By Michael Haag | Sports Editor
It’s been well over a month since former Baylor women’s basketball star Brittney Griner was freed from Russian imprisonment and able to come home. As those 47 days have gone by in a flurry, it stacks on to the near decade (3,586 days) that has gone by since Griner last played a game with the then-Lady Bears.
A freshman at Baylor in that 2012-13 season would be between 27 and 29 years old now. It’s impossible for those currently on campus to have experienced what it was like to be a classmate or bystander to the 6-8 basketball machine that was Griner.
Joe Goodman, co-host of The Bear Den podcast and contributor for OurDailyBears, got to be around Griner firsthand as a student and watched her collegiate career unfold in Waco. Goodman, a Baylor graduate of December 2011, said the eight-time WNBA All-Star forward was “one of the most outgoing and extroverted people I think I’ve ever run into.”
Goodman said Griner had a genuine presence and was a lot like any other student, outside of the fact that she was probably a foot taller than most.
“You always got this vibe that all of the stuff that was surrounding her was never too big,” Goodman said. “She was always going to be first and foremost a college student, just like any of the rest of us that were there. To have fun, have a good time, get a good education and it just so happened that she was one of the greatest basketball players on the planet as well.”
Brice Cherry, sports editor at the Waco Tribune-Herald, covered the Baylor women’s basketball beat during Griner’s time. He said he remembers some growing pains during her early years but said she was always pleasant around the media.
“I remember her — this is probably late in her time at Baylor — coming up to [Baylor Bear Insider] Jerry Hill and me and, of course she just towers over everyone, but certainly towers over us,” Cherry said. “And she just sort of put her hands on our heads and was like, ‘How are my two favorite sports writers?’ I mean that was how she was. You couldn’t help but like her.”
Whether she was walking around campus or dominating the Ferrell Center, Griner was pretty easy to spot out in a crowd. Cherry said she was popular with the students and that the three-time Big 12 Player of the Year (2011, 2012, 2013) always made plenty of time for people who wanted pictures or autographs.
That’s just who she was.
The on-court ability of Griner has never been called into question by the Baylor community, as she led the Lady Bears’ 2011-12 team to a 40-0 record and the national championship.
“It was almost unfair to watch her play against people,” Goodman said.
But, there are always two sides to a coin, and while Griner had an incredible four-year run with Baylor, she took the time to add on to her 18 career dunks by slamming down on former head coach Kim Mulkey. Griner — who said she has always been open about being gay — went to ESPN and claimed Mulkey had restricted anyone on the team from talking about their sexuality because it could be a recruiting disadvantage.
It caused a big rift between Griner and Mulkey, and even between Griner and Baylor as an institution. The two-time Associated Press Player of the Year (2012, 2013) has yet to return to campus and has not been honored in any way since her departure.
Goodman said with Griner back home now and and Nicki Collen at the helm for the Bears, it would be “the right time to bring [Griner] back into the fold.”
“She was a Baylor great. She’s a part of our Baylor family. She represented Baylor at the highest levels and did so with grace. She did so with fun and the best smile that you’d ever see,” Goodman said. “To see her number retired or just to even see her back on the sideline recognized, that would make me feel like the Baylor family’s a little bit more whole. It would be a great step forward.”
He added that the public would show out in bunches if an event were to be finalized involving Griner coming back to town. Goodman said he and his generation would make sure it’s a “sellout.”
Cherry said Baylor should try to get Griner back in Waco before the end of this season, especially after all that has unfolded overseas. He also understands that there are folks who don’t share much sentiment toward Griner after all that has transpired.
“It would be the perfect opportunity for Baylor to sort of wrap its arms around her and kind of give her a collective hug,” Cherry said. “Express how much she means. Now, are there gonna be people that maybe have a little different opinion? Sure, I mean that’s the world we live in.”
For Goodman, when he looks back on his college days, he said he doesn’t take it lightly that he had the opportunity to witness greatness when Griner was with the Lady Bears.
“It’s something that I cherish,” Goodman said. “I didn’t get to run in the Baylor Line when we were winning the Big 12 in football. I didn’t get to experience a national championship in men’s basketball like some of the kids did a couple of years ago, but I always get to cherish, I got to see a Heisman [Robert Griffin III] and probably more than anything else, I got to watch Brittney Griner play basketball.”
