Brittney Griner is expected to make her return from a three-game absence on Saturday night when the Phoenix Mercury take on the Seattle Storm, the team announced on Friday. Griner sat out of the Mercury’s last three games in order to focus on her mental health.
Griner is back in the WNBA this summer after missing all of the 2022 season while she was detained in Russia on drug charges. She was sentenced to nine years in prison, and ended up spending nearly 10 months in custody before she was released via a prisoner swap in December of 2022.
Given the circumstances, it was unclear when or if Griner would return to basketball. She quickly decided that she wanted to play, however, and signed a one-year deal with the Mercury in free agency to remain with the team that selected her as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2013 WNBA Draft. And just five months after arriving back on American soil, she was in the lineup on opening night when the Mercury took on the Los…
