It’s been 97 days since Brittney Griner was detained by Russian police. On Feb. 17, the WNBA champion was stopped in a Moscow airport as police claimed they found vape cartridges containing hash oil in her luggage. Fear of reprisals and consequences against Brittney led friends and family to stay quiet at first, but now that the U.S. government has officially classified her as wrongfully detained, they can speak out. Her wife, Cherelle Griner, spoke to ABC News’ Robin Roberts on Good Morning America about the ordeal and how Brittney is doing.
As Cherelle explained, she hasn’t spoken to Brittney since her wife was originally held at the airport and texted her saying she was being detained in a room. Cherelle, who recently got her law degree, immediately wanted details. “I instantly text back, ‘Who are they and what room?,’” she told Roberts. “And she’s like, ‘The customs people. They just grabbed me when I was going through, and they have me in this room.’”
Since then, Cherelle has only received sporadic letters from Brittney, though the basketball star did manage to send roses to her wife through her lawyers and agent because she knew the Good Morning America interview would be “a lot” for her.
While the government’s reclassification of the two-time Olympic gold medalist opens up doors in terms of negotiating for her release, the current political climate between Russia and the United States makes everything difficult. To that end, Cherelle would like to speak with President Biden about her wife’s imprisonment.
“I just keep hearing that, you know, he has the power. She’s a political pawn,” she said. “So if they’re holding her because they want you to do something, then I want you to do it.”
Despite warnings for citizens to leave Russia ahead of its invasion of Ukraine, the seven-time WNBA All-Star was rejoining her Russian basketball team, UMMC Ekaterinburg. WNBA players actually don’t make that much money, so a lot of them play overseas in the offseason. Russia has always been a popular destination because their teams tend to pay more for big stars like Brittney. During her interview, Cherelle explained that while “they treat them like superstars,” her wife would prefer to stay home.
“BG would wholeheartedly love to not go overseas,” Griner said. “She has only had one Thanksgiving in the States in nine years since she’s been pro. She misses all that stuff. Just because, you know, she can’t make enough money in the WNBA to sustain her life.”
Speaking of the WNBA, many of the Phoenix Mercury center’s teammates and opponents have taken over her charitable organizations and duties to make sure she knows they still have her back. The league itself is displaying its support with the sidelines of every court featuring “BG 42.” Cherelle explained how these gestures keep Brittney positive.
“I think more specifically, it comforts BG,” she said. “It lets her know she’s not forgotten and obviously, when you’re sitting over there, your country—they haven’t come to your rescue yet. I know that it makes her feel good because she doesn’t want to be forgotten.”
Brittney has let her wife know how important it is that Cherelle doesn’t give up, because that’s how the couple will get through this.
“I’m okay, because you have to be technically, you know? She wrote me one letter and was like, ‘Babe, I know you wanna go down right now but like, don’t just yet,’” Cherelle said. “Because every day you wake up, and the fact that you’re still in that reality, it is a reason for you to lose faith and to not have hope. It gives you so much reason to go down. And I won’t go down until she’s back. I just won’t. Every single day matters for me to be sound, for me to be alert, for me to be attentive, to make sure that she comes back. But it’s hard. It’s hard.”
The full interview airs tonight on Nightline at 12:35 a.m. ET/PT on ABC.