Brittney Griner, Cherelle Griner react to Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich’s release: ‘Head over heels’

(PARIS) — WNBA star Brittney Griner, who spent 10 months detained in Russia, said she is “head over heels” after the release of Americans Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan and Alsu Kurmasheva, who were freed from Russia in a prisoner swap.

“Great day,” Griner said from Paris, where she is competing in women’s basketball for Team USA at the Olympics. “I’m head-over-heels happy for the families right now. Any day that Americans come home, that’s a win.”

Griner, who spoke to reporters after the U.S. women beat Belgium 87-74 to advance to the quarterfinals, said finding out about their release was “definitely emotional.”

“I’m sure it will be even more emotional a little later on. Yeah, I’m just happy. This was a big win. Huge win,” Griner said.

“I know they have an amazing group of people that are going to help them out — them and their families,” she said, adding that she was “glad” to receive that help herself to “get re-acclimated into everyday life.”

Brittney Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner, told “Good Morning America” that when they heard about the swap, “Everything stopped for us. There was no basketball in that moment. We just kind of went back to 2022 for us, and it was just reliving that moment.”

“We were overwhelmed with joy and just relief,” she continued. “Because for BG, it’s still an everyday memory for her, what it was like to come back home. We were so happy for the families to be reunited.”

Cherelle Griner said when her wife was detained in Russia, Whelan’s family was “arms wide open.”

“His sister sent me plenty of emails, just helping me through the process of what to expect,” she said.

Though the prisoners are now free, Cherelle Griner said she’d caution their families that “there’s so much work to be done.”

“Tune the world out and just love on them until they’re whole again,” she advises. “Because they have went through something that’s unimaginable.”

“Do not expect them to be the exact same person you last saw,” she added.

“Just having that grace to be able to, you know, be in the room with somebody that you once knew, and understanding that, you know, we’re all different people now, and giving them the space to, like, reintroduce themselves,” she said.

“Everyone at the San Antonio base was … helping me out with what to expect from someone who’s experienced a great amount of trauma,” she said.

In a statement on Instagram the Griners said they were “overwhelmed with joy and relief.”

“The Biden-Harris Administration showed true leadership once again by doing whatever it took to bring Americans home. Every American returned is a win,” they said.

The Griners said that while “today is one of celebration,” their “hearts go out to the many Americans still being held hostage overseas, and their families.” They called for people to “continue to do everything we can to shine a light on the remaining Americans detained.”

In February 2022, while returning to Russia to play basketball during the WNBA’s offseason, Brittney Griner was detained at Russia’s Sheremetyevo International Airport after she was accused of having vape cartridges containing cannabis oil, which is illegal in the country. The State Department said she was wrongfully detained.

In July 2022, Brittney Griner pleaded guilty to drug charges, saying that the vape cartridges containing cannabis oil were in her luggage unintentionally. She testified that she had “no intention” of breaking Russian law and packed the cartridges by accident.

The WNBA star was released in December 2022 after U.S. officials agreed to swap her for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

Brittney Griner told “GMA” co-anchor Robin Roberts earlier this year she expected to also see Whelan there when she was boarding the plane to leave Russia.

“When I walked on and I didn’t see him, I was like, ‘OK, maybe I’m early. Maybe he’s next. Maybe they are going to bring him next,'” she said of Whelan. “And when they closed the door, I was like … are you seriously not gonna let this man come home right now?”

“If it was left up to me in that trade, I would have went and got Paul and brought him home,” she said.

Whelan, a former U.S. Marine, was arrested in 2018 and accused of espionage. Both the Biden and Trump administrations denied the allegation against Whelan. He was convicted on the charges in 2020 and sentenced to 16 years in prison.

Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter, was arrested by Russian authorities in 2023 for espionage, a charge he and U.S. officials flatly deny, with President Joe Biden saying he was targeted for being a journalist and an American. After an unusually hasty trial that played out behind closed doors, Gershkovich was found guilty and sentenced to 16 years in a high-security penal colony.

ABC News’ Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report.

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