WNBA star Brittney Griner all
smiles in this new behind
the scenes video
released by the Phenix Mercury.
The WNBA WNBA team announced this week
that Griner has been resigned.
Griner is seen
was seen back on court yesterday
after the nearly ten months
that she was wrongfully detained
in a Russian prison.
OUTFRONT now is Vince Kosar.
He's the president of the Phenix Mercury,
who's also a close friend
of Brittney Griner.
It's good to see you, Vince.
Thanks for being here.
We see your smiling in these videos,
smiling with their teammates
in these videos that have been released.
She's been back now
for a little more than two months.
How is she doing?
You know,
I wouldn't presume to speak for her.
It's actually been
really wonderful to spend time with her.
But she's doing really well
from all of our interactions
from getting to be with her teammates
and see some of our coaches
and our staff.
She is getting to do things
that we're taking away from her.
She's getting back to her life.
And it's great to see
so many things taken away from her
that are now
she's getting it to do once again.
You know,
when she went into prison,
she was one of the greatest female
basketball players in the world.
What level of play
should people be expecting from her
when she's back on the court
after this horrendous ordeal?
You know, she went to your point.
The last time we saw her play.
She was an MVP caliber player.
She had led us to the finals.
And she's
one of the best players in the world.
That's that's part of the reason
she was playing over in Russia.
So her goal is
not just to get back on the court.
Her goal is to be that player,
to get back to that level.
So we know it's we know it'll take time.
But we also know that
the workouts that you mentioned,
the folks
got to see a little bit of this week.
The purpose of those for her
is to get back to that level.
So we're here
supporting her
and doing
doing whatever we can to help her
get back there.
I was really interested
and it was really cool
to see that in announcing
Griner's return, the Mercury
the Mercury marked the moment
by calling attention
to another American held still in Russia.
We're showing folks right now
the pictures of staff
writing letters to Paul Whalen,
an American
who's been wrongfully detained in Russia
for more than five years now.
And the league has also
just been a leader on many other issues,
like criminal justice reform, for one.
Why is the WNBA so often at the forefront
You know, it's something
that the league and teams
and players are really proud of.
And I think the biggest reason for it
is just
we're talking about
a really intersectional group of players.
We're talking about women,
the majority of whom are black.
We're talking about a league
without and proud lesbian athletes
and so to speak, up
in support of these causes,
to bring attention
to progressive movements isn't just
something that they do on a whim.
It's something that they do for survival.
It's important to them.
It's important to us.
And it's important
that we're using those platforms
to speak up
and give voice to the people
who don't have the same ones.
So I think you make a point that what
this league
and these players have done historically,
but I think the experience
that we all went through last year
in Missing Our Friend
and really not being here
has given us the awareness of
there are a lot of families
who are dealing with
similar things away from loved ones
who are detained overseas.
And to your point,
this week, we sort of mark her resigning
by writing a letter to Paul Whalen
because as you know,
when Carol Browner
was at the White House,
when Bridges
return was announced,
she mentioned Paula
and the work that they're going to do.
She has done the same thing
in letters since her return.
So this is her legacy work.
And we're going to be right there
with her doing it this season and beyond.
You know, one issue
that Griner's detention
also has shined a light on and drawn
attention to once again
is pay among players.
I mean, she was traveling to Russia
in order to supplement her league salary,
as other players do.
In light of what happened to her events,
I mean, do you still want players
in your program,
in your organization,
playing overseas in the off season?
I mean, are you
are you doing anything or
what are you doing to make it
so they don't have to?
Yeah, I think I think
you've hit the nail on the head
with that last part.
I wouldn't presume to tell the players
what they can or can't do.
They have
their own agency
to make those decisions themselves.
Our our responsibility is to help
give them as much information
as possible to make decisions
on where they're going and when.
But to your latter point,
our goal overall
is that no athlete
should have to go do that.
And to do that,
we need to grow our league.
It is a tremendous inflection
point right now.
The business has never been better
than it is currently.
And the momentum that you've seen
has has been really incredible.
Through a lot of metrics,
but including TV viewership
and things like that.
The point is
the goal is for no players
to have to go overseas.
But in the interim,
certainly I wouldn't presume
to tell them whether or not they should.