Phoenix Mercury heart Brittney Griner performs in a September 2021 recreation. In her first public feedback since being free of Russia, she says she is going to play within the subsequent WNBA season.

Michael Conroy/AP

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Michael Conroy/AP

Phoenix Mercury heart Brittney Griner performs in a September 2021 recreation. In her first public feedback since being free of Russia, she says she is going to play within the subsequent WNBA season.

Michael Conroy/AP

In her first public assertion since being free of Russia, Brittney Griner says she’ll play within the upcoming WNBA season.

The two-time Olympic gold medalist shared the information — and expressed thanks for the individuals who helped carry her dwelling — in an Instagram post on Friday, per week after she returned to the U.S. in a prisoner swap.

“I also want to make one thing very clear,” she wrote. “I intend to play basketball for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury this season, and in doing so, I look forward to being able to say ‘thank you’ to those of you who advocated, wrote, and posted for me in person soon.”

The 2023 WNBA season begins on May 19. Griner was the Mercury’s main scorer and rebounder within the 2021 WNBA season, through which Phoenix misplaced within the finals.

Griner went to Russia to play for a group there through the U.S. offseason, which many WNBA gamers do due to basketball’s gender pay gap. She was detained in February and sentenced to nine years in prison on drug smuggling prices

Griner landed in San Antonio final Friday after her launch in a prisoner alternate. The White House stated on the time that she was in good well being and good spirits.

“It feels so good to be home!” Griner wrote on Instagram. “The last 10 months have been a battle at every turn. I dug deep to keep my faith and it was the love from so many of you that helped keep me going. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone for your help.”

She thanked her household, the WNBA, her authorized group, the San Antonio Fort Sam Houston Base medical group, the Biden-Harris administration, and a number of other people and organizations who lobbied for her launch.

Griner’s agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, instructed NPR’s All Things Considered on Wednesday that the athlete is doing properly and “benefitting from all of the resources that the U.S. government provides to someone like her, who has been through so much and is now into this next phase of reintegration.”

Griner already had hit the basketball courtroom, she stated, emphasizing that “the most important thing is that the things that she’s doing now, it’s all her choice.”

Colas added that Griner desires to make use of her newfound platform to assist folks, significantly others who’ve been wrongfully detained overseas. That contains Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine first imprisoned in 2018 who continues to be held in Russia regardless of the discharge of two different Americans there this yr. Griner “asks about him constantly,” her agent stated.

Griner herself talked about Whelan’s plight in a portion of her Instagram publish that she addressed to President Joe Biden.

“President Biden, you brought me home and I know you are committed to bringing Paul Whelan and all Americans home too,” she wrote. “I will use my platform to do whatever I can to help you. I also encourage everyone that played a part in bringing me home to continue their efforts to bring all Americans home. Every family deserves to be whole.”