{"id":442324,"date":"2026-01-30T05:17:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T05:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/442324\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T05:17:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T05:17:10","slug":"brittney-griners-russia-detainment-strengthened-her-faith-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/442324\/","title":{"rendered":"Brittney Griner\u2019s Russia detainment strengthened her faith \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

WNBA star Brittney Griner spent 293 days detained in Russia, experiencing the unimaginable. But three years later in Utah, Griner found the good that came out of that experience.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the premiere of \u201cThe Brittney Griner Story\u201d at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival on Tuesday, Griner reflected on her detainment, life after her release and how those nearly 10 months in Russia strengthened her faith. <\/p>\n

\u201cI learned that I can go through a lot, come out the other side,\u201d Griner said. \u201cI learned how resilient I was. I always thought I was pretty resilient, but you know, that definitely tested that and tested my faith and stayed strong with that as well. So, I guess I learned a lot about me and what I can go through.\u201d <\/p>\n

For Griner, her faith is \u201ceverything,\u201d she told the Deseret News.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t be standing right here without my Lord and Savior, and I wouldn\u2019t have gotten through half of what I\u2019ve been through without him. I can always rely on him. (He\u2019s) always there for me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Basketball player Brittney Griner listens to her verdict while standing in a cage in a courtroom in Khimki, outside Moscow, Russia, Aug. 4, 2022. | Evgenia Novozhenina, Associated Press Is Brittney Griner religious?<\/p>\n

While not the focus of the film, Griner\u2019s faith is subtly referenced throughout the documentary that was produced by ESPN 30 For 30.<\/p>\n

As she flips through pictures and newspaper clippings of her career with her family in Texas, Griner sports a \u201cFear of God State\u201d hoodie and reflects on her upbringing.<\/p>\n

Once detained in Russia, Griner wasn\u2019t given a toothbrush or other hygiene essentials, but she was given a Sudoku book to pass the time.<\/p>\n

Every day, Griner would complete a puzzle and write the date in the margins of the book to keep track of how long she was detained. She\u2019d also use it as a journal, logging her feelings and experiences and even her prayers.<\/p>\n

A montage of flipping through the Sudoku book emphasized the length of Griner\u2019s detainment but also featured her pleas to God to bring her home.<\/p>\n

Her faith was also evident in the letters she\u2019d write to her family. Even though she was the one detained in a foreign country, excerpts of her letters showed her telling her family that she was praying for them.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Brittney Griner Story\u2019<\/p>\n

The 105-minute documentary chronicles Griner\u2019s detainment, the efforts spearheaded by her wife, Cherelle Griner, to bring her home, the politicization of Griner\u2019s detainment and her release.<\/p>\n

\"\"WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner, second from right, is escorted to a courtroom for a hearing in Khimki outside Moscow, Russia, July 7, 2022. | Alexander Zemlianichenko, Associated Press <\/p>\n

The film features interviews with Griner, her wife, her agent Lindsay Colas, Griner\u2019s lawyers in Russia and even President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n

But \u201cThe Brittney Griner Story\u201d is also a story of love and family.<\/p>\n

Following the opening credits, the documentary opens with a shot of Griner\u2019s son, Bash, who was born in July 2024, sitting and crawling on the couch next to Griner with a teething toy in his mouth.<\/p>\n

Being a parent is one of the biggest joys in Griner\u2019s life, she told the Deseret News.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing, tiring a little bit. A little tiring, but it\u2019s amazing. It\u2019s so rewarding. I can come home, bad day, see my son and it\u2019s just like, all that\u2019s gone. Like, it doesn\u2019t matter. He just wants to play, wrestle and it just warms my heart,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Cherelle Griner wrote letters to the White House and gave interviews with national media, including one with CBS News, which Gayle King promised her afterward that she\u2019d finally hear from the White House.<\/p>\n

Following the CBS interview, Cherelle Griner and Colas visited Biden at the White House, where they spent two hours pleading their case to the president, Colas said in the film.<\/p>\n

The mission of getting Griner home was a collective effort, which Griner recognizes. The documentary included footage of the exchange of Griner and Viktor Bout in December 2022. <\/p>\n

After Bout and Griner shook hands on the tarmac in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Bout headed toward his awaiting plane. <\/p>\n

But instead of Griner doing the same, she walked over to the group of U.S. and UAE officials waiting off to the side who helped make the exchange possible. Griner then personally thanked each of them.<\/p>\n

When asked why she chose to do that in the Q&A following the premiere, Griner\u2019s answer was simple. It was \u201ca testament to my parents and how I was raised,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing is done without the collective of people, and I want to thank everybody that dealt with my exchange. They provided a safe place for us to do that. It\u2019s only right that I just went and introduced myself and thank them.\u201d<\/p>\n

If audiences take away just one thing away from Griner\u2019s story, she hopes it\u2019s the power of working together, she told the Deseret News.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you come together, you can make anything happen. There was a lot of people that came together to get me back home. People that I knew, people that I didn\u2019t know. A lot of hours and just a lot of time, a lot of effort. So when we come together, we can literally make anything happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The Detroit Pistons organization paid tribute to the recent release of wrongfully detained WNBA player Brittney Griner from Russia before an NBA basketball game against the Los Angeles Lakers, Sunday, Dec. 11, 2022, in Detroit. | Jose Juarez, Associated Press <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WNBA star Brittney Griner spent 293 days detained in Russia, experiencing the unimaginable. But three years later in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,75,45084,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-442324","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-faith","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}