Griner returns to WNBA, signing one-year deal with Mercury
After spending nearly 10 months imprisoned in Russia, WNBA star Brittney Griner is making her return to basketball in the upcoming season, signing a one-year deal with the Phoenix Mercury, the team announced on Tuesday.
The two-time Olympic gold medalist was released in December — after spending nearly 300 days in Russian custody — in a prisoner exchange with Russia. And as soon as she was back home, she vowed to play in the WNBA again.
“It feels so good to be home! The last 10 months have been a battle at every turn,” she wrote in a December post on Instagram. “I dug deep to keep my faith and it was the love from so many of you that helped keep me going. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone for your help.
“I also want to make one thing very clear: I intend to play basketball for the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury this season, and in doing so, I look forward to being able to say `thank you' to those of you who advocated, wrote, and posted for me in person soon,” Griner said.
Griner — who for years had played in the WNBA offseason for a Russian women's basketball team — was arrested on drug smuggling charges at an airport in the Moscow region in February 2022. Her detention, which became an international cause during a tense time in relations between the US and Russia, was deemed wrongful by American officials.
COLLEGE SPORTS Investigator: Alabama player Miller brought gun used in shooting
University of Alabama basketball star Brandon Miller brought a teammate the gun that was used in a fatal January shooting near campus, an investigator testified. Miller, a freshman standout, brought Darius Miles' gun to him on the night of the shooting after Miles texted him and asked him to do so, Tuscaloosa Police investigator Brandon Culpepper testified, according to news outlets.
The allegation of Miller's involvement on the night of the Jan. 15 shooting came during a preliminary hearing for Miles and Michael Davis, who face capital murder charges for the death of 23-year-old Jamea Harris. The ex-Alabama player Miles is accused of providing his gun to Davis, who fired it and killed Harris, prosecutors say.
Alabama coach Nate Oats told reporters the team has been aware that Miller allegedly brought Miles the gun, but the team's leading scorer is not in “any type of trouble.” He has started every game since the shooting. Miller was just in “the wrong spot at the wrong time,” Oats said.
Miller has not been criminally charged.
• Authorities in Las Vegas are investigating the death of a 20-year-old UNLV football player from Chicago who was found unresponsive in bed in a studio apartment, officials said. The Clark County coroner said a cause and manner of Rebels defensive lineman Ryan Keeler's death was pending following his death on Monday. Medical examiner blood toxicology test results can take several weeks.
UNLV head coach Barry Odom announced Keeler's death on Monday, saying that since the 6-foot-6, 275-pound defensive lineman arrived by transfer from Rutgers University, he stood out to coaches as “an incredible person, student and teammate.” Keeler played in seven games as a redshirt freshman last season, and he made the academic All-Mountain West team with a 3.8 grade-point average, Odom said.
• A LSU football player faces a misdemeanor weapons charge following his arrest on Bourbon Street as New Orleans celebrated the Mardi Gras season. Malik Nabers, 19, of Youngsville, Louisiana, the Tigers' leading wide receiver last year, was arrested Monday on one count of illegal carrying of a weapon, The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate reported.
NFL Titans hire Outten as assistant coach
The Tennessee Titans have hired Justin Outten as their new running backs coach and run game coordinator. He joins Tennessee after spending last season as offensive coordinator for Denver
• Cleveland Browns special teams coordinator Mike Priefer was fired following four seasons of inconsistency and numerous breakdowns by his units. Priefer spent three seasons on head coach Kevin Stefanski's staff.
FIGURE SKATING WADA appeals case of Russian Valieva
The World Anti-Doping Agency has appealed Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva's doping case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and said it is seeking a fouryear ban. WADA is objecting to a finding by a Russian tribunal that Valieva bore “no fault or negligence” in the case, which overshadowed last year's Beijing Olympics. WADA wants a four-year ban and for Valieva's results to be disqualified from the date she gave the sample, Dec. 25, 2021. That would include the Olympics.
A year after the Beijing Games finished, no medal ceremony has taken place for the team competition because of the uncertainty.
WADA said the Russian decision was “wrong under the terms of the World AntiDoping Code in this case,” without giving further detail.
The Russian skater, who was then 15, won Olympic gold in the team competition before it was announced that a sample she gave two months before tested positive for a banned substance. The result was reported later because the lab which tested the sample was affected by the coronavirus pandemic.