LAS VEGAS – Brittney Griner made a powerful and emotional return to the WNBA’s mid-season showcase event.
She scored 18 points, including her team’s top six, and threw two dunks in Saturday night’s league All-Star Game.
The sold-out crowd roared as Griner was introduced, and, visibly moved by the ovation, she tapped her heart with her right hand. There was no doubt that a year after his violent absence from that event, Griner was the star of the show.
“To get that ovation and all those little memories that I can cherish now means the world,” Griner said. “So there was no question that I would come and play. They never let up in their support.”
Griner led Team Stewart, led by the New York Liberty’s Breanna Stewart, to a 143-127 victory over Team Wilson, led by the Aces’ A’ja Wilson. The 143 points and 270 combined points are All-Star Game records.
Team Stewart’s Seattle Storm’s Jewell Loyd broke the all-star game scoring record with 31 points and set the new record with a pass from Griner. Maya Moore and Kelsey Plum each had the previous record with 30 points. Loyd received the MVP award for the game.
“I played hard for my parents and didn’t give them a present for their anniversary,” Loyd said. “I think that was acceptable. I hope it is.”
Plum even equaled her own record with 30 points, becoming one of four aces to line up for Team Wilson, who received a loud ovation from the home crowd at the pre-game introduction. Plum, who also had five assists, said the sponsors pledged that for every basket and assist, $1,000 would be donated to a Las Vegas charity.
“So I shot,” Plum said. “I mean, 17 shots in 21 minutes is wild.”
She raised $16,000.
Griner was there this time last year held in Russia for drug-related offences, sparking international outrage that she was being wrongly detained. The WNBA named her an honor starter, with each player wearing her number 42 jersey in the second half of the previous year’s game.
This time Griner was actually in the starting XI – the only one with that jersey number – overshadowed almost everything that happened on the pitch.
Team Stewart focused on Griner from the start. She delivered a dunk 3:50 remaining in the first quarter after a run-out pass from Stewart. grinner also had a dunk Just 25 seconds into the second half.
“I called my knees and talked to them and gave them a little pep talk,” Griner, 32, said of her dunks.
She showed the same talent for jumping later, when she jumped onto the center catwalk for the post-game press conference.
At one point in the first quarter, Griner challenged Wilson Aces point guard Chelsea Gray, but Gray drove past the Phoenix Mercury’s nine-time All-Star and dropped off the target in a reverse layup from above. It was one of the few plays that didn’t work for Griner.
At the first media break, Griner was shown on the video board sitting on the bench with the words “WELCOME BACK BRITTNEY GRINER” written on the screen under her face.
Griner was among the players who wore microphones throughout the game and joked after missing a three-pointer “I’ve got my eye on something.”
The game was played with a 20-second shot clock instead of the usual 24 seconds, two four-point pitches were added on each side of the field, and there were no free throws. The teams scored twelve four-point throws together.
New Yorker Sabrina Ionescu, representing Team Stewart, scored all three attempts from four distances in the first half, repeating her exceptional shooting from the previous day. Ionescu set a WNBA and NBA record with 37 out of 40 possible points in the 3-point competition. She finished the race with 18 points.
Sue Bird, Seimone Augustus and Sylvia Fowles were among the ex-WNBA players in attendance, with Fowles wearing Napheesa Collier’s Minnesota Lynx jersey.
Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis and Dwyane Wade were among those who watched the NBA games. Wade acquires an ownership interest in Chicago heaven.
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