Brittney Griner
When I went to Baylor on a basketball scholarship - and when I thought about the future as a freshman - one achievement I wanted more than any individual award was a national championship.Collection: Future
I am both humbled and honored to receive the Honda Sports Award for women's basketball.Collection: Sports
You can't control injuries, but you can control how hard you work to come back.
Anybody that's different, be who you are. You never want to change that.
I'm an outdoor person. You'll always see me outdoors - mountain biking, going to the park, going outside throwing the football. I love being on the water. I go canoeing, kayaking, anything really. I like extreme sports too. ATVs, dirt bikes. I am a country girl. Fishing, hunting, hog hunting.
I don't have a soft voice. People say I have a deep voice, and yeah, I do.
I was always told, 'If you're gay, your career is going to fail.'
I got called a boy all the time. Going into the bathroom, I still get the shocked look, like, 'Are you supposed to be in here?' But I'm so used to it now, I'm just like, 'I'm a girl, I'm in the right bathroom.'
We don't talk about things, and in certain communities we really don't talk about our feelings. It's just, 'Put it in a box and forget about it, push it to the back.' That's something I think has hurt us as a society.
I've always been really open about my sexuality and who I am. I never thought a big coming out was necessary.
Footwork is the foundation to my offensive game. Being able to move, pivot around and dribble better were the big things I wanted to add to my game, as well as stretching out my game so I can shoot away from the basket better.
My dad was in Vietnam and a law officer for 30 years. I wanted to be a cop before basketball. I do have pride for my country.
I have seen some horrible stuff said about me.
I'm just being myself, honestly. I know society puts it, Oh, this is masculine and this is feminine. I don't put myself in categories.
Don't hide who you really are.
Just to know I have so many fans out there buying my jersey means a lot. It means I'm doing something right.
When I was young, I never dreamed about winning a national championship. I didn't even play basketball. But I was tall. And long. And had large hands. I was made for the game. It found me later in life, compared to most collegiate athletes.
Don't worry about what other people are going to say, because they're always going to say something, but, if you're just true to yourself, let that shine through.
College is the best days, and I can actually say it is.
We won the national championship. We went 40-0 - the first men's or women's team in history to ever do that.
Most athletes act all unhuman and you can't relate to them. I'm the exact opposite.
My dad is military and law enforcement.
When you're confident, you're going to do things a little differently. You're not going to be hesitant to take a shot, you're not going to be hesitant to make a certain move.
I'm a competitor, you know. I don't want to play just to play; I want to play to win, and I wanted to win it all.
Once I came out in sports, I basically told myself, 'I'm coming out, officially. I wanted to be able to look in the mirror and tell myself that I was being true to me. I wanted to help the younger me, when I was a kid, give them somebody for them to look up to.
Coming to Arizona, I didn't know what to expect,' Griner said. 'The city, the team, the players, the organization, front office really got behind me and everything I wanted to do. I was very vocal on being a part of the LGBTQ community and wanting to get involved anyway I could.
We're given this platform and this voice and this audience. We can either use it for ourselves or we can use it to bring awareness to issues that are going on in the world. I'm definitely on the side of using that microphone for good because you can touch so many people.
Seeing how hard Diana Taurasi works in practice has been amazing. She takes it to another level and is basically another coach on the floor.
I'm a different player. I'm a different person - large feet, big hands.
When I'm not playing basketball I could be doing a lot of things. Honestly, I could sit on the couch, kick my feet up, play some video games - some 'Modern Warfare.'
I didn't grow up wanting to play basketball. I grew up wanting to enlist and then go into law enforcement.
When I was a rookie, I had to shag balls out of the stands. It was my rookie duty.
My dad and my mom have always told me, 'Be who you are.'
I think more people should be open to talking about mental health issues. Instead of holding in so much.
Just as basketball doesn't define who I am, neither does being gay.
I was bullied in every way imaginable, but the worst was the verbal abuse. (I was always a strong, tough and tall girl, so nobody wanted to mess with me from a physical standpoint). It hit rock bottom when I was in seventh grade.
It's taken me a long time to figure out exactly where I fit. During that journey, I realized that everyone has a unique place in this world.
I've had moments when I questioned my place in the world. At times, especially in seventh grade, life was lonely and I'd often feel sad. I never wanted to deny who I was, but dealing with the sadness and the anger that came from people constantly making fun of me wore me down at times.
I stand out in the world and I love that about myself.
I don't say that I'm the best in the country, because I always criticize myself so hard. There are so many things I can say are wrong with my game, and someone can sit there and say, 'Well no, this, this and this are good.' I'm just hard on myself.
I don't really feel the pressure when people say, 'You're changing the game, you've gotta keep doing it.' I feel like I'm adding on. Lisa Leslie dunked, that inspired me to dunk. Candace Parker dunked.
I'm comfortable in my body and I don't mind putting it on display. Honestly, I like how unique it is. My big arms, my bigger hands, these long legs - I love being different.
People are either going to accept me for who I am or they're not. I don't know what people think I'm hiding. I've heard, 'Oh, she's not a female, she's a male.'
When I first started playing basketball, my coordination was horrible! I went into high school at 6 feet and left at 6-7 and then grew another inch in college. Catching the ball, it was bad. I've always been pretty athletic, but when I got really tall, I just felt awkward.
When I first came into the league, I didn't want the ball in my hands.
You don't turn the cheek. I was always taught you turn your head at somebody coming after you, you're going to get hit in the back of the head or worse.
I'm cool with people that play physical.
I would love to be an ambassador for Baylor, to show my school pride, but it's hard to do that - it's hard to stand up and say, 'Baylor is the best!' - when the administration has a written policy against homosexuality.
I've spent too much of my life being made to feel like there's something wrong with me. And no matter how much support I felt as a basketball player at Baylor, it still doesn't erase all the pain I felt there.
I always say I don't want to change the game - just add to it.