Sandra Griner has not failed in making Brittney Griner feel loved or special. Thus, the world easily remembers her as an amazing mother to the basketball player. Beyond her place as a mother, she was a homemaker who also taught her daughter how to sew.
She was a major reason why Brittney stepped out of the 2012 Olympics consideration when she was confined in a wheelchair due to lupus disease.
Brittney Griner’s Mother Married a Vietnam Veteran
Sandra Griner became married to her husband Raymond Griner. He served in Vietnam after he joined the Marines and later took security jobs and became a sheriff in Harris County in Houston.
His career as a law enforcer motivated their last child Brittney (born in 1990 as the last child) to dream of becoming a law enforcer before she found love in basketball and later became a professional.
In any case, Brittney is not the couple’s only child. Sandra and Raymond had another daughter, Piers before Brittney’s birth. From a previous relationship, Raymond had two children – a son DeCarlo, and a daughter SheKera.
Sandra shares a close relationship with her children and stepchildren. Her last child, Brittney, often praises her mother for her contributions to the basketballer’s life. She taught the Phoenix Mercury player how to sew when she was a little girl.
In 2014 the 10× WNBA All-Star celebrated her mother on her Facebook page. She wrote,
My mom. You are my rock! You are always there for me when I ran in the house cut up or hurt! You are my doctor/nurse/best friend/heart/ my everything! The number one woman in my life! Might not look strong lol! But best believe my mom is the strongest person I know! With the biggest heart in the world! Love u mom!!
She was diagnosed with Lupus which Caused Brittney to Pull Out from the Olympics
Sandra dealt with health issues at different points in her life. Yet, lupus may have been the champion of the ailments she endured, reports Essentially Sports. She was diagnosed with the disease after Brittney’s freshman year at Baylor.
The disease left Sandra in a wheelchair and for the younger Griner to support her mother, she pulled out of consideration for the 2012 Olympics. This was the same year Brittney helped the Lady Bears win a national title.
Speaking of the toll the ailment took on the mother and daughter, the younger Grinner explained that she didn’t want to call her mum at the time because it hurt to hear her mother hurt.
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She Almost Watched Her Daughter Spend 10 Years in Prison
In February 2022, the younger Griner was arrested in Moscow for the possession of drugs in Russia.
According to her, she was not aware that what she carried was illegal in Russia since she was prescribed medicinal cannabis in Arizona, United States.
The arrest generated controversies. There are arguments from United States officials, claiming that her arrest was “leverage in response to the international sanctions imposed against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine”, Wikipedia claims. The United States also claimed that she was wrongfully detained.
She pled guilty but told the court she had no intention of breaking the law. Regardless, in August 2022, the basketballer was sentenced to 9 years in prison and was fined 1 million rubles (about $16,700).
Fate had something different for Sandra Griner’s daughter when the United States government intervened. She was swapped with a convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout who had spent 10 years incarcerated in the US.
