Brittney Griner, a free agent who was held in Russia for 10 months before being freed in a high-profile prisoner swap, has been re-signed by the Phoenix Mercury, the team said Tuesday.
“It’s a great day for all of us to announce that Brittney Griner has officially signed to play for the Mercury in 2023,” general manager Jim Pitman said in a statement. “We missed BG every day that she was gone, and, while basketball was not our primary concern, her presence on the floor, in our locker room, around our organization, and within our community was greatly missed.”
“We will continue to use the resources of our organization to support her, on and off the floor, and we are thrilled for her that she gets to return to basketball, which she loves so dearly.” “This is a special signing, and today is a special day for all of us.”
Sources told BVN that the one-year deal is for $165,100. Griner, who also played pro basketball in Russia, was arrested at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport in February 2022 after Russian authorities said she was carrying vape canisters with cannabis oil. The U.S. State Department had declared Griner to be “wrongfully detained.”
months of tense negotiations and a very rare public admission by Vice President Joe Biden later, against the Chicago Sky.
NASCAR has black owners. On Sunday, he became the first black principal owner whose racing team ever won a Daytona 500 after Ricky Stenhouse Jr. defied the odds and finished in front, according to The Charlotte Observer.
“[Jordan] reached out and said, ‘Congratulations, my brother.’ “I’m so proud of you,” Daugherty said in a text exchange with a longtime friend, according to The Observer. “And I just told him, I said, ‘You know, I am so proud of you.’”
JTG Daugherty Racing is one of NASCAR’s most diverse race teams. The Observer reported Thursday that Stenhouse’s win makes co-owner Jodi Geschickter the second woman to win the Daytona 500. The first was Teresa Earnhardt.
The only black principal owners with a NASCAR Cup Series charter are Daugherty and Jordan. The Chicago Bulls icon is a co-owner of 23XI Racing, the team that black driver Bubba Wallace drives as the only black racer in the Cup Series.
“The reality of it is,” Daugherty said of his friend, The Observer reported, “that without Michael Jordan, and I told him this, we don’t have an African American driver sitting in a seat who’s capable of winning a race every week.”
Daugherty also said that he told the NBA legend that racing “has been my sport for 35 years” and that he has been the African-American man trying to make a way to opportunities, which he has been successful at.
Despite his best efforts, Daugherty admitted that, unlike Jordan, he couldn’t put a skilled driver like Wallace in a racecar that could consistently win. Daugherty said that Jordan’s skill means that Wallace has a chance to win every week and could win the championship in the end.
Nobody in motor racing would have given Wallace the chance Jordan did, according to Daugherty.
“No one else was going to give him the opportunity that he deserved.” and he got it. “And so, that’s where Michael and I stand,” he added. “And I’m pulling for Michael Jordan every weekend to be successful.” And I’m hoping that we beat him, obviously, but I pull for him every weekend.”
While Daugherty could not attend the race on Sunday due to eye surgery that made it difficult to see in sunlight, he was in joyful disbelief about his team’s victory as he watched it on television at his Orlando residence.
After all, JTG Daugherty’s 50-person, one-Cup-car team had defeated the big names on the competition’s most prominent platform.
Jordan texted him; NASCAR President Steve Phelps called him, and even Wallace, the 23XI Racing star, messaged him. Daugherty said he told Wallace the same thing he shared with Jordan: He pulls for him every weekend after his own team’s driver, of course.
