LAS VEGAS — When Brittney Griner was named the starting All-Star last month, Breanna Stewart immediately maneuvered to re-post her friend alongside her as a teammate, albeit for a short time.
“To have her sitting next to me, to have her on my team, that was my No. fans. “I had to negotiate behind the scenes to get everything right and the way I wanted it. But it’s amazing.
The deal to secure Griner as a center for the Stewart team and as Stewart’s interview partner before the contest was significant. Stewart agreed to let A’ja Wilson, the top fan vote winner with the rights to the No. 1 pick in the All-Star Draft, select her three Las Vegas Aces teammates. Wilson started with No. 1 overall pick Chelsea Gray and Stewart followed with Griner at No. 2. Wilson then added Jackie Young and Kelsey Plum as part of the deal.
“I found out about it a bit after the fact and I was like, ‘Well done to the teammate right there,'” Griner said. “I was super happy with it.”
Stewart was also very happy, whose draft earned him redemption from last year’s loss at a reunion of the same captains. Team Stewart ran away from Team Wilson, 143-127, to tie the series at 1-1. Jewell Loyd was named MVP with an ASG record 31 points. Griner paced the team early and finished with 18 points, 13 rebounds and multiple dunks.
“First pick, I knew I had to do something to be able to pay back,” Griner said after the game. “So those dunks and get the dub. It did it there.
Gray told her teammates on Friday to just get out of the way to avoid a Griner dunk, and it looked like her opponents were tempting her to do so early in the first quarter. Griner scored his first points on an offensive rebound and the next two buckets in a completely open lane. With less than four minutes left in the quarter, Stewart fed her in transition and Griner threw in a single.
She added another early in the second half, although she noted that after the match she had wanted her Team Stewart teammate Nneka Ogwumike in on the slam action. Stewart joked Griner should have had five dunks.
Stewart’s appreciation for the moment, which was far from possible at this time last year, was clear on Friday as she looked on with a smile at Griner next to her on the dais in the halls of Michelob Ultra Arena. The 2022 event was held without Griner and the players returned at halftime all wearing his No. 42 to keep Griner centered. A few days later, the Phoenix Mercury star held up a photo of them from his Russian prison cell.
“Looking at last year, especially the All-Star [Game] and really throughout the season, it felt like there was a void in the WNBA and something was missing,” Stewart said. “And it was BG. And we continued to do everything we could to let her know that we were still thinking of her, that we were still fighting for her.
Stewart centered Griner’s wrongful detention in Russia with daily tweets after the case became public in March 2022. Since Griner’s return, Stewart has made his safety a priority, including a push for charter flights in his dealings with free agency. On the day the All-Star starters were announced, Stewart asked after a New York Liberty win at Barclays Center if she should trade picks with Wilson to catch Griner.
“Fast forward to this year’s All-Star, it’s amazing to have him here,” Stewart said Friday.
Hours later, Griner found himself on the sidelines of the skills contest with a plate of bacon alongside former Mercury teammate DeWanna Bonner. It was refreshingly standard Griner behavior, but with a special meaning. She said earlier today that she liked to eat whatever she wanted after spending 10 months in a Russian prison.
“Well, my health, I don’t really think I’m the best person to ask about health,” she said, leaning deliberately to drink from a can of soda under the dining table. interview.
While his health habits may not be All-Star caliber, his game certainly deserves the nod. Griner is averaging 19.5 points (seventh), 6.6 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.9 blocks (second). Her 27.7 minutes per game is near a career low and she is shooting 60.6%, ranking third in the league and improving her career average by five percentage points.
“I’m just happy to be here in this building,” Griner said. “All-Star is a fun time to be here together. You will learn each other’s personality.
Stewart and Griner learned about each other through Team USA, where they won Olympic gold together, and playing on the same UMMC Ekaterinburg team that Griner returned to two winters ago when she was taken into Russian custody in an airport. Stewart’s decisions with his all-business draft-day clipboard also reunited Griner with Courtney Vandersloot, who played with both on that UMMC team that was a European powerhouse before Russia invaded Ukraine.
“We were playing overseas together and everything happened and we couldn’t finish it, so just being able to be back in a team with her [Stewart] and Sloot feels good,” Griner said.
Since her first press conference with reporters in April, Griner has appreciated everyone who fought to bring her home and enjoys the little moments. She said that a day after the weekend festivities began, she enjoyed being with the players again and having a very close friend and godson in town. Being at All-Star again was “a bit surreal, to be honest,” she said.
She also infused everything with her sense of humor. Before the match, she joked in a quip considered by some to be dark that she hoped to score more than last year.
“I always use humor as a crutch or just to get through a tough time,” Griner said. “And it’s not for everyone, but if you can’t find the humor in something, it’s better than just being depressed and sitting under a dark cloud.”
She turned with more laughter to Stewart.
“I mean, I really hope my numbers are better. I hope I get something,” Griner said. “But it’s nice to be able to do that. It just helps me.
She got the better of Plum, the 2022 All-Star MVP, with a swat late in the fourth quarter. Plum looked jokingly aggrieved that the referee hadn’t given her team possession, and Griner was still laughing as she took to the field on her team’s next offensive possession. They tied under the basket with minutes to go, Griner dominating the 5-foot-8 Plum Dawg.
“Probably blocked by BG?” Ogwumike berated Plum when asked about the highlight of their weekend.
Minutes into the contest, she played with another hometown Ace, giving Gray the finger-to-eye move while keeping her on the perimeter. Team Wilson quadrupled it late, to which Wilson asked, “What else were we supposed to do?” In the fourth quarter, she accepted a play ball pass from Wilson for Phoenix hosting the 2024 All-Star Game.
“I’m lucky he’s coming back,” Griner said. “I know Phoenix and the Mercury organization are going to put in a hell of an All-Star. I know that for sure. So I can’t wait to be there, to play there in front of our fans.
Griner spent time after the game seeing people on the field and signing gear for a group of young fans, a few of whom were wearing Aces jerseys. As she was introduced by PR officials for media responsibilities after the game, she stopped to sign a hat for one of the fans hanging on the railing, shouting her name. During the drive from court to the interrogation room, she continued to meet people and when she crashed into the interview booth, it upset Aces assistant Tyler Marsh’s baby sitting on Wilson’s lap.
Griner leaned over and apologized to the baby, all smiles as the room laughed and Wilson asked, “Where are the parents of this baby?” to great joy. She once again joked with Stewart next to her, continually filling the void the league felt last summer when their only connection to the All-Star was wearing his No. 42.