On Feb. 18, Baylor University retired Brittney Griner's #42 jersey.
Grinera two-time AP national player of the year, two-time Olympic gold medalist and the NCAA women's career blocks leader (with 748)attended a Bears home game for the first time since her senior season 11 years ago, ESPN noted.
The LGBTQ+ athlete was part of Baylor's 40-0 national championship team as a junior during the 2011-12 season, the first of her consecutive AP player of the year awards. Her final home games were when the Bears won in the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament in March 2013, including three dunks in her last game there.
"Just full of emotion," Griner said during an interview on the ESPN broadcast. "As soon as [the jersey] started to go up, that's when I started to break."
Current Baylor women's basketball coach Nicki Collen had said that she wanted to retire Griner's jersey. That was delayed when Griner was detained and imprisoned in Russia for 11 months in 2022 before she came back to the United States in a prisoner swap.
Before the ceremony, LSU women's basketball coach Kim Mulkeywho coached Griner when she played at Baylorsaid of her honor, "It's awesome. That's awesome. I bet it'll be a great environment," according to Sports Illustrated.
"I'm honored to return home to Baylor and celebrate where so much of my journey started," Griner said in a pre-ceremony press release. "I'm grateful to Coach Nicki [Collen] and the entire Baylor community and looking forward to the opportunity to be back on campus, spend time with the team and have my family beside me to share in this incredible moment. Sic 'Em Bears."
Andrew Davis