July 22, 2025
Brittney Griner shares graphic details about her 10-month detainment in Russian prison.
Brittney Griner opened up about her harrowing year in a Russian penal colony, where she says she was stripped, starved, and made to feel less than human.
The nine-time WNBA all-star sat down with Cam Newton and shared graphic details of her 10-month detainment and imprisonment in Russia after being found with THC vape cartridges in her luggage. Griner described enduring invasive body searches, drug and COVID tests, and a respiratory exam before being thrown into solitary confinement with barely any clothing.
“No shower, no toilet paper, no toothbrush…the toilet was just a hole, covered in feces and urine,” she recalled.
It was an experience that made her feel “worse than a d*** stray dog,” she added. “At least a stray dog get some food every now and again. Like get something. I didn’t feel like a human.”
Griner said she was forced to use a T-shirt as a makeshift washcloth and credited her family for keeping her alive during her darkest moments, believing that if she ended her life in prison, her loved ones might never get her body back.
“Trying to be strong, I got a little Sudoku book that I had with me when they took me,” she said. “So I’m writing in it, like I knew what day it was. So I would write the date and I would write a little something like how I’m feeling.”
The six-time All-WNBA member got candid when recalling Russian authorities’ “last play to terrorize me” during the prisoner swap that led to her release in December 2022. She was transferred from a penal colony to a men’s prison, where she was stripped of her humanity throughout the transfer.
“Because they were checking me in, they had me stripped down, butt naked, in front of a room like probably seven to eight men, and they had the Polaroid and had me spinning in a circle, while they were taking the photos right, of my tattoos because my tattoos are whatever they are,” Griner recalled.
Though her imprisonment dominated national headlines, Griner believes the media coverage would’ve been handled very differently if the detainee had been a high-profile male athlete like LeBron James.
“I think the media and the public reaction would have been different; they wouldn’t have automatically roped me off as a drug addict, a druggie, delinquent,” she added. “I think it would have been a different standpoint.”
RELATED CONTENT: Welcome to the W, Rook: Brittney Griner Flattens Sonia Citron with Screen In Preseason Game
