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Josh Weinfuss
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M.A. Voepel
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M.A. Voepel
ESPN.com
- M.A. Voepel covers the WNBA, women’s college basketball, and other college sports for espnW. Voepel began covering women’s basketball in 1984, and has been with ESPN since 1996.
It’s finally here. Brittney Griner makes her official return to the basketball court, to the Phoenix Mercury and to the WNBA on Friday as the 2023 season opens.
It’s a night anyone who cared about Griner before, during or after her detainment in Russia has been anticipating. The Los Angeles Sparks host the Mercury at 11 p.m. ET on ESPN.
It’s been 474 days since her last competitive game, which took place in Russia in late January 2022, and 578 days since she last played a WNBA game, which was Game 4 of the 2021 Finals.
After being detained in a Russian airport in February 2022, Griner spent 10 months in a Russian prison. Days after her release — she was freed in a U.S.-Russia prisoner exchange in December — Griner declared her intention to play this season for the Mercury.
For the past five months, she’s practiced and prepared, tried to shake off the rust to find the Brittney Griner of old. Will…
