Brittney Griner Has Not Been Suspended From the WNBA, Despite What You've Heard

There are few WNBA players more famous than Brittney Griner, in part because she spent more than a year being held by the Russian government. Brittney has been back in the U.S. for several years, though, and recently, her name has begun trending online because of rumors that she has been suspended from the WNBA.

These rumors suggest that Brittney was suspended, although the reason for that suspension are funny, as is its duration. Here's what we know about whether these rumors have any truth behind them.

Brittney has not been suspended from the WNBA. She was ejected from a game between her team, the Atlanta Dream, and the Dallas Wings on July 31 after a heated confrontation with officials that also included some incidental contact.

Following that ejection, rumors began to circulate that she had been suspended over her conduct in that game, but that is not the case. Instead, Brittney has been out for the past few games because of a neck injury.

Brittney has been on the Dream's official injury report for the past few days, and the WNBA has not taken any action to discipline her following her ejection (which is a form of discipline in and of itself). The WNBA has not announced a suspension, and while Brittney was previously suspended in 2015 and 2019, this time, her conduct did not merit a suspension, just an ejection.

Even though the rumor that Brittney was suspended is untrue, it's begun circulating online in parts of the Conservative online ecosystem as proof that the Biden Administration should not have negotiated her release in exchange for a Russian arms dealer. Brittney was first detained in Russia in 2022 and was released the following year, and has been outspoken on a range of issues, including LGBTQ+ activism.

Another related claim suggests that White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt "revealed the truth" about Brittney's gender, and that the WNBA was now requiring all athletes to do "sex testing."

Both of these claims are false, and, for the record, there is no evidence that Brittney has ever been anything but a woman from a biological standpoint.

As boring as the actual explanation for Brittney's absence appears to be, injuries are not uncommon in the WNBA, and that's the reason she's currently out of the lineup. It's also true that Brittney got heated during an argument with a referee, and was ejected from a game as a result. This is not an uncommon occurrence in the WNBA or the NBA. Calls are sometimes wrong, or athletes truly believe them to be.

Black and white players alike have been ejected, as have men and women. It's definitely detrimental to your team to allow your emotions to get the better of you in that way, but it's nothing more serious than that. Ejection is a part of the sport, and Brittney has been recovering from an injury ever since hers.