Brittney Griner, the WNBA superstar who was arrested at a Moscow airport in 2022 for ownership of an improper cannabis cartridge, blames a “mental slip” for why she forgot to remove the cartridge before observation.
Prior to being free in a prisoner swap with infamous arms trader Viktor Bout, Griner spent ten months in prison for possessing the unlawful marijuana cartridge.
Griner was asked how she would respond to those who do n’t understand how to forget that she has an illegal cannabis cartridge in her luggage in a partial release of an interview with ABC’s Robin Roberts.
On April 5, 2024, in Cleveland, Ohio, Brittney Griner observes during the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament Final Four quarterfinal match between the UConn Huskies and the Iowa Hawkeyes. ( Steph Chambers/Getty Images )
” I do state,’ Have you ever forgot your codes in your vehicle, left your vehicle running? Have you ever ( asked ) where’s my glasses, and they’re on top of your head? Where’s my telephone? Oh, it’s in my wallet.’ It’s just so simple to have a psychological lapse”, Griner said.
” Granted, my mental lapse was more on a grand scale, but it does n’t take away from how that could happen”.
Roberts also questioned Griner about her mental condition while she was being searched by Russian officials.
US Women’s National Basketball Association ( WNBA ) basketball player Brittney Griner, who was detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport and later charged with illegal possession of cannabis, leaves the courtroom after the court’s verdict in Khimki outside Moscow, on August 4, 2022. ( Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP ) ( Photo by KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty Images )
” Only everything I’m not going to see,” I reply. I’m thinking about my family”, she said. Public opinion will believe what my family will believe, not to mention myself. I can now only see the articles, as if all I worked so hard for was really crumbling and disappearing.
” And to be there where there’s no knowledge. In the U. S., I you explain what happened, how this happened. I did n’t plan to do this. This was a blunder. It was an injury. I understand mishaps have implications, but there’s nothing. There’s none of that.”
On Wednesday, more passages from the meeting are anticipated to be made public. Griffin is working for the Phoenix Mercury for the first time.
