Brittney Griner's return to Texas special to WNBA star and her fans

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Fans hold up a sign after Brittney Griner was introduced in the Phoenix Mercury starting lineup for a WNBA basketball game against the Dallas Wings, Wednesday, June 7, 2023, in Arlington, Texas.

Dallas Wings center Kalani Brown, left, falls backward while defending against Phoenix Mercury's Brittney Griner (42) during the second half of a WNBA basketball game Wednesday, June 7, 2023, in Arlington, Texas.

Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner (42) works to take a shot as Dallas Wings' Veronica Burton, second from left, Satou Sabally, center left, and Arike Ogunbowale (24) defend during the second half of a WNBA basketball game Wednesday, June 7, 2023, in Arlington, Texas.

Dallas Wings' Odyssey Sims (2) shoots from between Phoenix Mercury's Brittney Griner (42) and Sug Sutton (1) during the first half of a WNBA basketball game Wednesday, June 7, 2023, in Arlington, Texas.

Baylor womens basketball players and staff, wearing white shirts with the letters "BG" on them, cheer as Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner was introduced for the Mercury's WNBA basketball game against the Dallas Wings, Wednesday, June 7, 2023, in Arlington, Texas.

Phoenix Mercury's Brittney Griner, left, talks with fans after preparing for the team's WNBA basketball game against the Dallas Wings, Wednesday, June 7, 2023, in Arlington, Texas.

Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner, center, poses for a photo with fans before the team's WNBA basketball game against the Dallas Wings, Wednesday, June 7, 2023, in Arlington, Texas.

Phoenix Mercury's Brittney Griner prepares for the team's WNBA basketball game against the Dallas Wings, Wednesday, June 7, 2023, in Arlington, Texas.

ARLINGTON — Brittney Griner joined her teammates on the court in an enemy arena and was greeted by a standing ovation. The Phoenix Mercury center appeared immune to the noise, locked in and focused — until something caught her eye.

Three fans crammed behind the row of courtside seats at the corner of the court at College Park Center frantically waved a homemade poster and succeeded in getting Griner's attention. "Welcome Home BG," it read. Griner pointed at them in grateful recognition and took her spot in the layup line.

Versions of the sign have popped up in every city the Mercury have played in so far this season, from a preseason game in Seattle to the season opener in Los Angeles to the first home game in Phoenix. Griner's teammates joke that they occasionally forget the extent of her celebrity until the receptions she receives make it impossible to ignore.

This time, though, the messages carried an additional layer of meaning.

Wednesday's game against the Dallas Wings was Griner's first WNBA game in her home state of Texas since a high-profile prisoner swap resulted in her release in December from a Russian jail, where the United States determined she had been wrongfully detained.

Griner missed the entire 2022 WNBA season while spending more than 290 days in Russian custody after she was arrested on drug possession charges in February 2022 at an airport near Moscow, where she was headed to play for a Russian basketball team.

Wednesday marked nearly six months to the day since Griner stepped foot back on U.S. soil. When first released, she didn't know if she would play basketball again.

But thousands packed College Park Center to see Griner play in her fifth game of the WNBA season, 240 miles from where she first made an indelible mark on Texas basketball history.

As a teenager at Chester W. Nimitz Senior High School in Houston, she dunked her way to becoming a household name with a day named in her honor and set numerous Texas high school block records that still stand.

Griner expanded her gigantic footprint in college at Baylor, where she shattered NCAA records, was a three-time Big 12 Player of the Year, and won a national championship in 2012.

After the Mercury drafted her with the No. 1 overall pick in 2013, Griner was named a WNBA All-Star in seven of her first nine seasons in the league and last season, while still detained, was named an honorary All-Star.

So even at a Wings home game, Griner's homecoming was at the forefront of the night.

"It's just really amazing that she can play," Wings forward Satou Sabally said. "Last year we played without her, and it was just weird. Something was missing. And now everything is back to normal."

Another standing ovation followed when Griner was announced last in the visiting team's starting lineup. A graphic on the video board overhead featured a photo of Griner alongside the same welcome home message. The crowd rose to their feet. Griner raised her fist in response.

"This game meant a lot," Griner said. "My AAU team is here, DFW Elite. My high school came up; Baylor came down. I was really, really, really, really happy to see that. That meant a lot having them here. Family here from Little Rock, Houston. It was just a lot of support. It was just good seeing everybody and just being back in Texas. I miss being here. So it was really cool. When I came out and they announced my name … the love — that meant a lot for me."

Phoenix Mercury's Brittney Griner, left, talks with former Nimitz teammate Kendra Venzant (white shirt) and current Nimitz player Aniah Richard (blue shirt) before the team's WNBA basketball game against the Dallas Wings, Wednesday, June 7, 2023, in Arlington, Texas.

Two hours before tipoff, Griner strained against athletic resistance bands in a mostly empty arena. In the top row of the lower bowl across from the Mercury bench, 11 Nimitz girls basketball players sat captivated by her every move.

Their coach, Kendra Venzant, gestured at the group of teenagers by her side.

"These are girls who were just like BG," Venzant said. "It's important that they see that."

She would know. Venzant was high school teammates with Griner for one year at Nimitz and still has the scorebook from that season, during which Griner averaged 20 points per game.

"At that point, I knew right away with those stats that she was going to be special," Venzant said. "From the time she stepped foot on that campus, those four years shifted the basketball environment. We try to honor her in that manner because no one has done what she's done."

Now coaching at their alma mater, Venzant has kept in touch with Griner, who comes back to visit the school from time to time. Venzant, the Cougars’ former point guard, will always remember Griner as the team goofball, the freshman with hands the size of her head. But she also recognizes what Griner represents to the young players she coaches now.

Nimitz junior guard Aniah Richard has followed Griner's career since her Baylor days and described being star-struck when she met Griner twice before. At her first WNBA game Wednesday, with Griner's jersey draped over her shoulder, Richard reunited with her idol.

"She's just a role model to look up to," Richard said. "Before I even went to Nimitz, I didn't know she went to Nimitz, and I was like, ‘Wow, BG's the best.’ I love her game. … Nobody can do what she does. She did a lot for the school. She put us on the map. We might not be there right now, but she definitely put us on the map."

Mercury forward Brianna Turner, who played for Manvel High School near Pearland, recalled attending a packed high school playoff game and watching Griner dominate. Fast forward a decade-plus, and Turner again has a front-row seat to Griner's greatness, this time in the context of unbelievable circumstances.

"Even if she wasn't putting up the numbers, she just went through a really big ordeal, so I mean, obviously, numbers are like an addition to that," Turner said. "But I feel like she's been doing it mentally, which was a really big concern for me as a friend and her coming back."

Griner scored 24 points in the Mercury's 84-79 loss to the Wings. The box score hardly seemed to matter compared to the pure happiness she exuded.

Cherelle Griner, wife of Brittney Griner, watches during the first half of a WNBA basketball game between the Phoenix Mercury and the Dallas Wings, Wednesday, June 7, 2023, in Arlington, Texas.

When she playfully punted a basketball into the upper deck at the conclusion of the Mercury's morning shootaround. Or when the ball got stuck between the rim and the backboard during the game, and the 6-foot-9 Griner was the only one tall enough to dislodge it. Or in the postgame handshake line after Dallas’ thrilling fourth-quarter comeback win, when she doled out hugs to every Wings player before running to the sideline to kiss her wife, Cherelle.

If the extra attention overwhelmed Griner, she didn't show it. She won the opening tip for Phoenix and on the game's first possession sank a mid-range jump shot over fellow Baylor alum Kalani Brown. The contingent of Baylor players and staff seated across from the Mercury bench did not appear to be conflicted as they cheered Griner's basket.

"I’m glad that that situation didn't dim her light, because she is the sweetest person," said Brown, who cited Griner as one of the reasons she went to Baylor. "Every encounter we have, I’ve never had a negative one. I’m just kind of like a little baby to her, but yeah, I’m so glad that didn't change her, because it could have easily done that. So just thank God for that."

The accolades Griner collected throughout her basketball career cemented her as an icon in the sport. The ordeal she endured in Russia, while making her a polarizing figure to some who believe the U.S. gave up too much in negotiating for her return, endeared her even more to others.

The Borougerdi family came to watch Brittney Griner play in Arlington.

Bradley and Brandi Borougerdi fall firmly in the latter camp. The couple live in Arlington and are Wings fans, but they temporarily switched their allegiances Wednesday when they brought their 13-year-old daughter, Meadow, to the game. Brandi and Meadow wore purple Mercury shirts with Griner's jersey number, 42, while Bradley wore a custom shirt adorned with a giant image of Griner (the rest of the family also has shirts that match Bradley's).

The entire family became Griner fans years ago, for different reasons. Bradley admires her swagger and was impressed when she dunked in a game against the Wings. Brandi said she likes Griner for her activism. And Meadow?

"I like how she doesn't hide what she feels," Meadow said. "She speaks her mind and doesn't care what other people think."

Bradley said he was once detained for a day in Russia on an expired visa. It was not a pleasant experience, but he also knew it was nothing compared to what Griner was going through during her 10 months in custody. After Griner was detained in February 2022, Bradley said, "I thought about her every day."

Brandi added, "We mourned the loss of her during that season."

So did the WNBA and women's basketball community at large. All 12 WNBA teams honored Griner with a floor decal on their home courts. At the All-Star Game, every player wore a jersey bearing her name and number during the second half. Griner's agent, Lindsay Colas, organized a letter-writing campaign. The Baylor women's basketball team played the entire 2022-23 season with commemorative "BG 42" patches on their uniforms.

Baylor coach Nicki Collen, who did not coach Griner in college but got to know her when she previously coached in the WNBA, said the patches were her players’ idea. Collen also said she would like to retire Griner's jersey at Baylor this season.

"To the Baylor community, she means a lot," Baylor guard Sarah Andrews said. "Once you put that Baylor jersey on, you’re always family, and we just wanted to find a way to come up with something for her to let her know we love to support her through any and everything."

The city of Houston showed an outpouring of love for Griner, too. Last June, hundreds of people turned out downtown at Toyota Center for a rally to raise awareness of Griner's plight and demand her safe release.

Sabally referenced the "collective job" that members of the WNBA did to relentlessly advocate on Griner's behalf.

"I think it's a mirror reflection of our league because women generally have to step up for others and generally have to care about others, and we do care about our collective league," Sabally said. "And I think it just shows perfectly. Every time there's a crisis situation, we rally together, and we just show our bond that's already formed through societal pressures."

Ever since her return, Griner has worked closely with the Bring Our Families Home (BOFH) campaign, a group dedicated to helping people wrongfully detained overseas. Prior to tipoff Wednesday, the Wings’ in-arena host gave a shout-out to BOFH. And during a timeout between the first and second quarters, the scoreboard showed a video featuring names and photos of Americans currently detained abroad.

"I think what we’re going to see from BG going forward is an impact like she never even had before as a basketball player," Collen said. "I think what she's going to advocate for is going to mean more than how many baskets she scores when all is said and done."

Kala Steffen, a Griner fan who lives in Fort Collins, Colo., planned a work trip to Dallas to coincide with Wednesday's game. Steffen's initiation into WNBA fandom was watching Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird, but something about Griner resonates with her.

"Because of who she is," Steffen said. "When you see her warmth and her personality, not only is she just a dominant force on the floor, but who she is as a person is also dominant in the softest way. She's just so warm and welcoming to everyone, especially as she's kind of become the face of the league. It just draws people in."

That's why Steffen felt it was important for her to attend Wednesday's game in support not just of BG the basketball player but of BG the person.

"I just want to see her in her element," Steffen said. "This is where she belongs."

Fort Worth resident Katriel Parks has been a Mercury fan since 2006.

Fort Worth resident Katriel Parks became a Mercury fan back in 2006 when he watched a young Taurasi torch the Houston Comets. He makes it a point to go to Wings games whenever the Mercury are in town, and Wednesday, for the second year in a row, he showed up repping a "We Are BG" shirt and an orange pin with an identical message.

"I just admire her strength," Parks said as he craned his neck, hoping to catch a glimpse of Griner emerging from the locker room tunnel. "She got through it through her faith, family and friends. It's like she never left."

Being BG has come to mean more than just a ferocious shot-blocker or a towering post presence. She is an activist, an advocate, a symbol of excellence and resilience, and further proof of how sports can unite.

Griner feels like that was always true. Russia didn't fundamentally change who she is at her core, a multidimensional human, but it did undeniably give her a new perspective.

That's what she told the Nimitz and Baylor players she met with before the game: Use your platform, use your voice, and don't take any day for granted.

"I’m always gonna be me," Griner said. "I think I’m fighting a different fight now with bringing families home. Before all this happened, I knew we had Americans in places that were detained. But I didn't know how severe it really was until I lived it. So I guess you could say BG has something else that she's fighting for now."

During the national anthem, Griner stood facing the baseline, her eyes closed and her right hand over her heart. The last notes faded, and Griner opened her eyes and looked around for someone to pass her a basketball. At that moment, all BG had to do was be in her element.