Phoenix Mercury

Retired tennis star Serena Williams and Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner were honored by the NAACP Image Awards on Saturday.

Williams received the Jackie Robinson Sports Award, which honors athletes who excel in their field of play while also making efforts in areas like social justice and civil rights.

"I'm incredibly humbled to be amongst some of the greatest names in today's culture, celebrating those who promote equity through creative endeavors," Williams said at the ceremony. "Together, we are a team of trailblazers, and we represent what is possible, when you truly believe in yourself, and your potential, and follow your life and passion."

Williams, 41, retired from tennis last year. She is the 10th person to win the award, which has only been given out sporadically since its introduction in 1988.

LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Williams are the only three athletes to receive the honor in the 21st century.

Griner was not formally given an award, but she was recognized and brought onstage by host Queen Latifah. The Mercury star then addressed the crowd, saying she wants to "fight to bring home every American detained overseas."

Griner spent nearly 10 months in a Russian prison after being arrested for possession of hash oil. President Joe Biden negotiated her release with Russia as part of a prisoner exchange that took place in December.

Griner, who missed the 2022 WNBA season while detained, recently re-signed with the Mercury for a one-year contract.

Brittney Griner is reportedly returning to the only WNBA team she has ever known.

According to Josh Weinfuss and M.A. Vopel of ESPN, the center agreed to a one-year contract with the Mercury on Saturday and will return for what will be her 10th season with the franchise. She missed the 2022 campaign because she was detained in Russia for 10 months.

That wasn't the only move for the Mercury on Saturday, as Weinfuss noted the team also brought back Diana Taurasi. The WNBA's all-time leading scorer signed a multiyear contract with the team.

As for Griner, it doesn't come as much of a surprise that she will be suiting up for the Mercury, considering she announced on Instagram in December that was her plan upon returning to the United States:

Her return to the court will be one of the most notable WNBA storylines of the season.

On Dec. 8, Jennifer Hansler, Kylie Atwood, Jeremy Herb, MJ Lee and Kevin Liptak of CNN reported President Joe Biden announced Griner was released from Russian detention as part of a prisoner swap that also involved Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

Griner was detained in February in Russia, where she played during the WNBA's offseason. While she said she inadvertently packed cannabis oil, she was charged with drug smuggling and was sentenced to nine years in prison.

Russian authorities then moved her to a penal colony in November after she lost an appeal.

United States officials maintained that she was wrongfully detained throughout the 10 months.

Her eventual return to the United States cleared the way for her to come back to the WNBA and the franchise that selected her out of Baylor with the No. 1 overall pick of the 2013 WNBA draft. She is a Phoenix legend as a seven-time All-Star who helped lead the team to the 2014 championship.

Griner also helped the Mercury reach the 2021 WNBA Finals in her most recent season by averaging 20.5 points, 9.5 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.9 blocks per game.

In a historic WNBA offseason filled with surprising trades and free-agency moves, one of the game's icons will stay put as Diana Taurasi agreed to a multiyear contract with the Phoenix Mercury.

The 40-year-old has been with the Mercury for nearly two decades after being drafted first overall by the franchise in 2004 out of UConn.

Mercury general manager Jim Pitman said in a statement:

"Diana Taurasi belongs in a Mercury uniform, and we are grateful for the continued faith she demonstrates in our organization by returning year after year. The way she prepares her body, how much she cares about winning, and how much she cares about our franchise—on and off the court—are just a few of the things that make her a transcendent athlete and quite literally the greatest of all time. We look forward to more accolades, more historic moments, and more wins."

The details of her contract are yet to be disclosed, but Taurasi's most recent deal was worth a little under $450,000 over two years.

Over her career, Taurasi has become perhaps the greatest player in the history of the WNBA with a seemingly endless list of accomplishments.

She has brought three titles to Phoenix, has won league MVP, is a 10-time All-Star and was a member of the league's 15th, 20th and 25th anniversary teams.

Taurasi was even voted the WNBA's greatest player of all time by the fans in 2021. She is the league's all-time leader in scoring (9,693) and three-point field goals (1,297).

Last season she averaged 16.7 points, 3.8 assists and 3.4 rebounds in 31 games.

Veteran point guard Moriah Jefferson has agreed to a deal with the Phoenix Mercury, according to Bleacher Report's Chris Haynes.

Jefferson is coming off a bounce-back 2022 WNBA season. In 31 appearances with the Dallas Wings and Minnesota Lynx, she averaged 10.4 points and 4.7 assists and shot a career-high 47.4 percent from beyond the arc.

The Mercury are perhaps the biggest wild card in the league, and signing Jefferson only adds to the variability.

Skylar Diggins-Smith led the team in scoring (19.7 points) last year, but her status for the upcoming season is unclear after she announced in October she is pregnant. Diana Taurasi turns 41 in June. Brittney Griner is making her comeback after being wrongfully detained in Russia and missing the 2022 campaign.

The Mercury are signing a guard who has battled injuries throughout her career. After starting every game for the San Antonio Stars as a rookie in 2016, Jefferson played in 46 total games from 2017 to 2020 because of knee injuries.

"It's never easy to have injuries back-to-back," she told CT Insider's Maggie Vanoni last May. "It's an extremely hard thing to do and a lot of people don't see the nine to 12 months where you're in a gym by yourself doing rehab every day, making small goals just to be able to walk the right away and in those times you have to be able to lean on something and that's what I did."

Perhaps Jefferson has left her bad luck behind. She missed just three games in 2021 and started 30 contests after signing with the Lynx a season ago.

As long as they have Taurasi and Griner, the Mercury have to push all their chips in. With the uncertainty around Diggins-Smith, they needed another playmaker.

Jefferson was the best option on the board after Courtney Vandersloot signed with the New York Liberty and Marina Mabrey landed with the Chicago Sky in a sign-and-trade.

WNBA star Brittney Griner is continuing her preparations ahead of the 2023 season.

ESPN's Holly Rowe reported Wednesday the seven-time All-Star has been working out at the Phoenix Mercury's training facility and "looks fantastic." Rowe added Griner is slowly ramping up and remains committed to a full comeback on the court.

Griner was detained in Russia for 294 days following her arrest at a Moscow airport in February 2022.

On Dec. 8, President Joe Biden announced the United States had agreed to a prisoner swap that would allow the 32-year-old to return home. She was back on American soil one day later.

Given her ordeal, when or even if Griner would play in the WNBA again was far from the foremost concern for fans once her release was secured. She left little doubt, though, in an Instagram post on Dec. 16.

"I also want to make one thing very clear: 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," she said.

Griner is a future Hall of Famer and has consistently been one of the WNBA's most dominant players. Over nine seasons, she's averaging 17.7 points, 7.6 rebounds and 2.8 blocks.

Officially, the 6'9" center is a free agent, but it would be difficult to picture her playing anywhere but Phoenix in 2023. Her working out in the city only reinforces that.

Cherelle Griner, the wife of Phoenix Mercury star Brittney Griner, opened up about the "hopeless" feeling she experienced while Griner was detained in Russia for 294 days.

The seven-time All-Star was arrested in February and sentenced to nine years in prison in August.

"I was hopeless a lot of days," Cherelle told People's Alicia Dennis. "You try and stay grounded, but I'm human. Still, I would never completely give up hope on my wife's life."

On Dec. 8, President Joe Biden announced he secured Griner's release. The White House welcomed Cherelle to the Oval Office to celebrate the occasion.

Cherelle and Brittney reunited shortly thereafter in San Antonio.

"We were both just instantly crying," she said to Dennis. "I was standing there full of tears and someone ran over and handed me a handkerchief. I definitely needed it."

Cherelle emphasized she saw firsthand how public advocacy can raise awareness to the plight of Americans detained abroad.

"Saying the names of Americans wrongfully detained plays a big piece in getting them home," she said. "We have to say their names, we have to write them, we have to keep pressure on our government to do hard things in negotiations."

That echoed what Griner wrote in a message to her supporters following her release. In particular, she called upon fans to campaign for the release of Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine who was sentenced to 16 years in prison in Russia for espionage in 2018.

"Those families stood alongside you and all who supported the WeAreBG campaign to bring me home and it's our turn to support them," Griner wrote. "I hope you'll join me in writing to Paul Whelan and continuing to advocate for other Americans to be rescued and returned to their families."

Phoenix Mercury star Brittney Griner thanked fans for the support she received while being wrongfully detained in Russia and called for them to display similar passion toward the plight of Paul Whelan on Wednesday.

"You took time to show me you cared and I want to personally take the time to write to you and say that your effort mattered," Griner said in a handwritten note she posted on social media. "Your letters helped me to not lose hope during a time where I was full of regret and vulnerable in ways I could have never imagined."

Griner added that other Americans remain wrongfully detained abroad, and their families are also looking to bring them home.

"Those families stood alongside you and all who supported the WeAreBG campaign to bring me home and it's our turn to support them," she said. "I hope you'll join me in writing to Paul Whelan and continuing to advocate for other Americans to be rescued and returned to their families."

The U.S. government secured the release of Griner after agreeing to a prisoner exchange with Russia involving Viktor Bout, a convicted arms trafficker nicknamed the "Merchant of Death."

According to CNN, Russia refused to release Whelan with Griner unless the United States managed to get Vadim Krasikov freed from custody in Germany. Krasikov once served as a colonel in the FSB, Russia's intelligence service, and was sentenced to life in prison in December 2021 for murder.

Whelan, a former U.S. Marine, was arrested in Russia in 2018 and sentenced to 16 years in prison for espionage.

In an interview with CNN, the 52-year-old said he was pleased to see Griner leave custody but "greatly disappointed that more has not been done to secure my release."

"I was led to believe that things were moving in the right direction, and that the governments were negotiating and that something would happen fairly soon," he said.

An official for the Biden administration told CNN the U.S. government faced "a choice between bringing home one particular American—Brittney Griner–or bringing home none."

Addressing the situation on Dec. 8, President Joe Biden lamented the contrast between how Russian officials viewed Griner and Whelan.

"Sadly, for totally illegitimate reasons, Russia is treating Paul's case differently than Brittney's," he said. "And while we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul's release, we are not giving up. We will never give up."

Brittney Griner is planning on returning to the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury next season.

She announced Friday on Instagram she intends to play for the team in 2023 after returning to the United States following a 10-month stint under detention in Russia.

Griner also wrote she was "grateful to each person who advocated for me," including her wife, Cherrelle.

President Joe Biden announced on Dec. 8 that Griner was on her way back to the United States after the Russian government agreed to a prisoner swap.

A Russian court sentenced Griner to nine years in prison on a drug charge in August. She was originally arrested in February for bringing vape cartridges containing cannabis oil into the country.

Maria Blagovolina and Alexander Boykov, Griner's attorneys, announced on Nov. 17 she had been transferred to a Russian penal colony.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during an Aug. 1 press briefing that Russia wasn't negotiating in good faith when the two sides were discussing a prisoner swap that would bring Griner back to the U.S.

Griner was in Russia playing for UMMC Ekaterinburg of the Russian Premier League. She has played for the club since 2014 between WNBA seasons.

The 32-year-old has spent her entire WNBA career with the Mercury since being drafted No. 1 overall by the club in 2013. She has been named to the All-Star team eight times, led the league in blocks eight times, won two scoring titles and led Phoenix to a title in 2014.

Phoenix will open the 2023 season on May 19 against the Los Angeles Sparks at Crypto.com Arena.

Phoenix Mercury star center Brittney Griner dunked as part of a light basketball workout at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio on Sunday and is doing "really, really well" after returning to the United States, agent Lindsay Kagawa Colas told ESPN's T.J. Quinn.

Colas said the seven-time WNBA All-Star hasn't decided if or when she will resume her career with Phoenix.

"If she wants to play, it will be for her to share. She has the holidays to rest and decide what's next without any pressure," Colas told Quinn. "She's doing really, really well. She seems to have endured this in pretty incredible ways."

Griner was detained in Russia for 294 days and had been serving a nine-year prison sentence for possession of hash oil.

The U.S. government considered Griner "wrongfully detained" and organized her release via a prisoner swap that freed international arms dealer Viktor Bout.

For now, Griner is staying at Fort Sam Houston with her wife, Cherelle, and has reunited with family as well. Per Colas, Griner should issue a statement "this week."

On the night he was honored as Sports Illustrated's Sportsperson of the Year, Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry used his platform to pay tribute to Brittney Griner as she makes her way back to the United States.

Curry opened his speech at the ceremony with thoughts on Griner:

President Joe Biden announced on Thursday morning Griner was on her way back to the United States after Russia agreed to a prisoner swap

Griner was arrested in Russia on a drug charge in February. She was sentenced to nine years in prison in August after pleading guilty in an attempt to accelerate the process for a potential exchange of prisoners.

Athletes from all sports used their platform to speak out for Griner to keep her name at the front of people's minds and potentially help speed the process of getting her home.

After Biden's announcement that Griner was on her way back to the U.S., there was an outpouring of support for the Phoenix Mercury star from her fellow WNBA players:

A United States official told CNN that Griner is expected to land in San Antonio, Texas. She is expected to be back in the country at some point on Friday.