Amazingly, Baylor University, generally regarded as at least somewhat conservative because of its Christian roots, just chose to honor WNBA player Brittney Griner. Griner infamously protested the National Anthem in July of 2020, saying she didn’t think it should even be played. In 2023, she changed her stance on that subject. Griner also was arrested in Russia for marijuana possession in 2022, and released as part of a deal struck between the Russian government and Biden Administration.
Regardless of her political antics and Russian arrest, on Sunday, February 18, Griner was honored by Baylor University. The school, at which she played basketball in college, chose to honor her by retiring her No. 42 jersey. It did so during a home game, the first she attended since her final season 11 years ago, in 2013.
As background, ESPN reports that Griner was a standout player on Baylor’s team. A junior during the team’s 40-0 2011 to 2012 season, she helped lead it to national championship victory. She also helped the team win the first two rounds of the 2013 NCAA tournament, though they lost in the Sweet 16. While a college player, she won two consecutive player of the year awards.
Now, over a decade later, which imparts something of a political aspect to the ceremony, Baylor retired her jersey. It did so by raising it to the rafters in the team’s new Foster Pavilion stadium in a ceremony before the Baylor Bears played Texas Tech. During the ceremony, a video showing highlights from her career was played. Griner declined to address the crowd, instead just waving to them and patting her heart.
Watch the ceremony here:
Griner had protested the National Anthem starting in 2020, after the death of George Floyd. That eventually changed, with Griner deciding to stand during the pre-game Anthem after she was released from Russian prison thanks to the Biden Administration.
Explaining her changed stance when speaking to ESPN, Griner said, “You have the right to protest, the right to able to speak out, question, challenge and do all these things. What I went through and everything, it just means a little bit more to me now. So I want to be able to stand. I was literally in a cage [in Russia] and could not stand the way I wanted to.”
Continuing, she added, “Just being able to hear my national anthem, see my flag, I definitely want to stand. Now everybody that will not stand or not come out, I totally support them 100 percent. That’s our right, as an American in this great country.”
Similarly, her agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, explained her decision in an op-ed in TIME, saying, “Last year, most WNBA teams chose to remain in their locker rooms during the national anthem, in a gesture of unified protest against the incongruity between the values the anthem signifies and the realities for Black people in America.”
The agent continued, “This year, as so much remains unchanged, some teams or players may do the same. Others may sit or kneel. Still others, including Brittney Griner, plan to stand up — physically for the anthem itself and symbolically for the rights of their peers to make themselves heard and express dissent loudly and boldly, and in accordance with the proudest traditions of this country, however they see fit.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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