Brittney Griner officially re-signs with Phoenix Mercury

Free agent Brittney Griner, who was detained for 10 months in Russia before her release in a high-profile prisoner swap, has officially been re-signed by the Phoenix Mercury, the team announced 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 ESPN 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.»

After months of strained negotiations, and an extraordinarily rare public revelation by the President Joe Biden's administration that it had made a «substantial proposal'' to get Griner home as well as another detained American, Paul Whelan, Griner's case resolved on Dec. 8 with a prisoner swap in which the WNBA star was exchanged in the United Arab Emirates for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

»I do not think any of us will forget where we were on Dec. 8 when we heard BG was coming home or on Dec. 15 when she announced she intended not only to play basketball in 2023 but