*In an exclusive, two-part interview airing tonight, MSNBC’s Joy Reid sits down with WNBA star Brittney Griner for her first cable interview since being released from a Russian prison to detail her time in Russian detainment and eventual release, as detailed in her new book, “Coming Home.”
Part one of the special two-part MSNBC exclusive interview airs tonight, Monday (05-06-24) at 7 p.m. ET on The ReidOut.
Part two of the interview airs tomorrow on The ReidOut, where Griner discusses questions of whether her treatment would’ve been different had she played in the NBA, her reaction to the nine-year sentencing, and more.
Griner on facing imprisonment as a queer Black woman: ‘What games are they going to play?’
Reid: “Did you think in that moment, I, Brittney Griner, am being taken to jail, or did you think in that moment, wait a minute – I am a Black, queer woman in a country in which I am a super-minority and not necessarily an embraced minority? And what in the world is that jail going to be like for me?”
Griner: “I was terrified when I was thinking about going to that jail, because I was like, what game are they going to play? And I soon found out one of the games, trying to tell me to go into one of the men’s cells. And I’m like, I’m not going in that cell. And then the other guard said something in Russian and shook his hand, and then they take me to the women’s side. And I was just like, see, it’s — it’s a game, you know? And I knew all that was stacked against me.”
JUST ANNOUNCED: WNBA star Brittney Griner joins @Joyannreid for her first cable interview since being released from Russian detainment to discuss her new book “Coming Home” and more.
Tune in to @TheReidOut on Monday, May 6 and Tuesday, May 7 at 7pm ET on @MSNBC. pic.twitter.com/LeGEP2cG1T
— MSNBC Public Relations (@MSNBCPR) May 3, 2024
Reid: “Did you believe that you were targeted deliberately, that people knew who you were, knew that you were landing on that flight, and deliberately targeted you?”
Griner: “I believe so, yes. I wholeheartedly believe that.”
On whether Russia leveraged her imprisonment at the start of the Russia-Ukraine war: I knew there was ‘special treatment,’ a feeling of ‘let’s keep her good right now for later on.’
Reid: “You get arrested. Ten days later, Russia invaded Ukraine. How did the invasion change what you understood to be a reality? Because any hope that you were going to be able to get out of this, the Ukraine war changed it.”
Griner: “That changed everything. Any sliver of hope that I had that we could come to some kind of agreement or a trade or something quietly, that all went out the window. When they invaded, I knew that — that was another moment of that whoosh feeling, that sunken, just, it’s all over. I was like, this is it. Like, there’s no way now… I was like, well, I need to get prepared for the long haul.
Reid: “Did you get the immediate sense that, once you had Russian lawyers, one of whom you came very close to, did it become clear to you and to them that Putin was going to use you?”
Griner: “Oh, yes, 100 percent. I mean, the few times that I would get the guards to say something to me when I’m like, where am I going, am I the only one in the cell? I knew that the American basketball players had to be by themselves. I’m like, well, this is weird because normally you go into the holding tank with everyone else… you don’t have a room to yourself in the beginning. You’re with a lot of people. I already knew that there were little things going on. And then the check-ins, the top guard was always there. The warden, the deputy warden was always there. I knew that there was some special treatment. ‘Let’s keep her good for right now for later on.’”
On feeling like a spectacle: “I’m the zoo animal today.”
Reid: “When you got to the jail, you write a lot about the isolation of being in a cell alone. You write about the pain of the ride.
I mean, you’re a tall, tall person, 6’9”, 6’9?” And trying to fit into a car where they’re not concerned about your physical health and your physical safety. But I wonder if you think that the people in that jail knew who you were and decided that they were then going to further target you. The bullying – it was striking to see you write about the way that you were sort of made a spectacle. In your mind, was it simply your identity? Or do you think, we know who this is, we’re just going to mock her?”
Griner: “They definitely knew who I was, because I would hear little things like “the American,” “the basketball American.” And it was just, I would see the little hole where they could see you. They would lift that up all the time, all hours of the night. I would hear it go up and down snickering and laughing. And I’m like, OK, I’m the zoo animal today.”
source: ‘the reidout’ – msnbc
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