American basketball star Brittney Griner, who was imprisoned in Russia for a long time, will return to the WNBA league and the Phoenix Mercury, several North American media reported.
Brittney Griner signed a one-year, $165,000 player contract with the Phoenix Mercury of the North American professional league WNBA, tells, for example, the ESPN channel (you switch to another service). Griner’s contract will not be officially announced until Tuesday.
After ten months in prison, Griner returned to the United States on December 8 after being released from a Russian prison in exchange for an arms dealer To Viktor Buti.
Arrested at the Moscow airport in February last year, Griner was sentenced to nine years in prison for drug smuggling and possession. E-cigarette cartridges containing cannabis oil had been found in his bag.
The 32-year-old and 206-centimeter center has also played for the Russian UMKC Yekaterinburg team for seven years, where his annual earnings has been reported to have been over a million dollars (you are moving to another service). In his previous season with the Mercury, Griner made $227,000.
Griner, who has won, among other things, two Olympic gold medals and a WNBA championship with the Phoenix Mercury team, last played in Phoenix in the WNBA league on October 17, 2021.