During Brittney Griner's four years at Baylor University, she and Baylor's head coach at the time, Kim Mulkey, had a tumultuous relationship — largely because Griner was encouraged to keep quiet about her homosexuality while at the private Baptist university.
After Griner left Baylor for the 2013 WNBA Draft, Mulkey asserted that Griner's jersey would not be retired while she was at the school, since Mulkey requires a player to have graduated in order for her jersey to hang in the rafters.
Well, now that Mulkey has ditched Baylor in favor of LSU — and Griner returned to the school in 2019 to complete her bachelor of science degree — Baylor has decided to disregard Mulkey's wishes and retire Griner's No. 42 jersey once and for all.
In terms of on-court accomplishments, hanging Griner's Baylor jersey up in the rafters is a no-brainer. Not only did Griner lead her 2012 Baylor team to a perfect 40-0 record and national championship when she was a junior, but the 3,283 points Griner scored while there is the fourth-most points all-time in Division I women's basketball history. Griner is also the NCAA all-time leader with 748 career blocked shots, and she won two National Player of the Year awards during her Baylor tenure.
A recent statement by Griner made it clear how much this honor — which is to take place Sunday, Feb. 18, when the Baylor women's team hosts Texas Tech — means to her.
"I'm honored to return home to Baylor and celebrate where so much of my journey started," Griner said via Baylor's team website. "I'm grateful to Coach Nicki (Collen) and the entire Baylor community and looking forward to the opportunity to be back on campus, spend time with the team and have my family beside me to share in this incredible moment. Sic 'Em Bears."
Apparently, Baylor wanted to give Griner this honor during the 2021-22 season, as soon as Mulkey was gone. Yet, because Griner was being detained in Russia at that time, the school wanted to wait until she was back on American soil to honor her with the jersey retirement.
It's unlikely that we'll hear any comment from Mulkey about Baylor's decision to retire Griner's jersey — if only because her LSU team has lost two straight games and looks like a shell of the national championship-winning team that it was one season ago.
Not that Griner cares.
