Brittney Griner Makes Emotional and Dominant Return to the WNBA All-Star Recreation

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Brittney Griner made an emphatic and emotional return to the WNBA’s mid-season showcase occasion.

She scored her staff’s first six factors, put down two dunks and completed with 18 factors within the league’s All-Star Recreation on Saturday night time.

The sellout crowd roared when Griner was launched, and clearly moved by the ovation, she tapped her coronary heart together with her proper hand. There was little doubt, a 12 months after forcefully being absent from this occasion, that Griner was the star of the present.

“I didn’t assume I’d be right here in the present day,” Griner mentioned. “Everybody sending the letters and the love, meant so much to me.”

Griner led Workforce Stewart, captained by the New York Liberty’s Breanna Stewart, to a 143-127 over Workforce Wilson, led by the Aces’ A’ja Wilson.

Workforce Stewart’s Jewell Loyd of the Seattle Storm broke the All-Star Recreation scoring file with 31 factors, setting the mark on a cross from Griner. Maya Moore and Kelsey Plum every had the earlier file with 30 factors. Loyd earned MVP honors for the sport.

Plum truly tied her personal file with 30 factors, one in all 4 Aces competing for Workforce Wilson, who obtained loud ovations from the house crowd in pregame introductions.

Griner right now final 12 months was being held in Russia on drug costs, sparking worldwide outrage that she was being wrongfully held. The WNBA named her an honorary starter, with each participant sporting her No. 42 jersey within the second half of final 12 months’s recreation.

Workforce Stewart made Griner the point of interest from the start. She delivered a dunk with 3:50 remaining within the first quarter off an outlet cross from Stewart. Griner also had a dunk simply 25 seconds into the second half.

“I known as my knees and talked to them and gave them somewhat pep discuss,” the 32-year-old Griner mentioned of her dunks.

Griner at one level within the first quarter challenged Workforce Wilson level guard Chelsea Grey of the Aces, however Grey drove previous the nine-time All-Star from the Phoenix Mercury and dropped in a reverse layup from excessive off the glass.

On the first media timeout, Griner was proven on the video board as she sat on the bench with the phrases, “WELCOME BACK BRITTNEY GRINER” on the display screen under her face.

The sport was performed with a 20-second shot clock quite than the standard 24, two four-point spots on both sides of the court docket had been added and there have been no free throws. The groups mixed to hit 12 four-point photographs.

New York’s Sabrina Ionescu, representing Workforce Stewart, made all three of her makes an attempt from four-range within the first half, carrying over her extraordinary capturing from yesterday. Ionescu set a WNBA and NBA record with 37 of a potential 40 factors within the 3-point contest. She completed with 18 factors.

Sue Chicken, Seimone Augustus and Sylvia Fowles had been among the many ex-WNBA gamers in attendance, with Fowles sporting Napheesa Collier’s Minnesota Lynx jersey.

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