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Mercury coach Nygaard, on Brittney Griner sentencing: "We knew this was coming"

02:18

Brittney Griner’s coach ‘confident’ jailed basketball player will be brought home

Brittney Griner’s basketball coach said her team are “confident” the athlete was wrongfully imprisoned in Russia, and will be returned home to the US.

“We weren’t hanging our hopes on the Russian justice system. We know that the Biden administration and all of our government officials are going to work hard to bring her home,” Phoenix Mercury’s head coach Vanessa Nygaard said.

Griner was sentenced to nine years in a penal colony after a court found her to be guilty of drug possession, and smuggling with criminal intent on Thursday (4 August).

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