Coming Home

by Brittney Griner

We earn about 250 times less than NBA players and have a hard cap on our salaries. In the WNBA that year I made around $220,000. Overseas, I earned a million plus. That pay gap is why I was in Russia in the first place.

The system put a mark on us. You’re not the same as everyone else. And nobody ever asked who we were. As Black and brown people, it’s as if we were born guilty. —Yusef Salaam of the Exonerated Five

Sometimes loving a person means telling them everything. Other times it means leaving them with hope.

You can withstand just about any shame so long as your tribe stands with you.

It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones. —Nelson Mandela, anti-apartheid activist and former president of South Africa

My kneeling was a sign of just how much I love our country. My ancestors helped build this nation. My father spent his career defending it. I take pride in being American, especially after being imprisoned in a country where public dissent can get you killed. Here, freedom of speech is our right. Exercising that right makes me more of an American, not less. Sit. Stand. Kneel. Protest. The beauty of our homeland is that we have a choice.

That’s what unnecessary friction does: replaces the pleasure that might have been. Instead of sharing a laugh, you’re rolling your eyes and stoking tension. I recalled when we recently bought furniture for our new place. Totally different experience. I gave no opinion on the throw pillow colors, the style of the couches, the height of the lamps. Relle was in her bliss choosing what she wanted, and I was in my bliss watching her enjoy it. These days I settle disagreements quickly. I served a lot less time than I feared I would. I plan to make my extra time joyful.