WNBA stars close to Brittney Griner say they're 'always feeling her absence' since her detainment in Russia

• Brittney Griner has been detained in Russia since February after getting arrested on drug charges.
• As the 2022 season nears, her USA Basketball teammates and WNBA counterparts are missing the center.

With the 2022 WNBA season on the horizon, players are keeping Brittney Griner top of mind.

The seven-time WNBA All-Star has been in Russian custody since February, when she was arrested on suspicion of traveling into the country with drugs in her possession. And at USA Basketball camp in early April, Griner's teammates and fellow WNBA superstars said they're "always feeling her absence."

"You have these moments where you just — you're going about your day and then you're just like, 'Wow, I can't believe the things that her family is going through, what she's going through,'" Breanna Stewart told Insider. "We're just supporting her as best we can.

"For the players here, we're just continuing to represent her," she added. "Even if we're not speaking about her, we're representing her and supporting her."

Griner has been a stalwart in the paint for Team USA ever since she was first called up to the national team in 2011. Though she skipped out on the 2012 Olympics to finish up her studies at Baylor and to stay close to her ailing mother back home, Griner has appeared at each major international competition since — and walked away with two Olympic gold medals and two FIBA World Cup golds.

A'ja Wilson — the 2020 WNBA MVP who averaged 16.5 points at the Tokyo Olympics, matching Griner for the team lead — told Insider, "I think about BG every day."

"I can't imagine," Wilson said. "I don't even think about BG as a player. I think about her as the daughter, the sister, the wife of someone. It's hard. I just pray that they're doing everything that they can wholeheartedly, to make sure that she gets home safely, because I could never put myself in that situation and to know what she's going through is tough.

"I pray for her every day, and I know that BG's gonna get through it," she added. "She's built different, and she's gonna handle it the way she is, so I hope she can get home very quickly."

The 2022 WNBA season tips off the first week of May, while Griner's next appearance in Russian court is scheduled for May 19. She faces up to 10 years in prison, and there is no timetable for her return.