Brittney Griner Quotes

I think that's what makes life beautiful: everyone is different, and we can all learn from one another

You can withstand just about any shame so long as your tribe stands with you.

Love has no borders, light has no boundaries. Let’s all share more of both.

When your world is violently upended, you don't just mourn your immediate losses. You also grieve a future that no longer feels possible, the peace that might've been.

Your character is defined by your heart,

When you're six foot nine and wear size 17 men's sneakers, you don't fit. Not in cars. Not in chairs. Not in beds. Not in crowds. And definitely not in a world that mistakes you for what it most fears: a Black man.

James Patterson’s 1st Case, about an FBI agent on the run, and the thriller In the Water by Paula Hawkins. Both were page-turners.

I’d messed up. I was locked up. And back at county, I’d almost given up. And yet my ride-or-dies were still with me, carrying me with their love.

I’d be allowed to take: three pairs of underwear, a couple of T-shirts and sweatpants, a flannel hoodie, and a book of sudoku puzzles burrowed between the folds. The time was around 7:00 a.m. The future was unimaginable.

What if I’d never taken this stupid trip, had stayed in Phoenix like I wanted to? What if I hadn’t missed that first flight or had taken my usual route through Los Angeles?

you're the biggest person in the room, but you're the loneliest (Page 93 ). (ouch!! she is 6'9")

Who are these people, why do they have you, and what exactly are they saying?

I went from surviving in a box to living out of boxes, finally home and yet homeless.

We earn about 250 times less than NBA players and have a hard cap on our salaries. In the WNBA that year I made around $220,000. Overseas, I earned a million plus. That pay gap is why I was in Russia in the first place.

room, but you’re also the loneliest.

Olya’s spying for you all,” I said. “She has my name all through her diary.

We’d only been kept together so my cellmates could serve as translators.

That’s what unnecessary friction does: replaces the pleasure that

couches, the height of the lamps. Relle was in her bliss choosing what she wanted, and I was in my bliss watching her enjoy it.

These days I settle disagreements quickly. I served a lot less time than I feared I would. I plan to make my extra time joyful.

Home is love. Home is rest. Home is stability. Home is freedom and connection, the opposite of whoosh, a big exhale after 293 days locked up.

It was my responsibility to protect my wife.

My baby crawled into our closet, got down on her knees, and asked God to intervene.

Psalms 56:3–4: “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose

word I praise—in God I trust and am not afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?

build this nation. My father spent his career defending it. I take pride in being American, especially after being imprisoned in a

might have been. Instead of sharing a laugh, you’re rolling your eyes and stoking tension. I recalled when we recently

I eventually heard the details in a letter from Lindz.

She tried to turn me into her bestie, probably to score points with the warden.

Finally, my chest will come in. Finally, my voice won’t be so deep. Finally, I’ll be normal. Finally never came.

never just about you. It’s about your entire community.

I’d be in my early forties and out of shape, would have to find a new way to provide for my wife.

country where public dissent can get you killed. Here, freedom of speech is our right. Exercising that right makes me more of an

What I have is a hope that we can be gentler with one another, that we

can imagine how it feels not to fit.

bought furniture for our new place. Totally different experience. I gave no opinion on the throw pillow colors, the style of the

the West. He was well aware of America’s long history of racial tensions, and he knew how to use that to his benefit.

My kneeling was a sign of just how much I love our country. My ancestors helped

When you’re born in

For Putin, my worth was as a pawn. My arrest gave him leverage in his clash with

But it eases my anxiety to remind myself that the Father created time. He’s got this. He’s got me.

The nurse in the infirmary took my temperature, which was high, and then gave me Theraflu and sent me back to work.

We weren’t allowed to stretch out on our beds during the daytime, even if we were sick.

got yelled at by Mother of Dragon. “You will learn Russian,” she told me.

a body like mine, a part of you dies every day, with every mean comment and lingering stare. You’re the biggest person in the

Putin might’ve made me his pawn, but he’d met his match with a prayer warrior.

American, not less. Sit. Stand. Kneel. Protest. The beauty of our homeland is that we have a choice.

For Putin, my worth was as a pawn. My arrest gave him leverage in his clash with the West. He was well aware of America’s long history of racial tensions, and he knew how to use that to his benefit. As the news sank in that morning, I cried because I’d let down my father. The Griner name was now stained around the globe: dopehead, drug dealer, dumb. I hurt because I knew I’d handed the world a weapon. When you’re Black, your behavior is never just about you. It’s about your entire community. You live with this responsibility to represent the best of us, to prove the haters wrong. Doesn’t matter if you actually want that job; how you act will be seen through that lens. If someone white messes up, most folks just shake their heads. But if a Black person makes the same mistake, it’s like, “See, I told you they were worthless.” I wear my Blackness with pride, just as my parents do. I cried not just because I’d failed Mom and Pops, but also because I felt I’d shamed my people.

Every sport has an off-season, but pro women hoopers often work year-round. We earn about 250 times less than NBA players and have a hard cap on our salaries. In the WNBA that year I made around $220,000. Overseas, I earned a million plus. That pay gap is why I was in Russia in the first place.

The girl I once was now lay in a heap of dreads on the concrete floor. But the true me, the survivor, remained. I’d always thought of myself as someone who could endure almost anything. At a labor camp in Russia in the dead of winter, I found out just how tough I was.

Funny how that works, isn’t it?

Letting go of hope is sometimes the most optimistic thing you can do.