(WASHINGTON) — Brittney Griner said “digging deep” helped her get through her detainment at a Russian prison last year.

“I’m no stranger to hard times,” the WNBA star said, tearing up during her first press conference since being freed from a Russian prison late last year. “You’re going to be faced with adversities throughout your life. This was a pretty big one.”

Griner, who is entering her 10th season in the WNBA, all with the Phoenix Mercury, said she relied on her hard work during practices to get her through the ordeal.

“I know this sounds so small, but dying in practice and just hard workouts, you found a way to just grind it out, just put your head down and just keep going, keep moving forward. You can never stand still,” the 32-year-old center said. “And that was my thing — just never be still. Never get too focused on the now and just looking forward to, you know, what’s to come.”

Griner thanked everyone who played a part in bringing her home, shouting out the WNBA and Vice President Kamala Harris, among others, as she also urged people to continue to fight for others who Americans wrongfully detained overseas, such as former Marine Paul Whelan and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.

“I have that mindset — no man, no woman left behind. So it hurts,” she said, noting that her father was a Marine and she comes from a military family. “It hurts, it hurts. Because no one should be in those conditions. Like hands down, no one should be in any of the conditions that I went through or they’re going through.”

“I hope that everyone continues to bring awareness and fight to bring home everyone,” she continued.

Griner said her agent has been in touch with the family of Gershkovich, who the U.S. has determined was wrongfully detained by Russia, and “just sharing knowledge.”

“It goes a long way, because, I mean, you’re in foreign territory. You’re in unknown waters,” she said. “There’s been a lot of communication between both teams.”

Griner was returning to play for her Russian club, UMMC Ekaterinburg, when she was taken into custody at a Moscow-area airport in February 2022 in possession of vaping cartridges containing hashish oil, an illegal substance in Russia.

She pleaded guilty in July and was sentenced to nine years in prison on Aug. 7. She appealed the sentence, but was quickly rejected in October.

Griner was freed in December when the U.S. swapped the WNBA star for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

Griner said she does not plan to play overseas again, unless it’s representing the U.S., while lamenting it was unfortunate she and other players had to do that to “pay my light bill.”

“It’s a shame that we have to leave our families for holidays,” she said. “Hopefully that changes.”

While detained, Griner said looking at photos of her family and getting letters of support gave her hope.

“It gives you a spark of life,” she said.

Among those in attendance at Thursday’s press conference were Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs and Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner.

“Round of applause for my wife, honestly,” Griner said. “She had the hardest job. Thank you so much, babe, for being there for me. You the one.”

In advance of the season, which starts next month, the team said Thursday it will unveil a 30-foot-wide mural on the Footprint Center, its home arena in downtown Phoenix, that features the faces of Griner and more than a dozen detained individuals.

The team said it plans to bring more attention to the plight of detainees throughout the season, including a letter-writing campaign at home games.

The efforts are through a partnership with Bring Our Families Home, a campaign that advocates for American hostages and wrongful detainees held overseas home and provides resources to their families.

“Brittney Griner’s wrongful detention educated our organization, fan base and the Valley about the plight of hostages around the world and their families here at home,” Mercury President Vince Kozar said in a statement. “We learned that, outside personal safety, the biggest fear is being forgotten and we know those currently being held do not automatically have the same public platform or receive the same media attention Brittney’s case did.”

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(NEW YORK) — E. Jean Carroll returned to the witness stand on Thursday in her federal battery and defamation lawsuit against former President Donald Trump.

Defense attorney Joe Tacopina suggested Carroll had political motives for filing her suit. He showed the jury an email that contained a draft excerpt from the book Carroll wrote. One chapter refers to her alleged rape by Trump.

“He’s poisoning my water, he’s polluting my air, he’s cooking my planet … and as he stacks the courts, my rights over my body are being taken away state by state. I’m afraid my right to free speech will go next. So now I will tell you what happened,” the message said.

Carroll replied that the message contained a draft that was never published.

Tacopina then questioned why Carroll could not pinpoint a date the alleged rape occurred.

“I wish to heaven we could give you a date,” Carroll said.

Tacopina suggested Carroll only told her story about Trump to sell a book.

“You thought including the story about Donald Trump while he was still president would help sell the book?” he asked.

“I thought so but I was wrong,” Carroll said. She had previously testified her book did not sell well.

Tacopina then asked, “In two decades you don’t call the police, correct?” Carroll replied, “Correct.”

“In two decades you never revealed this story in your hundreds of your advice columns, correct?” Tacopina said.

“Correct,” Carroll said.

“Only when you were trying to get a publisher and sell your book?” Tacopina asked, to which Carroll replied her story came out after The New York Times published its landmark story about Harvey Weinstein.

“And when that happened, across the country, women began telling their stories. And I was flummoxed. Can we actually speak up and not be pummeled? I thought well this may be a way to change the culture of sexual violence. The light dawned. I thought we can actually change things if we actually tell our stories,” Carroll said.

“So it was Harvey Weinstein and all the women against him that caused you to leap into action?” Tacopina asked.

Carroll answered, “It caused me to realize that staying silent does not work. We have a chance of limiting the harm that happens.”

Carroll also told the jury she was assaulted by then-CBS chairman Les Moonves after an interview. She said she and Moonves entered an elevator and then “he pushed me up against the wall.”

She did not sue Moonves, Carroll said, because “he did not defame me. He did not call me a liar.”

Carroll, however, sued Trump in November 2019 “because he called me a liar. Because he said I accused other men of rape. He said I was an operative or in a conspiracy with the Democratic Party … and he said I was too ugly to rape. So I sued him.”

Carroll said no one told convinced her to sue but she “had a conversation” with Republican lawyer and Trump critic George Conway, who Carroll said “does not like Donald Trump.”

After Trump’s defense attorney claimed Carroll was out for money, she said she was not struggling financially when she filed her lawsuit and was not looking for a large payoff.

“It’s not about the money. It’s about getting my name back,” Carroll said, who added that she is constantly under threat.

“This morning, for instance, I thought I would just take a peek at my Twitter. And there it was again, the onslaught of the lair, slut, ugly, old. It’s not a great way to begin the day. But I could not be more proud to be here.”

On Wednesday, Carroll described in sometimes graphic terms the pain of the alleged assault and the weight of Trump’s body against her.

“I remember him being — he was very large and his whole weight came against my chest and held me up there, and he leaned down and pulled down my tights,” Carroll, who testified for nearly three-and-a-half hours, said.

Her testimony may have also given the defense an opening since Carroll conceded she “wasn’t 100% certain” when the alleged attack occurred.

“This question, the when, the when, the date has just been something that I am constantly trying to pin down. It’s very difficult,” Carroll said.

Carroll’s attorneys asked her whether she had watched The Apprentice, Trump’s reality television show. When she said she had, her attorney, Michael Ferrara, asked why.

“I love the premise of ambitious young businesspeople competing for a job. I thought that was really quite witty and it was different. It was so much better than, you know, the dating contests and the beauty contests and those — this was a real contest where you could watch it and learn a thing or two. It was very — it was beautifully produced,” Carroll said.

It remains unclear if Trump will testify himself. The judge demanded to know this week whether Trump will appear, telling the defense that it was time to “fish or cut bait.”

Trump has denied all allegations that he raped Carroll or defamed her.

The trial is expected to last about five days. The nine-member jury of six men and three women is weighing Carroll’s defamation and battery claims and deciding potential monetary damages.

This week’s trial is taking place as Trump seeks the White House for a third time while facing numerous legal challenges related to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, his handling of classified material after leaving the White House and possible attempts to interfere in the Georgia’s 2020 vote. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said Monday she would decide whether to file criminal charges against Trump or his allies this summer.

Carroll’s lawsuit is her second against Trump related to her rape allegation.

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