Brittney Griner 'Coming Home' interview shows not just her ordeal in Russia, but her humanity

The people who dislike Brittney Griner have always been a cabal of clowns and goofs. Highly unserious people. They don’t like her because she’s openly gay. Because she’s a strong woman. Because she’s Black. Because they love Russia.

They don’t even try to cloak their hate. When Griner was sentenced to nine years in a Russian penal colony for two vape cartridges that contained cannabis oil, the main thing the far right said was she broke the law, so too bad. These are the same people who support a man who kept classified documents next to his toilet.

In any universe, in any place where you have a pulse, Griner is a hero. And it turns out she is a bigger hero than we actually knew.

Griner has detailed her imprisonment in Russia in an upcoming memoir “Coming Home,” which is scheduled to be released on May 7. She spoke with ABC’s Robin Roberts about her book in an interview that aired Wednesday night.

The interview showed with extreme clarity that even the oppressive disgrace that is Russia’s judicial system, even a corrupt superpower, couldn’t destroy her. That is the power of Brittney Griner.

Griner survived because she’s strong. She’s in fact stronger than the people who criticize her. She’s a two-time Olympian and nine-time WNBA All-Star. Toughness is who she is.

But also, in the interview, we see her humanity. The broadcast reminds us all of Griner’s impressiveness as a person. She was the first openly gay athlete to earn a Nike endorsement. She’s kind. A family person. A great teammate. She’s respected by everyone in the sport.

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It’s also clear that Griner had to overcome more than just the physical strain of being in a Russian prison, but also mentally, said Jamison Firestone, an anti-corruption activist. Firestone was a lawyer in Russia when in 2009 an accountant named Sergei Magnitsky revealed a tax fraud scheme involving Russian government officials. He was falsely accused of the same crimes, and put in prison, where he later died.

Firestone and others in the coming years pushed for sanctions against human rights abusers. The end result was the Magnitsky Act. Few people outside of Russia know the abuses of that country’s legal system better than Firestone.

Griner likely had to fight between two mental states: hoping she’d be quickly released, but also realizing it was possible she might have to serve her full sentence.

“It's hard to survive there as a good and principled person, especially when you don't know your fate,” Firestone told USA TODAY Sports in an email interview. “When you know that you are serving 10 years it is in some ways easier to deal with because you can adjust your life to the terrible new reality, by becoming part of it. But to be in limbo, doing everything possible to keep yourself apart from succumbing to that, hoping that somehow you will be rescued, that's incredibly difficult.”

Griner was sentenced to nine years in prison. For breakfast, she described eating a type of porridge that was like cement. For dinner, she ate small pieces of fish that had all the bones in it.

Griner in the interview shows emotion and a sense of relief. Both things are palpable. She also clearly wanted to address some of her critics (and there were lots of them). Roberts gave Griner the opportunity to speak to skeptics who don’t believe she forgot that the cannabis oil was in her bag, and instead think she was trying to sneak the drugs into Russia.

“I would say have you ever forgot your keys in your car?” Griner asked. “Left your car running? Have you ever, you know, ‘Where’s my glasses?’ They’re on top of your head. ‘Where’s my phone? Oh, it’s in my pocket.’ It’s just so easy to have a mental lapse. Granted my mental lapse was on a more grand scale, but it doesn’t take away from how that can happen.”

Griner felt extreme guilt over the entire ordeal, and that’s when she began crying as she relived those emotions with Roberts.

At one point in the interview Griner, thinking back to her detainment, said: “I could just visualize everything I worked hard for crumbling and just going away.” Griner says she contemplated taking her own life.

She was eventually transferred to a penal colony hundreds of miles outside of Moscow and the conditions were about what you’d expect. In her building there were 50-60 women and one bathroom. Three toilets. No hot water. There was a communal sink that everyone used.

"The mattress had a huge blood stain on it,” Griner said, “and they give you these thin two sheets, so you're basically laying on bars.”

Her legs, from the middle of her shin, down to her feet, stuck through the bars.

“Which in prison,” she said, “you don’t really want to stick your leg and arm through bars. You know, because someone (could) go up and grab it, break it, twist it, and that’s what was going through my mind.”

When Griner got home, she enjoyed the things we all take for granted. She got Whataburger, some barbeque, Dr. Pepper and Cheetos.

In Russia, the other prisoners called her The American or The Basketball Player.

We should call her something else: the toughest of heroes.