend, advisor, and legal guide, which was what Alex had become for me. He and Maria’s hands were completely tied in a rigged system where the house always won.

For a defense attorney in Russia, winning means something different than it does in America. In part, this hearing was about following the rules and pretending to be in a just court, my lawyers said.

They weren’t supposed to interrogate me alone, just like they weren’t supposed to ask me if I was guilty. But this was Russia, so all bets were off.

The problem with Russia is not corruption per se, or even Putin per se. Russian government is not corrupt because Vladimir Putin has absolute power. Russian government has been corrupt, and will always be as long as anyone has absolute power. —Robert Zubrin, American aerospace engineer

My choice to plead guilty was about answering the most important question: What would get me home the quickest? If I pleaded not guilty, I’d basically be calling the Russians liars. So rather than spitting in Putin’s face, it seemed smarter to allow him to save face.

I’d heard that some prisoners paid around $30,000 USD to cut their sentences short by years. It was supposedly under the table, but the wardens knew. Men were more likely to get that deal than women. The men did a lot too, machinery work mostly, but Russia relied on female prisoners to sew all its military uniforms and keep the facilities running.

The labor camps were basically military uniform sweatshops.

But there’s no guarantee me or my teammates will fly private in the 2024 season and beyond. We’ve been told the choice is about money. It seems like it’s about devaluing women, and especially women of color. Approximately 70 percent of WNBA players are Black.

I didn’t ask for this platform. I had no say in what I look like. But I stand tall in this body and on this stage. I still ache when I hear, “Is she a man or a woman? Doesn’t she have a dick?” What I have is a hope that we can be gentler with one another, that we can imagine how it feels not to fit.

I served a lot less time than I feared I would. I plan to make my extra time joyful.