Brittney Griner reacts to Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich’s release: ‘Head over heels’

(PARIS) — WNBA star Brittney Griner, who spent 10 months detained in Russia, said she is “head over heels” after the release of Americans Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, who were freed from Russia in a prisoner swap.

“Great day,” Griner said from Paris, where she is competing in women’s basketball for Team USA at the Olympics. “I’m head-over-heels happy for the families right now. Any day that Americans come home, that’s a win.”

Griner, who spoke to reporters after the U.S. women beat Belgium 87-74 to advance to the quarterfinals, said finding out about their release was “definitely emotional.”

“I’m sure it will be even more emotional a little later on. Yeah, I’m just happy. This was a big win. Huge win,” Griner said.

“I know they have an amazing group of people that are going to help them out — them and their families,” she said, adding that she was “glad” to receive that help herself to “get reacclimated into everyday life.”

In February 2022, while returning to Russia to play basketball during the WNBA’s offseason, Griner was detained at Russia’s Sheremetyevo International Airport after she was accused of having vape cartridges containing cannabis oil, which is illegal in the country. The State Department said she was wrongfully detained.

In July 2022, Griner pleaded guilty to drug charges, saying that the vape cartridges containing cannabis oil were in her luggage unintentionally. She testified that she had “no intention” of breaking Russian law and packed the cartridges by accident.

The WNBA star was released in December 2022 after U.S. officials agreed to swap her for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

Griner told “Good Morning America” co-anchor Robin Roberts earlier this year she expected to also see Whelan there when she was boarding the plane to leave Russia.

“When I walked on and I didn’t see him, I was like, ‘OK, maybe I’m early. Maybe he’s next. Maybe they are going to bring him next,'” she said of Whelan. “And when they closed the door, I was like … are you seriously not gonna let this man come home right now?”

“If it was left up to me in that trade, I would have went and got Paul and brought him home,” Griner said.

After her release, Griner became an advocate for Americans wrongfully detained abroad.

Whelan, a former U.S. Marine, was arrested in 2018 and accused of espionage. Both the Biden and Trump administrations denied the allegation against Whelan. He was convicted on the charges in 2020 and sentenced to 16 years in prison.

Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter, was arrested by Russian authorities in 2023 for espionage, a charge he and U.S. officials flatly deny, with President Joe Biden saying he was targeted for being a journalist and an American. After an unusually hasty trial that played out behind closed doors, Gershkovich was found guilty and sentenced to 16 years in a high-security penal colony.

Two others unjustly imprisoned in Russia, Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-Murza, were also released in Thursday’s swap, Biden said.

ABC News’ Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report.

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