Brittney Griner's father Raymond Griner speaks with FOX 26 on daughter's return home
HOUSTON - With Houstonian Brittney Griner safely out of Russia after being detained there for nearly 10 months, her father is breathing a huge sigh of relief.
Brittney is currently at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio where she is receiving medical treatment.
"I was real glad, real proud that they had worked out something," said Raymond Griner, Brittney’s father, in an interview with FOX 26 Sports.
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"All my stress has gone down. I feel like I got a 500-pound brick off of my back. Glad talk to her because I haven’t talked to her but twice since she’s been gone," he told us.
(Photo Courtesy of Raymond Griner)
Raymond Griner is retired law enforcement from Texas. He says he is very thankful for everything President Biden and his staff did to get Brittney out of Russia.
"I would just tell him I’d like to thank him for all of his time and effort and his administration for what they’ve done to get her back home because without him they couldn’t have done it," Raymond Griner said.
"I’m very appreciative to the President and the Vice-President and their entire administration. If it wasn’t for them this never would have got done." He says getting his daughter home is the "most important" moment in his life.
PHOENIX, ARIZONA - DECEMBER 08: Phoenix Mercury fan Carley Givens takes a photo of a "Black Lives Matter" mural depicting Brittney Griner outside the Footprint Center on December 08, 2022 in Phoenix, Arizona. WNBA player Brittney Griner was released
"I would say out of everything in my life that I’ve experienced, in my 73 years, this has been the most important thing to me," shared Raymond Griner. "More important that when I spent ’68 and ’69 in Vietnam in the jungle for two years. This is the most important thing and means the most to me because she’s my baby."
Raymond said he never doubted for one minute that Brittney would return home at some point.
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"I had faith she was going to come home," Raymond Griner told us. "I’m pretty religious. I believe in God. I just prayed a lot and put my faith in the Lord and turned it over to him. I knew she was going to come home. I just didn’t know exactly when. Dealing with Vladimir Putin, you don’t know what that man is gonna do and with that war going over there too, that was a big sidetrack too.
"I knew they were working on it, but every time it seemed like they got something worked out the Russians would change their minds. It was like a merry-go-round. You never know what those people are gonna do over there."
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Raymond said he has not had a chance to talk to Brittney in-depth about what happened. He is going to San Antonio on Saturday morning to see his daughter for the first time since this ordeal began back in February.
Brittney told her dad she planned to stay in San Antonio for four or five days, but that could change, and then head to Phoenix where she’s a star for the Mercury in the WNBA.