- Brittney Griner returned to the US in a December prisoner swap after 10 months detained in Russia.
- She's since returned to basketball, but remains heavily involved in advocating for wrongful detainees.
When Brittney Griner boarded a flight home from Russia on December 8, 2022, speculation immediately began about what would come next for the WNBA superstar who just spent 10 months detained. Would she address the public? Would she return to the basketball court?
But among those who understand her situation better than anyone — the families advocating to bring their own loved ones home from agonizing conditions overseas, many of whom have joined forces through the Bring Our Families Home campaign — there was no theorizing over what Griner would do.
They certainly had no expectation that she'd have the desire or the strength to become a leading voice for their cause.
"Nobody owes anybody when they come home," said Elizabeth Whelan, whose brother, Paul Whelan, has been detained in Russia since 2018. "They owe nobody to be public or to advocate for anyone else. The only thing that they owe is themselves to get back on their feet and back to their lives as quickly as they can to get past their ordeal."
And yet, just a few months after she returned home via a prisoner exchange, Griner has done that and more. The 6-foot-9 center has rejoined her longtime WNBA franchise, the Phoenix Mercury, and looks as good as the last time she'd played two years prior.
Despite having the hulking weight of the public eye on her shoulders since she was freed, Griner has been "exceptionally generous" in shining a spotlight on those who remain wrongfully detained abroad, Whelan said. The two-time Olympic gold medalist has used the considerable platform that comes with basketball superstardom to lobby for action on an issue that Harrison Li — whose father, Kai Li, has been detained in China since 2016 — told Insider has "gone unnoticed and unheard for way too long."
Now the American public is paying attention like never before, offering renewed hope to those with loved ones still imprisoned overseas.
"This is an extra special thing that she is doing and needs to be regarded as such," Whelan said.
Before she returned to US soil, Griner 'single-handedly changed the way advocacy works in this space'
Li said that US government officials have long advised the families of wrongfully detained Americans to "keep quiet" in order to ensure the safety of those in foreign custody. When Griner was first arrested at a Moscow airport in February 2022, those close to her received similar instruction from the government.
But the US State Department's move to classify Griner as "wrongfully detained" signaled that the Biden administration would increase its efforts to negotiate for her release rather than waiting for her case to make its way through the Russian judicial system. Her loved ones, WNBA teammates, and representation were all emboldened to speak more freely about her situation, and campaign openly for the US government to take stronger action.
It worked. Li described her supporters as relentless in their advocacy, which made her detainment "a nationally known issue that got the ear of the president." President Biden took action to bring her home within the year, and that success helped chart a path for other families of wrongfully detained Americans to follow.
"Her case single-handedly changed the way advocacy works in this space," Li said.
What was once a fringe issue, Li added, has become widely understood among many Americans.
Whelan said Griner's situation "brought the issue of wrongful detention into people's living rooms in a way that the other 50, 60 of us never could," and that this newfound universal understanding of the issue helps keep pressure on the government to "bring folks home and deter this in the future."
Biden appears to have felt the pressure and acted accordingly, issuing an executive order to help free American hostages and wrongful detainees in July and reuniting 12 families with their loved ones in the past year.
Other family members of wrongfully detained Americans have taken note of this rapid change in the wake of Griner's detainment and subsequent return to the US. Sarah Blake — whose brother, Luke Denman, has been incarcerated in Venezuela for three years, said she felt as though she and other families had been persistently overlooked "until BG got involved."
Now, with the landscape around wrongful detainment changing before her eyes, Blake said she's developed hope that Luke's situation won't be ignored.
"I'll be honest: one year ago, would we have expected to get this much traction and see a good fraction of these people come home, including Brittney?" Li said. "I don't think we would've dared think that."
Now home, Griner has become 'a champion of the cause'
In an April press conference — her first since returning home from Russia — Griner announced that the Mercury had officially partnered with the Bring Our Families Home campaign to continue bringing awareness to the issue of wrongful detainment and advocate for those still held captive overseas.
"We're not gonna stop fighting," Griner said. "We're not gonna stop bringing awareness to everyone that's left behind right now."
That same day, Griner unveiled a mural of more than a dozen wrongful detainees — including herself — outside of her team's home arena in downtown Phoenix.
When the Mercury play there throughout the season, fans will have a chance to write letters to the 5o-plus Americans who have not yet come home from their wrongful detainments. They'll also see the Bring Our Families Home logo emblazoned onto the court, plus public service announcements related to the cause flashing across the jumbotron.
"It feels so good just to know that they care so much that they're continuing to do this even after she gets home, because they don't have to do this," Blake said. "She could just keep doing her thing, and nobody would think any worse of her. We would all totally understand, but she is choosing to speak out for us, too."
And then there's the sheer fact that she's back on the court. Griner isn't merely logging minutes with the Mercury; against all odds, she's been playing some of the best basketball of her already illustrious WNBA career.
"To see Brittney return to what she does and what she loves just a few months after what she's gone through, it's a powerful message," Li said. "It gives us all a reminder that this situation for our loved ones can be temporary, but of course it's not gonna happen without constant advocacy and constant pushing of our government to use all tools to bring them home."
Griner has committed to advocating and pushing for action on a scale never before seen within the wrongful detainment community. And for that reason, "there's pretty unanimous agreement that she is a champion of the cause," Li said.
"She went through hell and didn't come back until five months ago," he added. "Now she's back in full force. Her returning to basketball is just one sign of that."