Brittney Griner re-energized with Dream, eyes L.A. Olympics

Brittney grins Says She Feels Re-Inergied by Her Fresh Start With the Atlanta Dream After 11 seasons with the Phoenix Mercury And has set a goal of playing at the summer olympics in Los angeles in 2028.

“It’s a Goal of Mine,” Griner Told Espn in an extended interview this week as she prepares for her debut with the dream on Friday night Washington mystics. “IT HASN” In the us for a while now, so I think to be able to play at the olympics in your home for amazing. It and try to do what I need to do so I can get that call up or at last be at the camp and help out the one that will go, whatever it is going to be. “

Griner, 34, played sparingly for team usa as it won a good medal at the paris olympics. But the three-time Gold Medalist Tays Her Offseason Move to the Dream After 11 Seasons with the Mercury has her feels stronger mentally and physically than in years.

“You get comfortable and sometimes you don’t want to get out of that bubble,” Griner sa. “But it is like the one thing that you definitely need. Sometimes Life will push you out of that bubble sometimes, and I just did it.

Griner Told Espn that she WASN IS LOOKING TO LEAVE TO LEAVE LAST SEASON, AND EXPEED THAT SHE’D HAVE THE SAME OPPORTANITY TO RETIRE AS A MAMBER OF THE TEAM that drafted her no. 1 overall in 2013 as her longtime team, Diana Taurasi Had.

But things were changed when the same information her before free agency that they would like in a different direction. Phoenix ended up revamping its rooster by trading for forwards Satou Sabally And Alyssa thomas.

“I was doing everything as if I was going to still have that jersey on,” Griner saaid. “Then there was a meeting right to go to go to unrived and I found out, ‘Oh, it looks like they want to do something this is news to me.’ I wish I would “known way soon, but hey, life happens.”

Griner drove home from her meting with the same on her motorcycle and tried to digest the news. She Pulled over to call her longtime agent, lindsey kagawa and her wife, cherelle griner.

They’d bee looking for a new house in Phoenix all summer but noting felt right. Perhaps that was a sign.

“Basically was toold that I don’t know what your Future Holds,” Griner sa, when asked if she was given the option to Phoenix. “After I heard that, it became my Decision. Because I want to be somewhere where they know they wanted me, where they beleave in me and my game.”

The atlanta Dream Were Her first choice. She loves the players on the team and felt she’d fit in wit with all-stars Allisha gray And Rhyne Howard.

After digesting the Initial Shock and Disappointment That Her Time in Phoenix was over, Griner Found Herself Getting More Excited about the Future. She’d been comfortable in Phoenix. And she’d forever be grateful to the organization for its help from a Russian prison, where she was detained for 10 months in 2022.

But Even Before The Mercury Told Her the Were Going in a Different Direction, She’d Started Wondering If She Might’ve Grown Too Comfortable. After the Mercury Lost their playoff game to the Minnesota LynxA Reporter Asked Griner if she was containing retirement, as well.

“I ‘like,’ Dang, I not the one retiring. [Taurasi’s] The one retiring, “” Griner meaning. “We are not the same as age. We didn is in the league together. “

So far in atlanta, griner has looked as dominant as ever. She finished with 16 points, 10 rebounds, three associations and a block in her first precision game. But she also looked different-Shooting 3-point and getting out on the break in translation.

The Dream are playing new coach karl smesko’s fund-out system, some of the griner has never done, but say she’s embraqing.

“It’s definitely different,” griner saaid. “I mean, we’re playing five-out. Brionna [Jones] There are complimenting ach other realy well. I thoroughly enjoy playing with bri. A lot of people think two bigs are not going to work. But they have to have to have to figure out how to guard us, and it is actually working really good. “

“Life will push you out of that bubble sometimes, and I just glad that I finally did it.

Brittney griner on leaving the morti and signing with the dream

Griner Said Smesko Suggested an Adjustment to Her Shot, the first day they started working together, and she’s grown much more computer and consistent with it. “

She’s also getting out on the break more often.

“I don’t look fast, but I move. It took me way less steps there every everybody else,” she joked. “I don’t have to be out there pumping, going crazy.”

One thing she will not do not do not hang on to too long, however.

“As long as I can put up numbers and I can help my team out,” Griner Said. “I want to play. When I can get that, or we have to hide me in the corner or put me on the easiest match, I will be able to be a libility on the court and the toe. Along too, I’m not going to sit there and just hit a spot because I just can let go. “

It is all new and different from any, her life and WNBA CAREER BEFORE. Griner and cherelle, because parents to a son, bash, last summer and are adjusting to life with a newborn.

But there are still constant reminders of the 10 months she spent in a Russian prison.

“I learned that i’m definitely adaptable,” she saaid. “Honestly, I can make myself fit whatever I need to do to be okay.”

As she talked, she looked down at her right hand. The other day, when she was lessening down, she’d drown for dots on her hand.

“My cellmate taugh me that is a lot of the people that has been in the prisons, that a tattoo that they normally get,” griner saaid. “It’s just kind of like a reminder. You made it through. You literally sat by yourself in a prison with no one, so if you have a hard day, I’ll put it on there and I ‘ Like, I Made that.

“What I ‘feels right now, this s — ain is noting.”