Brittney Griner made her first public assertion since being launched from a Russian jail final week.
Griner, 32, left an Military medical facility in Texas for a visit again dwelling to Arizona on Friday.
In an Instagram post, the Phoenix Mercury middle thanked her helps and comfirmed she plans to play for the WNBA this season.
“It feels so good to be dwelling! The final 10 months have been a battle at each flip. I dug deep to maintain my religion and it was the love from so a lot of you that helped maintain me going. From the underside of my coronary heart, thanks to everybody on your assist,” Griner stated within the publish, dated Friday, Dec. 16.
“I additionally wish to make one factor very clear: I intend to play basketball for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury this season, and in doing so, I stay up for having the ability to say ‘thanks’ to these of you who advocated, wrote, and posted for me in particular person quickly,” she stated.
“I’m grateful to every one who advocated for me, particularly my spouse, Cherelle Griner, my household, Lindsay Kagawa Colas and Casey Wasserman and my entire workforce at Wasserman, Vince Kozar and the Phoenix Mercury, the gamers of the WNBA, and my complete WNBA household, Terri Jackson and the WNBPA workers, my Russian authorized workforce Maria Blagovolina and Alex Boykov, the leaders, activists, and grassroots organizations, Gov. Richardson and Mickey Bergman of the Richardson Heart, the Carry Our Households Residence Marketing campaign, Roger Carstens and the SPEHA workforce, and naturally, a particular thanks to President Biden, Vice President Harris, Secretary Blinken and your complete Biden-Harris Administration.”
Griner didn’t point out her critics, together with former President Donald Trump, who slammed the U.S. authorities for exchanging the two-time Olympic Gold Medalist for Russian arms supplier Viktor Bout, a.okay.a. “the “Service provider of Demise.”
Griner was detained at a Moscow Airport in February after officers found vape pens with hashish oil in her baggage. She was convicted in August and sentenced to serve 9 years in jail.
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