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Throughout the 2023 WNBA season, Griner, who
was freed from a Russian penal colony in a high-profile prisoner
exchange last year, worked with Bring Our Families Home, a
campaign that helps spread awareness about wrongfully detained
Americans.
"I know the opportunity, privilege and responsibility I have to
make a difference in the lives of others, and I'll always remain
committed to that," Griner said in a WNBA news release.
Bring Our Families Home launched in April with a 30-foot-wide
mural at the Mercury's arena that featured the face of Griner
and more than a dozen detained individuals along with a QR code
that directed fans to the campaign's website.
During the season, Griner and the Mercury also hosted families
and friends of wrongful detainees at their games.
Griner, 33, was also honored for the BG Heart & Sole Shoe Drive
she founded in 2016 which, in partnership with the Phoenix
Rescue Mission, distributed nearly 3,000 pairs of shoes this
season to those in need in the Phoenix metro area.
Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and nine-time Women's
National Basketball Association All-Star, was arrested in
February 2022 at an airport outside Moscow for carrying vape
cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage.
She was subsequently convicted of drug smuggling and later
transferred to one of Russia's most notorious penal colonies,
where former inmates have described torture, harsh beatings and
slave labor conditions.
Griner was released last December in a prisoner swap with Russia
in exchange for arms dealer Viktor Bout, a deal that was
arranged after months of talks during a time of high tension
between the two countries after Russia's February invasion of
Ukraine, which Moscow calls a 'special military operation'.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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