ESPN is proud to present a special showcase of The Brittney Griner Story followed by Q&A with director Alexandria Stapleton.
The Brittney Griner Story traces the extraordinary arc of one of the most celebrated athletes in women's basketball, from her rise to global prominence to the moment her detention in Russia thrust her into the centre of an international diplomatic crisis. The stark pay gap that drove Griner to play overseas in the first place sits at the heart of the story, raising uncomfortable questions about how women's sport is valued. Her experience as a Black, openly queer athlete in an increasingly polarised America adds further weight, weaving together threads of identity, activism and the ongoing culture wars around who gets to have a public voice. As the diplomatic tension between Russia and the United States escalates around her case, the personal becomes unavoidably political. Gripping and genuinely thought-provoking, this is a portrait of one woman's ordeal that opens onto something much larger.
