Brittney Griner Looks Nearly Unrecognizable In Return To WNBA Court

Getty Image

After a horrific ten-month stint in a Russian prison, Brittney Griner is officially back to playing basketball.

Over the weekend, it was announced that Griner would play in the WNBA next season for the Phoenix Mercury.

RE-SIGNED

2014 #WNBA Champ and 8x All-Star, @brittneygriner has re-signed with the @PhoenixMercury #WNBAFreeAgency pic.
twitter.com/HGEYiabmhW

— WNBA (@WNBA)
Twitter

Via ESPN

Griner, a 32-year-old free agent, signed a one-year, $165,100 contract with the Mercury on Saturday, a source confirmed to ESPN. She’ll return to the team that drafted her first overall in 2013 for a 10th season.

The last time Griner suited up for the Mercury was in 2021, when she led them on an unexpected run to the WNBA Finals, which Phoenix lost to the Chicago Sky. She missed the 2022 WNBA season while in detention in Russia.

Griner is set to make her season debut when Mercury play the Los Angeles Sparks in LA on May 19.

On Tuesday, photos of Griner working out on the court surfaced on the Internet, and she looked nearly unrecognizable without her trademark dreadlocks.

There she is pic.twitter.com/AM2GZcAIOy

— Phoenix Mercury (@PhoenixMercury)
Twitter
d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");