Brittney Griner

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0:40Only at McDonald's for a limited time. Price and participation may vary. Promotion pricing may be lower than meal pricing. There are moments that divide a life into before and after. For Brittany Greiner, that moment came on February 17, 2022, during a security check at a Moscow airport. He goes on the side of my bag and pulls out a vape pen. And as soon as I saw that, my whole soul drops down to my feet. She's known to millions as a WNBA superstar and one of the most recognizable basketball players in the world. No other woman who plays basketball can do that. A 6 '9 woman who has always stood out.

1:25I definitely felt alone and cast out until I found sports. Sports changed everything. In the WNBA offseason, Brittany had been playing for a Russian team. But in an instant, at that Moscow airport, Brittany lost her freedom and was taken to a Russian prison. It was dirty. It was dirty. Just blood stains on the mattress, stains that I don't even know what they were. It was hell. But this isn't just a story about what it took for Brittany to survive her ordeal. It's also about what she confronted when she returned home after being traded for an international arms dealer. So are we sure whoever negotiated this deal wasn't the one smoking weed?

2:14It was infuriating. People reporting on me that have no idea who I am or anything about me.

2:23This is Brittany Griner's Before and After.

2:32Well, Brittany, you probably know this podcast is really about people who have had life-changing experiences. You know, they go from one direction to the other. It's almost like they have two lives, a life split in two. You've gone through a lot, seen a lot. Yeah, oh, man. Sometimes I think about it, and I'm just like, yeah, I've definitely lived a couple of lives. So I want to start with your childhood. Where did you grow up? Grew up in Houston, Texas. Mom was a stay-at-home mom. She had the hardest job, you know, taking care of me and my sister. And she took a lot of pride in that. Dad was in law enforcement.

3:12He was a Marine first, Vietnam, 68, 69, got out, went into law enforcement, law enforcement his whole life, like 30 plus years. When he started in law enforcement, he worked the prisons, the penitentiary in Texas. Thought he was a superhero, thought he had the coolest job on earth. I still think that about him to this day. He's my superhero. Taught me how to work on cars. I was into all the tomboy stuff, working on the fence, the roof, and doing electrical work. I wasn't your typical, I guess, stereotype little girl growing up where I was into Barbie dolls and all that type of stuff. I knew at a very young age that I was a little bit different than everybody else.

3:57I mean, I was taller. My voice was a little bit deeper than everybody else's. Just always being pointed out as being different and talked about. I want to read something to you that you had written at one time. It really struck me. You said, I got into fights constantly. I was hurting deeply, more than I could make anyone realize. Reasons only outcasts can understand. When you're born in a body like mine, a part of you dies every day with every comment and lingering stare. You're the biggest person in the room, but also the loneliest. That even chokes me up now to read it. That was a really, really powerful statement.

4:35Yeah, I mean, it's true. Definitely felt alone and cast out. And in school, you know, kids are mean sometimes. Definitely dealt with bullying. Dealt with that on my own, honestly. kind of suppressed it. I definitely knew I was attracted not to males, but to females at a young age. So dealing with that growing up, coming out as being gay, once I got to high school, came out to my mom first, which was really easy actually with her. I kind of just sat there and told her, yeah, like mom, I'm gay. And she was just like, okay, and like literally said, and like what else that must have felt awesome it felt amazing because she was like I still love you like nothing's changing and I was like all right cool great well well this was easy I'm gonna go play some video games and she was just like okay I gave her a hug and a kiss and like that was the end of it pops was different so what was that conversation like when you came out to him he wasn't accepting to it that's for sure he was just raised different you know man and wife that's how he was raised and that's what he believed in.

5:49Now he did come around. We made a full circle. And it took some time. It took some growing on his part. It took some growing on my part too. And we got to a place where now, I mean, I could talk to my dad about anything. You guys got there. You figured it out. Yeah, we got there. It took some time. It did take some understanding on both sides. When did you realize not only that you had this body that was built for athleticism, but real talent there? I found basketball in ninth grade, actually. I was a late bloomer into the basketball world, but I think I was trash, honestly, in the ninth grade.

6:22I thought I was trash. I mean, I started ninth grade at six foot, so I graduated 6 '7", so I grew seven inches in four years. So, I mean, I was definitely sprouting up. No hand-me-downs, that's for sure. That was one good thing about it. I had to buy new clothes all the time. I didn't really start seeing real talent out myself or in myself probably until like that sophomore, junior year. I started playing AAU ball after my freshman year. And then I switched over to a traveling team out of Dallas. I was playing like Nike tournaments. You were starting to get noticed. Yeah. That's when I started seeing the college coaches and everybody packing the gyms.

7:03I mean, literally the gym was packed out. Fire Marshall, like, wouldn't let people in. That's when I was like, okay, yeah, I'm doing something here. How much did basketball give you a position to really overcome some of the bullying and that sort of stuff? It gave me all my confidence, honestly, because now it went from being so different and why are you so different to it's being praised, you know, for being different, being so tall and my athleticism and what I could do on the court. It turned from like a, that you look at that to a wow, like look at that kind of thing. And my confidence definitely changed as well.

7:38I think I got more outgoing once basketball came into play. With the first pick in the 2013 WNBA draft, the Phoenix Mercury select Brittany Greiner. This is open mic here. You get to take over and brag on yourself a little bit. Oh, that's hard. Obviously, first round draft pick. What else do you want to tell us? First round draft pick, three gold medals, won a championship in college, went 40-0 at Baylor, won a national championship. Had a WNBA championship as well, my second year in the league. All-time block shot record. Now, that one I really care about. Just blocking people's shots. I don't know what it was.

8:19It was something about it that just made me very happy. Yeah. You were number one draft pick for the WNBA. How much were you making then? Around$50 ,000. That's the number one draft pick. Yeah. I mean, it seems really low for someone of your talent. It was. It was. You know, at the time in the WNBA, that's what we were fighting with. But the women's game has changed. There's so many fans. Our viewership has went up. But yeah, you know,$50 ,000 for a number one pick in the WNBA, that wasn't going to sustain my life, what I was doing and what I was trying to build for my family, for myself. And then I got the call to go to Russia.

9:03You're a dominant player in the league, but at the same time, to earn enough money, you had to play overseas. How many seasons did you do there in Russia? Oh, God. I did six, seven. It's a place you've been multiple times with your team there. Yeah, multiple times. Many times I've been all in Russia, through Russia. Had an apartment there. I left my stuff there year round. Had a driver, had a translator. So moving around wasn't hard there for me because I had somebody taking me everywhere I needed to go. So, Brittany, February 17th, 2022, take us to that morning. You were in Phoenix. Phoenix. That morning was a hard morning because it was time for me to head back to Russia.

9:56and I am stressing trying to like pack, throw all my stuff in my bag, woke up late, snooze, snooze, snooze, then lost the phone, phone fell behind the bed. It was just all these little things. I had every sign telling me not to leave, to go to that airport. Everything about it was just like, go back home. Like literally go back home. Like get on my next flight, get to Moscow and doing the transfer. Something just felt eerie. You know, you walk into a place and you're like, I shouldn't be in this building. When we come back, every instinct had been telling Brittany not to make the trip to Russia.

10:39Now standing in a Moscow airport, she was about to find out why.

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12:13pricing. Brittany Greiner had landed in Moscow. Her connecting flight to take her to her team was waiting. She just had to make it through the airport to get there. Do you have to put your bags through security again? You got to go through security. There's like three, four guys in like suits behind the screen. If you didn't look like you were rushing, you were going through those scanners. And they was checking people. So I put my bags on. I go through the scanner. My bags go through. They pull me to the side to check them. The guy in the little suit, he pulled my bags to the side to start going through them.

12:53I'm trying to help him. Typically, you know, in the U.S., like, you're not touching your bags. Once they pull your bags to go through them, you have to stand there and you can't get anything. I'm literally pulling stuff out. I'm like, check here, look here. And then he goes in the side of my bag and pulls out cartridge. And as soon as I saw that cartridge, my whole soul drops, drops down to my feet and his face lit up. Like literally you can tell he was very happy. He was like, why did you bring this into our country? I'm like, I wasn't trying to bring anything into your country. What did you bring in the country?

13:35It was a medical cannabis vape cartridge. Now, I did not try to smuggle in vape cartridges into the country. I did not see them in my backpack when I traveled. How many of these vape cartridges did you have on you? Two. It was two in my bag. And how much oil? 0.07, I believe. So it was a really tiny amount then. Very tiny, very tiny amount. Were these vape cartridges for medical purposes? Medical purposes. I've had plenty of injuries throughout my career. Broke ribs, ankles, hand wrists, knee cartilage, deterioration. And I got a medical card, and that's what I was using it for. I'm not trying to hide anything.

14:30It was an honest mistake. I immediately text my agent. I'm just like, I need your help. I'm so sorry. I messed up. Like, I forgot I had this. She immediately tells me to share, like, my location. So at least somebody knows where I'm at. What did it feel like internally? Oh my God, I felt like my life was over, honestly, at this point. And the way he was so happy and all these people kept coming out, I just was like, oh, this is big game hunting. And they just got their big buck, honestly, is what it felt like. They definitely knew they had somebody. Now they're taking me to a car, a random car.

15:14Not a police car, not an official car. This is somebody's personal car. and they drive me over to this red building that was next to the airport. They take my passport. They take my boarding pass. So at this point, I'm detained. Like, I can't, I have no freedom of movement. I can't go anywhere. They have somebody watching me. And now they're bringing out people to translate papers for me to sign. And you don't know what they say? What? No, I don't know what they say. Like, it's in Russian. Now I know things are really, really bad because now I see the guys in the blue camo, like the army camo, the boots and the blue camouflage.

15:57And this is where the games start to come in because they bring in another guy who is, I guess, supposed to extract information from me. And it's just an abundance of weird questions like, who did you vote for? I'm like, what does that have to do with anything? I'm thinking that this is going to be something simple. Like, are they going to just, you know, take it? I get, like, I don't know, like, sent back to the U.S. My agent got me a lawyer. My first question is, I was like, how bad is this? Literally, and don't sugarcoat it. Like, how bad is this? And, you know, at first he didn't want to say anything.

16:33I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no. You have to tell me. And he was like, well, it could be 10 to 15 years. I said, 10 to 15 years? Like, in prison? Literally almost lost it I didn't know what was going to happen I was like I'll never see my family again This is literally over for me And I'm going to be stuck in Russia I'm just like what is my dad going to say Like oh my god I hope his heart can take it I felt like I was letting him down And that was crushing me Honestly In a letter, a really emotional letter That I wrote In my cell to him Where I'm apologizing for letting him down.

17:16And he writes me back, and he's like, you never let me down. You know, you can never do that. This isn't your fault. This is bigger than you. This is beyond you. You're being used. Yeah, it was quite emotional for me. Can you describe to me what that first jail was like and what you encountered? The first job I went to, so they put me in a room by myself. I was able to take two, three pair of shirts. I had my coat. I had my hoodie that I was in. I had my sweats, my boots. But I had no water, no clean water. I had no toothbrush. I had no soap. I had nothing, no toilet paper, nothing. So I had to take a shirt and I ripped up the shirt on like the ragged part of the bar so I could cut it and rip it.

18:15And one part of the shirt was to wash me with and then two other rags were to when I had to use the bathroom and things like that to clean myself. It was the most disgusting I've ever felt in my life. I felt I felt like I wasn't even a human

18:44I uh It was It was tough It was dirty Um Mattress Blood stains on the mattress Stains that I don't even know what they were Um It was hell It sounds like everything that you would fear going into a Russian prison. Yeah, like how they talk about the gulag and the video games and how they make it look. Yeah. One of the guys in the blue military outfit would come with the dog, check my room, look at me. Like everybody was just, I was a zoo animal in that jail for them to come see. And then, you know, sometimes they would try to say things to me like, you drug addict, you druggy, you drug addict, you smuggler.

19:36And I'm like, no, no, no, no. And they would just constantly say that. It was just a sense of not feeling safe. Did they at some point bring in food or something for you to eat? They brought you breakfast, lunch, and dinner. So I was able to get something But then that just made me sick Because that food that they brought you Is not really food at all And I understand, hey, it's jail I'm not asking for five star I know that I'm just asking for something that I could actually eat That won't make me sick Like, I'm still human at the end of the day And then being in that isolation Was just a lot Like, I had my Sudoku book That I took with me So I would write on the side.

20:22I would do a puzzle, and then I would write on the side. Whatever I was thinking, get it out of my head, questions, apologies. And that's how I kept track of the days, too, because I knew what day it was when I went in. You know, it was one week after you were detained that Russia announced it was going to war with Ukraine. What did it feel like to hear that? That was another just bullet to the heart because I'm like, oh, there's no way I'm going home during a war. And then being scared, too, because I'm just like, well, I've never been somewhere where there's war. I've never been somewhere where, you know, war is happening and, you know, attacks are happening and missiles are being sent back and forth.

21:09I was also scared about that as well. Did you ever get mad at yourself about the situation? 100%. Whether you agree with their laws or not, you broke the law. How did you process that? How do you still process that? Definitely mad at myself for being careless. I'm just like, yo, I just made a mistake. I was there 14, 18 some days there at that jail. You're not even supposed to be there over a week because you don't shower there, you don't do anything. Like, it's literally just, you go there to be held for court and stuff like that. I learned that I was going to the detention center now. Once I made it to the detention center, I remember walking in, looking at it, just looking at the building, which was like an old orphanage.

21:58And I just remember, like, please just let somebody have a heart in here. They take me to quarantine, and I walk into this room, and it was probably about six, six ladies in there. I think Ola, who spoke English. Ola was 19, 20. I remember walking in. First thing I saw was a knife sitting on the table in the middle of the room. A knife. And some scissors, yeah, a knife and some scissors. And I was just like, well, that's different. The guard pulls out Ola and then she comes back in and then the guard tells me, Ola, Ola, help. Ola help you talk Ola. I'm just like, well, what do I do? I was like, what bed can I have?

22:43Because I'm not, like, I'm just holding all my stuff. I'm just like, where can I go? She was like, oh, you have to go on this top bunk right here. Well, it's the bunk right underneath the camera, right by the door. I'm like, shocker there. So she shows me how I'm supposed to fold my bed. She's like, you have to fold your bed like this every day. You can't get underneath the covers during the day. You can sit on your bed, you can lay on your bed, but you can't, like, get underneath the covers until, like, nighttime, until it's time to go to sleep. Once they moved me out of quarantine, they took Ola, me, and then they went and found one other girl that spoke English.

23:15And they put us in this little cell and they put two bunk beds in there and a single bed. And like it was had the table in the middle, the bathroom in the corner, and that was it. Like there, there was really no movement in, in that room. Like you, you couldn't really move that much at all. You're six foot nine. I'm assuming that this layout was not conducive for someone of your size to stretch out and get a good night's sleep? No, the bed was metal, but the cushion in it is just like cotton and like material. So it gets smooth and squished to the side. Like these are the bare, bare, bare, barest of minimums that they're giving us.

23:54They actually trying to, I guess, accommodate to my size. They added like this little hinge at the end of my bed. They cut the old school like metal beds with like the circle headboard part on it and the foot part. They cut the foot part, laid it down. They put a hinge on it, laid it down. So it made like this huge bump with metal that basically my ankles and feet just sat on because the mattress was still the same size. So it was just my feet on the metal at the end with the sheet. I laugh at a lot of things that I really shouldn't laugh at, but I just, I use humor a lot to get through things.

24:36And then they painted it with this thick, thick metallic paint that literally had us choking in the room. And then it was still wet. Like, so paint got everywhere and we're choking on the fumes. They don't care. And there's no window to open up. There's two radiators on the wall and that's how you get your heat when they turn them on. Not going to lie, I burnt my butt on it a couple of times, like, because the sheets are small and I was trying to be warm because it was so freezing, bone chilling cold with all the metal and cement that I would like, would try to get close to it. But then I would end up burning myself on them like at night sometimes.

25:14So. So were there real weather extremes that you dealt with? Oh, blistering cold. It's not like they turn on the heat right away when it gets cold. So you have to deal with that. And then they don't turn the heat off when it gets warm and it gets really hot and humid there. So in between that, all the bugs, the spiders, I had no idea I had multiple spider nests underneath my bed until I had spiders on me. And I don't like spiders. I hate spiders. So I had to deal with that. But my worst fear was being stuck in there and never being able to move around freely. That was a big fear of mine, dying of getting sick or catching something.

25:57I'm looking around at things and it's not clean at all. Like I refused the dentist. I guess you have to see a dentist over there, but I refused it. Like I took a chance on that one. I raised a lot of hell on that one because when I walked in that dentist's office and I see utensils with blood on them, just dried up blood, just sitting there, I was like, yeah, no, you can't put anything in my mouth. Like y 'all gonna have to force, force that. Luckily I got out of that though. The latest diplomatic issue, news over the weekend that Russia has detained American WNBA star Brittany Greiner. In March, it was acknowledged that you were in detention.

26:34I happened to be at the Polish-Ukraine border about to go into Ukraine to cover the war, and I read about your account. I'll never forget this. We just had dinner. I read this account of an American basketball player who was being held in Russia. I'm about to go into Ukraine fighting Russia. And I expressed very serious concerns about maybe we shouldn't go in here if they're hunting Americans, perhaps. I only share that with you because I just thought you should know that your story was, you know, the impact was felt far and wide. Was there television? Were you able to see any coverage of your situation?

27:10No, I didn't see any coverage of my situation. The guards controlled it. So it was like a lot of propaganda channels that they would put it on, which was also weird for me. because you hear about propaganda and learning about it in school and all that. But then like really seeing it firsthand was like so weird to me. Like so weird. I remember seeing President Biden talking on the TV and they like distorted his voice. And there was two American flags on the side of him. They like changed it and like dropped like the Nazi flag over it while he was talking. I was like, oh, this is like real life propaganda that they're spewing on their, it was like a military channel that they would always play a lot.

27:55The relationship that you formed with these other women, did they see you as a political prisoner or did you see yourself as a political prisoner? I did. I did. I did see it as a political prisoner for sure. And all the girls would say it too. I mean, I had guards saying it too. They were like, oh, you'll make it home. Like, your country will trade for you. Like, this is political. This is political. But I had to give up at a certain point because having that hope was so hard. It was just so devastating and crippling to me. It was just like a dagger, a dagger, a dagger. I was like, this is my new life.

28:41This is what I am. I'm a prisoner. I have to be a prisoner. Brittany Greiner was starting to think she might spend the next decade forgotten in a Russian prison. But outside prison walls, her case was about to become a priority at the highest levels of government.

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30:44Brittany Greiner was learning how to survive inside a Russian prison. What she didn't know was that secretive high-stakes negotiations were underway to bring her home. There were rumors that began to circulate that maybe a deal was in the works. Did you know of all the activities going on back here in the United States to secure your release? After talking with my lawyers, you know, I heard some things were going on. I didn't know everything. I knew I had a team, a family, and a lot of individuals working on my behalf, behind closed doors and trying every channel. I didn't know every single thing and all the specifics because of just not wanting things to get leaked, not wanting to jeopardize anything that could be working.

31:34It was very, very sensitive. I definitely got impatient at times, understandably, where I was like, I just need to know something. Like, I don't care. Write it. Tell my lawyer to come tell it to my face. Mouth it. I don't care. But I need to know something. Has there been a meeting? Have you heard from the White House? I just needed to have something to hold on to, like something, before I give up. Tell me about the decision to plead guilty in the case. My decision on pleading guilty, one, I found out to have a prisoner trade, you have to plead guilty regardless. Even if you plead not guilty, you have to change it to guilty.

32:17I guess that's a Russian thing. But two, also, like my dad said, like no matter what you meant to do, you make a mistake, you take ownership for it. And for me, like as much as I did not have the intent to smuggle over cartridges, it still happened. So I took ownership of it, thinking that maybe that might help my sentencing as well. You know, maybe they will see that I'm not here trying to make a mockery of their court system. Didn't cause any problems, wasn't yelling, shouting to the media, wasn't saying anything. Just I held up photos of my family. I held up photos of my loved ones, my teammates, just showing support and love to them and, you know, for them showing it to me.

33:02And you still got nine years. Still got nine, one year short of what they could have gave me max. What did it feel like to hear that sentence?

33:14it was hard to hear it it was hard to hear nine years and it was crazy because they just knew i was going to like fall out burst into tears start screaming yelling every single camera it was jam-packed they even had people in a separate courtroom with cameras pointing at a tv that was filming what was going on in my courtroom all i could hear was just i just remember hearing the clicks from the cameras.

33:47And all the cameras just honing in on me. And all the reporters just looking right at me. I just stood there. They said it. And then the judge asked if I understood. I said, yeah. And I sat down. You know, everybody left the courtroom. I was able to see my wife at the time. I was able to see her face. My lawyer was able to call her real quick, and I was able to see it, and she was breaking, and that's when I kind of broke at that moment. It just kind of like sunk in, like nine years. That's a long time. That's a long haul. When the cameras were not there, how did you deal with the moment?

34:36I just never wanted them to see me break. I never wanted them to have that satisfaction. Even when the cameras weren't there and it was just the guards and the judge and the clerks, like, I didn't want them to ever see it. I remember getting back to the detention center and everybody being mad. All the girls were really mad. The inmates were really upset about it. They were just like, they're using you. Part of your release was hinging on an apology letter to President Putin. Yes. So I had to write an apology letter to President Putin. They gave me the letter in Russian to write in Russian. I mean, I don't know how to write in Russian.

35:18So like I'm kind of tracing like what it looks like. It took me forever to do it. But it was basically along the lines of like apologizing to him, apologizing to the country. But the wording was a little weird They used repent, like I repented My actions And I was just like That's weird, I feel like you only use that verbiage You know, when you're talking about Like God, Jesus Religion, like repenting But not to A president of a country You know, but that's I guess How they do it From NBC News This is a special report Good morning, everybody. We are following breaking news at this hour out of Russia, nearly 10 months after her arrest and incarceration there.

36:07WNBA star Brittany Griner is headed home. After 293 days, you were told you were leaving. Did you know that you were part of a prisoner swap with this Victor Bout, who was a arms dealer? Not at first. I didn't really know too much about him except for he used to be an arms dealer. and Nicolas Cage, I think, had played him in a movie. Did you see him during the actual swap? Oh, I definitely saw him. When we walked down and we were walking across, I saw him coming towards me. I was going towards him. We stopped in the middle. We shook hands, actually. They cut the clip, though, of that. But we shake hands.

36:49He says, you know, glad you're going home. Good luck. I say, glad you're going home, too. Good luck. What was coming home like? I didn't know what to expect. I thought that I would just come home and jump right back into normal life and just avoid it all and get back to it. Brittany Griner arriving at Kelly Field this morning. The athlete seen here stepping foot on U.S. soil for the first time. We landed in San Antonio, went to the Army base there. I just have to say thank you to everybody at that Army base to literally everybody in San Antonio that just was there for me. They have no idea how much every interaction, even the smallest one, was for me.

37:32It meant a lot. But I went to the hospital, got checked out. I had a TV in my room. I remember turning on the TV. They were like, you know, don't watch the news. First thing I did, I turned on the news. There you go. There you go. First thing I did, I want to know what's being said about me. I want to know what's going on. I haven't been able to touch a remote and just flip through a TV in forever either. So like just that little joy of doing that. I wanted to know what both sides were saying. Brittany Griner back on American soil, but her freedom coming with a big cause. The deal sucks and makes us look like suckers.

38:08Are we sure whoever negotiated this deal wasn't the one smoking weed? It's kind of pathetic. I think that's when somebody walked in there like, oh, my God, please turn that off. Like, don't don't watch that. I was just like, oh, it's fine. It's fine. I mean, I've heard the worst before on social media and people reporting on me that have no idea who I am or anything about me. I'm wondering how Griner's feeling walking around the United States right now. Is her head held high? It was infuriating a little bit. But just some of the stories and headlines people were just putting to get, you know, clickbait and rage bait people in and viewership.

38:50It's just wild. Britney Greiner despises the United States. She hates the country so much, she doesn't want to hear its anthem. I still don't understand how I got labeled as un-American or I hate America. You know, Colin Kaepernick, who was on the program here recently, talking about taking the knee. You had taken the knee, you know, prior to Russia. Yeah, I mean, it's my right to be able to protest. What were you protesting against? Police brutality. as I love what my dad does and what he did fighting for this country, I also understand there are people out there in positions that take advantage of it.

39:31I'm able to challenge that, but then I'm able to be proud of my country as well. What did the American flag look like to you? Was it different when you returned from Russia? It was. I remember you talk about when I was coming home. I remember coming home, getting off the plane, seeing the flag this huge flag in the hangar hanging and I just thought like I wonder if this is what my dad felt like when he got back from Vietnam I wonder if this is what you know our servicemen and women feel like when they get back from tours or being abroad and they see that flag and it's just the most homing feeling that you could feel you know like on a small scale you know you you go off to college and you come back and you see your family you see the the swing in the yard and it just gives you that warm feeling but on a huge magnified level the flag definitely was home for me and a beacon of like resilience and just a light for me.

40:34U.S. Olympic basketball store Brittany Griner is ready to represent the country that she says fought for her. What was it like planning the Olympics? The Olympics are amazing it's just a whole different beast my My main focus was to win gold, but it's nothing like standing there and watching the flag get raised up and the national anthem going after you just won. It's just a surreal feeling. I've covered, I've been to 11 Olympics, and people always ask me what was my favorite moment. My favorite moment is being on foreign soil, watching the American flag raised, the national anthem. These kids that most of them we don't even know, and they've got their gold medals around their neck, and it always, always moves me.

41:17Really incredible. Oh, yeah. My last one moved me the most. I didn't think I would be there getting to represent my country again after my ordeal in Russia. I mean, before it even started going up, I think my eyes were already red and teary, and it was just a surreal, full-circle moment for me. The recent announcement, the divorce between you and your wife, Sherelle, Do you think your marriage was damaged by your experience in Russia? I think I was damaged by Russia and that experience Yeah Did you experience I guess what we would consider PTSD about the whole experience I did I had night terrors really bad It was hard for me to sleep.

42:05I remember my first trip that I took You know fast forward a little bit but my first trip that I took back to New York actually was really triggering Because I was like the last place I was before I got detained and I remember being in the hotel And like I just started having like a panic attack thought somebody was just gonna come get me Brittany, what did it take for you to get through this ordeal? Oh, it took a lot. My dad told me a lot of stories Like he didn't sugarcoat things with me growing up He told me how I was in jail how I was with him and the inmates, you know, like If they showed him respect, he gave them respect.

42:40But it's something that you got to gain when you're an inmate in there. It took me relying on my faith, deep diving into that more, and just resilience, honestly. Are you still the athlete that you've always been? I'm always going to be the athlete I am. Now, the body isn't 20 anymore, but it's still kicking and still going, so I still got some hoops left in this thing. And you're healthy? Healthy. Definitely healthy. Your identity has been a main theme of your life. What's your identity today? My identity, oh, man. I guess I'm still an outcast, but I'm okay with being an outcast. Like, I like standing up for the people that have no voice, the people that, you know, people walk down the street and not pay attention to.

43:34I like being the voice for them. Someone that fights for other people. I guess that's what my identity is. And someone being resilient because, I mean, my life has been nothing but just resilient and fighting. And as for you, what's next? What's next for me? Playing ball, still playing ball. And then, you know, I'm starting to get into coaching and exploring that avenue. And I'm really loving it. So, you know, trying to figure out what the next chapter in my life will be. I'm excited for it. Well, Brittany, what a fascinating conversation has been. Your story, you know, as I had mentioned earlier, had a profound effect on me at the time.

44:18But I'm glad you're well. I'm glad you're with us. No, I appreciate it. No, thank you. This has been amazing and honor meeting you as well. So I have to throw that in there as well. Legend.

44:34Next time on Before and After. I wanted to meet you because I wanted to know what it's like being Gabby Gifford. Funny, funny, funny. I'm Gabby Giffords. Former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords built her life around public service and the power of her voice. We are sent here by our constituents to be their voices in Washington. Then, as she was speaking to constituents in a grocery store parking lot, a gunman shot Gabby in the head. Oh, no, hold on, there was a shooting. There were multiple people shot. Okay. She survived, but now the woman who had spent her life speaking out could barely speak at all.

45:15The words are there in my brain. I just can't get them out.

45:22Gabby waged an extraordinary fight to get her voice back, and then used it to give new purpose to a life she almost lost. So you said the shooting is behind you. What's in front of you? Hope. Still hope. Hope. Hope. That's next time.

45:47Before and After is a production of Dateline and NBC News. Dan Slepian and Liz Brown-Kurloff are the producers. Annalise Peterson is the associate producer. Colin Dow is the editor. Original music by John Estes. Jessica Fenton is the head of audio production. Alexa Danner is the head of audio. Paul Ryan is the executive producer. And Liz Cole is senior executive producer.

46:37The Sausage McMuffin with Egg