Brittney Griner plays basketball for the first time since prisoner swap saw her freed

Brittney Griner has reportedly taken to the basketball court for the first time in nearly 10 months following her return to the United States.

The WNBA star was back on US soil Friday morning after she was released from a Russian prison in a high-profile exchange for a notorious arms dealer.

It hasn’t taken her long to get back to her sport as she picked up a basketball for the first time since the prisoner swap on Sunday, reports ESPN. 

Brittney Griner (left – when she was swapped for Russia’s arms dealer Viktor Bout and right playing for Phoenix Mercury before her arrest in February) has reportedly taken to the basketball court for the first time in nearly 10 months following her return to the United States

Griner is located at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio and carried out a light workout, her agent Lindsay Kagawa Colas told the outlet.

It’s claimed the 32-year-old wore a Title IX t-shirt, Phoenix Suns shorts and Chuck Taylor sneakers as she scored a slam dunk in one of her first moves of the practice.

Griner belongs to the Phoenix franchise, representing the Mercury team before being arrested in Russia in February on drug charges.

Her future with the team remains up in the air after 10 months in prison.

‘If she wants to play, it will be for her to share. She has the holidays to rest and decide what’s next without any pressure,’ Colas told ESPN. 

‘She’s doing really, really well. She seems to have endured this in pretty incredible ways.’ 

The WNBA star was swapped for ‘Merchant of Death’ Viktor Bout, 55 – who was serving a 25-year sentence in a US prison – ending what President Joe Biden called months of ‘hell’ for her and her wife.

Griner was seen getting off a plane that landed Friday at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas, after flying from the UAE where the prisoner trade took place. 

‘She was in very, very good spirits when she got off the plane and appeared to be, obviously, in good health,’ White House spokesman John Kirby told MSNBC in an interview citing US officials on the ground in San Antonio, Texas, where she arrived just before dawn.