BG is free. Brittney Griner cherishes her Olympic experience after Russian detention

Fans wearing the United States’ red, white and blue draped a simple white banner with handwritten black letters over the railing in the front row at Bercy Arena. Behind the basket near the U.S. bench, there was no way players could miss it.

“Griner” it read, “#15”

Playing internationally for the first time after her nearly 10-month detainment in Russia, Brittney Griner has had the support of fans in France, where she’s soaking up the experience and support with gratitude and joy.

“There was a time where I didn’t know if I would ever play USA basketball again or play basketball in general,” Griner said after the United States’ quarterfinal victory over Nigeria on Wednesday. “And I think it just means more to me now.”

Griner — known as BG among teammates and fans — had five points and three rebounds during an 85-64 semifinal rout of Australia on Friday at Bercy Arena. She previously recorded 11 points and three rebounds during the win over Nigeria.

On a team with 67 combined WNBA All-Star appearances, the two-time WNBA scoring champion plays a supporting role, but Griner still makes her impact felt. Her first touch on the ball after subbing into the game during the quarterfinals Wednesday was an emphatic block.

“You’re bringing Brittney Griner off the bench? I mean, that’s just another level,” German head coach Lisa Thomaidis said after an 87-68 U.S. win during pool play. “They’re the best team in the world for a reason.”

The United States is one win away from its unprecedented eighth consecutive Olympic gold medal. Completing the feat would be a record for a traditional team sport in the Olympics, surpassing the seven consecutive gold medals the U.S. men’s basketball team won from 1936 to 1968. The U.S. women haven’t lost in Olympic play since 1992, a streak of 60 straight games.

Griner, a 10-time WNBA All-Star, already has two gold medals. But returning to the Olympic setting feels different this time around, she said. After pleading guilty to smuggling charges when Russian customs officials found cartridges containing less than a gram of hash oil in her luggage, Griner was sentenced to nine years in prison. She worked in a penal colony cutting fabric for military uniforms, slept with her legs hanging off a bed much too small for her 6-foot-9 frame and cut off her signature dreadlocks that froze in the bitter winter cold.

Read more: Complete coverage: U.S. offers Russia deal for Brittney Griner’s release

Comparatively, even the hardest practice is a joy for Griner now.

“All these little moments mean so much,” Griner said. “Waking up, going to practice, even when you don’t want to practice, having the opportunity to do that, because we overlook it. That’s the opportunity that we get to do and I just cherish every second I can now.”

WNBA players led the push to facilitate Griner’s return, tweeting about her every day, wearing shirts with her face and playing on courts with her number and initials. She returned to the league in an emotional season-long welcome back tour. Battling for an Olympic gold medal on the national team is “not the same without her,” Breanna Stewart said.

“She is a remarkable person,” said Diana Taurasi, who has played with Griner since the former Baylor star was drafted first overall by the Phoenix Mercury in 2013. “I know we see her on the court as being an intimidating, dominant force. But I always say she’s the person with the biggest heart.”

Averaging 17.8 points and 6.3 rebounds per game for the Phoenix Mercury in the one and a half WNBA seasons since her return, Griner is still as imposing of a force on the court as she is jovial off it. Before she left the court against Nigeria, Griner signed the banner fans hung with her name. She balled it up and tossed it back to the front-row fans before walking off and pointing toward the fans with a smile. She jokingly tried to walk through the media mixed zone after the game by half covering her face as if no journalists would see her towering figure.

Already involved in advocacy for LGBTQ+ rights and the organizer of an annual shoe drive with the Mercury, Griner has an off-court influence that has only grown since her return. She partnered with Bring Our Families Home to represent wrongfully detained Americans overseas, and less than two years after she set foot back on American soil at San Antonio’s Brooke Army Medical Center, she celebrated a similar homecoming story for four U.S. citizens and residents, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who were released in a prisoner swap last week.

“I’m head-over-heels happy for the families right now,” Griner told reporters last Thursday.

Griner had played for one of Russia’s top teams, UMMC Ekaterinburg, during every WNBA offseason since 2015 but vowed she would never play professionally overseas again unless it was for the U.S. national team. Because she was 33, it was likely time for that phase of her career to end anyway, Griner said.

Now is the time for her growing family.

Read more: Why Brittney Griner was in Russia, and what it says about women’s sports in the U.S.

Griner’s wife, Cherelle, gave birth to son Bash on July 8, just days before Griner was set to leave for Olympic preparations. Griner said she suddenly feels even more pressure from a new set of eyes on her, even if Bash is unable to attend the Games at this age. When he grows up and realizes Griner left him at home for Paris when he was 3 weeks old, he may be angry, she joked.

But she’ll make it worth it.

“Hopefully,” Griner said with a smile, “we can get this gold and I can lay it next to him.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.