Brittney Griner is back on the court and already shattering expectations. Here's how trainers got her game-ready just 5 months after she was released from a Russian prison.

• Brittney Griner made her highly anticipated return to WNBA play after 10 months detained in Russia.
• She needed months of intense training to get back into playing shape, her trainer told Insider.

Brittney Griner returned to the court on Friday after 579 days away from WNBA play, and she still managed to look like the superstar the league had been missing for all of 2022.

There was no guarantee that the perennial All-Star would want to return to the court after spending 10 months in Russian custody — and, for some time, at a penal colony — following her arrest and subsequent conviction on drugs charges. But when a prisoner exchange between the White House and Moscow brought Griner home in December, she immediately expressed her desire to rejoin the WNBA and her longtime franchise, the Phoenix Mercury.

That's when the focus shifted from if the center would return to how she could physically and mentally prepare for such a highly anticipated WNBA comeback. Griner and the Mercury brass knew that all eyes would be on her, so upon her arrival in December, the team turned to its devoted medical staff to get an expert understanding of how to tackle such a "unique" challenge.

After 10 months without training, Griner was 'starting from the ground up'

Reports from immediately following Griner's return from Russia detainment suggested she was in remarkably good health, but good health is a far cry from the fitness levels one needs to compete in the WNBA. Having spent 10 months with her 6-foot-9 frame crammed into a jail cell, the star had little room to exercise.

Her body — which, before she was detained, was in peak shape for the demands of professional basketball — had atrophied considerably. Hannah Wengertsman, head athletic trainer and physical therapist for the Mercury, noted that most people don't "realize how quickly you can lose that muscle mass and strength."

"This was so unique, because I had never really had an athlete come from doing 10-plus months of nothing," Wengertsman told Insider. "That was like really starting from the ground up."

The first step was for Griner to secure her medical clearance, which came during her stay at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio immediately after she landed in the US. There, medical staff ensured that Griner had not contracted any illnesses or suffered any injuries during her time abroad, and that it was safe for her to resume her daily life.

Upon returning to Phoenix, the two-time Olympic gold medalist met with the Mercury's medical staff to be cleared for training.

Wengertsman and her colleagues knew they had just four months to get her ready for training camp, so they "created a master plan of what she needed to do in the weight room, from a therapy perspective, and on the court."

That's when 'the hard work began,' according to Wengertsman

Griner couldn't immediately jump into training — nor was she able to scrimmage alongside teammates early on. Wengertsman and her staff were very careful to encourage a "gradual progression" and "ensure it's not zero to a hundred, because that's when injuries happen."

The first priority, Wengertsman said, was rebuilding her muscle mass while focusing on her lower extremity strength and power. After all, that's what enables the three-time All-WNBA first teamer to run, cut, jump, decelerate, change directions on the court.

Griner's case — while unique in many ways — garnered a similar approach to any athlete returning from a serious injury, said Wengertsman.

Phoenix has state-of-the-art technology that allowed Wengertsman and her staff to isolate Griner's specific muscle groups to measure their strength — and thus identify the type of attention they need in training. And using force plate data from jumps, squats, and other exercises, the trainers could compare Griner's output to those of other individuals on the team and to the results of her own past measurements.

"That makes it really easy to track progress and know when it's safe to progress," Wengertsman said.

Once she had adequately built up her strength, it was time to improve Griner's speed and power. The team relied on biometrics, the statistical analysis of movement data used to assess performance and injury risk, to help Griner work towards gradually increasing the load on the court.

But some days were tougher than others, and the staff learned to recognize when they could motivate Griner to push through with "little pep talks" and when it made sense "to give her some grace and push less."

Early on, Griner was limited to three low-intensity training days per week on the hardwood. With each month that passed, she would tack on an extra day on the court. By the time she reached training camp in April, Griner could manage six consecutive days of exercise without trouble.

One of the biggest, and most consequential tests was when she was going to run full court for the first time, Wengertsman said. And estimated that development came sometime in February or March, only two months before Griner was set to take the court in an official capacity.

"We were all nervous about that," Wengertsman said. "It seems silly for a basketball player — they run up and down the court all day long. But progressing from stationary shooting to half-court work to being able to actually scrimmage, playing up and down running full court... that was a really big milestone."

With all eyes on Griner, Wengertsman warned fans to temper their expectations. Griner shattered them anyway.

Ahead of Griner's return in Los Angeles, Wengertsman warned that it's "important to manage expectations." Griner left the WNBA in 2021 as an MVP candidate who averaged a whopping 20.5 points, 9.5 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks per game, ranking top-10 in the league in all three categories.

It would be unfair, Wengertsman argued, for folks to expect "the same BG you saw when she last played" mere months after experiencing the trauma of Russia detainment.

But if anyone can defy expectations, it's Brittney Griner. And defy expectations she did.

After scoring a team-high 18 points with six rebounds and four blocks in her first game of the season, Griner returned to Phoenix's home floor at the Footprint Center and exploded for 27 points, 10 rebounds, and four blocks. But arguably more important than her statistical output in the two games was her demeanor throughout; Griner looked joyous at times, focused in others, and — as is customary for professional athletes — pissed off after her team lost.

"Not good enough — didn't get the W," Griner said Friday after the Mecury's 71-94 loss to the Sparks.

Still, she added, "it was nice to be back and the love from the fans when I came out was amazing. I definitely felt that. I mean, I felt it when I was over there."

Sure, it's incredibly gratifying for the Mercury's training staff to watch Griner rack up ridiculous stat lines as soon as she returned to the floor. But Wengertsman is just happy to see her back in her element, and "proud of her for the amount of work" she's put in just to reach this point.

"First I care about BG as a person, and so the fact that she's home safe reunited with her friends and family is the number-one priority," Wengertsman said. "And then seeing her back on the basketball court is just that much better."

"I'm so proud and excited to see all of the hard work she's put in over the last few months come to fruition."