Brittney Griner made an emphatic and emotional return to the WNBA's midseason showcase event.

Video above: Brittney Griner is Getting Her Own Comic book

She scored 18 points, including her team's first six, and put down two dunks in the league's All-Star Game on Saturday night.

The sellout crowd roared when Griner was introduced and, clearly moved by the ovation, she tapped her chest over her heart with her right hand. There was no doubt that a year after being forced to miss this event while detained in Russia, Griner was the star of the show.

"To have that ovation and all those little memories that I can cherish now, it means the world," Griner said. "So it was no question I was going to come and play. They have never wavered in their support."

Griner led Team Stewart, captained by the New York Liberty's Breanna Stewart, to a 143-127 victory over Team Wilson, led by the Las Vegas Aces' A'ja Wilson. The 143 points and 270 combined points are All-Star Game records.

Team Stewart's Jewell Loyd of the Seattle Storm broke the All-Star Game scoring record with 31 points, setting the mark on a pass from Griner. Maya Moore and Kelsey Plum shared the previous record of 30 points. Loyd earned MVP honors for the game.

"I played hard because of my parents; I didn't get them a gift for their anniversary," Loyd said. "So I think this was acceptable. I hope it is."

Plum actually tied her own record with 30 points, one of four Aces competing for Team Wilson, who received loud ovations from the home crowd in pregame introductions. Plum, who also had five assists, said sponsors pledged to donate $1,000 to a Las Vegas charity for each basket and assist.

"So I was gunning," Plum said. "I mean 17 shots in 21 minutes is wild."

She raised $16,000.

Griner, at this time last year, was being held in Russia on drug charges, sparking international outrage that she was being wrongfully detained. The WNBA named her an honorary starter, with every player wearing her No. 42 jersey in the second half of last year's game.

This year, Griner was in the starting lineup — the only one wearing that jersey number — overshadowing almost everything that happened on the court.

Team Stewart made Griner the focal point from the beginning. She delivered a dunk with 3:50 remaining in the first quarter off an outlet pass from Stewart. Griner also had a dunk 25 seconds into the second half.

"I called my knees and talked to them and gave them a little pep talk," the 32-year-old Griner said of her dunks.

She displayed that same jumping ability afterward, leaping up on the riser for the postgame news conference.

Griner at one point in the first quarter challenged Team Wilson point guard Chelsea Gray of the Aces, but Gray drove past the nine-time All-Star from the Phoenix Mercury and dropped in a reverse layup from high off the glass. It was one of the few plays that didn't work out for Griner.

At the first media timeout, Griner was shown on the video board as she sat on the bench with the words, "WELCOME BACK BRITTNEY GRINER" on the screen below her face.

Griner was among the players who wore microphones during the game, joking after missing a 3-pointer that she "got something in my eye."

The game was played with a 20-second shot clock rather than the usual 24, two 4-point spots on each side of the court were added and there were no free throws. The teams combined to hit 12 4-point shots.

New York's Sabrina Ionescu, representing Team Stewart, made all three of her attempts from 4-point range in the first half, carrying over her extraordinary shooting from the previous day. Ionescu set a WNBA and NBA record with 37 of a possible 40 points in the 3-point contest. She finished with 18 points.

Sue Bird, Seimone Augustus and Sylvia Fowles were among the ex-WNBA players in attendance, with Fowles wearing Napheesa Collier's Minnesota Lynx jersey.

Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis and Dwyane Wade were among those with NBA ties watching. Wade is buying an ownership stake in the Chicago Sky.

“Hearing directly from the people who are working to free BG was helpful!! The State Department stated their support for us as a team & asked for us to keep up our efforts in publicly supporting her,” Griner’s teammate Brianna Turner tweeted.

Russian state media agency TASS reported that WNBA star Brittney Griner had her detention extended through July 2 as U.S. officials continue to demand for her release.

The U.S. State Department considers Griner “wrongly detained.” The Russian government claims that Griner was arrested in February for possessing hash oil.

The 31-year-old has been one of the league’s most prolific stars since her 2013 professional debut. She is a seven-time All-Star and consistently one of the WNBA’s top scorers.

The announcement by Russian officials comes a day after the Phoenix Mercury met with State Department officials about Griner.

WNBA star Brittney Griner tried to call her wife nearly a dozen times through the American embassy in Russia on the couple's fourth anniversary Saturday, but they never connected since the phone line at the embassy was not staffed, Cherelle Griner said Monday.

The couple has not spoken by phone in the four months since Griner's arrest in Russia, where she remains jailed. That was to have changed Saturday when a long-awaited call was to have finally taken place after getting Russian government approval.

But the day came and went without any contact, leaving an anguished Cherelle Griner to wonder what went wrong and to suspect at least initially that Russian authorities had thwarted the call.

On Monday, she said she learned from her wife's lawyers a more distressing truth: Brittney Griner had actually tried to call 11 times over a period of several hours, dialing a number she'd been given at the U.S. embassy in Moscow, which the couple had been told would then patch the call through to Cherelle Griner in Phoenix.

But each time, the call went unanswered because the desk at the embassy where the phone rang was apparently unstaffed on Saturday.

"I was distraught. I was hurt. I was done, fed up," Cherelle Griner told The Associated Press in an interview, recounting how an anniversary she had eagerly anticipated was instead spent in tears. "I'm pretty sure I texted BG's agent and was like: 'I don't want to talk to anybody. It's going to take me a minute to get my emotions together, and just tell everybody I'm unavailable right now.' Because it just knocked me out. I wasn't well, I'm still not well."

The State Department said Monday that "we deeply regret that Brittney Griner was unable to speak with her wife because of a logistical error."

The department reiterated that it has no higher priority than the safety of Americans overseas and that it remains in regular contact with families of hostages and wrongful detainees.

For Cherelle Griner, the experience has exacerbated already simmering frustrations about the U.S. government's response to her wife's case.

Though U.S. officials have repeatedly said they are working behind the scenes to get the two-time Olympic gold medalist home from Russia, she said she is "very pissed" about the snafu, especially since the call had been on the schedule for two weeks and yet no one warned her during that time that it might be logistically impossible because of the weekend.

She added: "I find it unacceptable and I have zero trust in our government right now. If I can't trust you to catch a Saturday call outside of business hours, how can I trust you to actually be negotiating on my wife's behalf to come home? Because that's a much bigger ask than to catch a Saturday call."

Cherelle Griner said a contact in the U.S. government had apologized to her for the error. She said she's since learned that the one number Brittney Griner had been given to dial typically processes calls from prisoners on Mondays through Fridays but not weekends, which is why no one was there to transfer the call.

"But mind you," Cherelle Griner said in the interview, "this phone call had been scheduled for almost two weeks — with a weekend date."

Brittney Griner, a seven-time WNBA All-Star who plays for the Phoenix Mercury, was detained at a Russian airport on Feb. 17 after authorities there said a search of her bag revealed vape cartridges containing cannabis oil.

The State Department in May designated her as wrongfully detained, moving her case under the supervision of its Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, effectively the government's chief hostage negotiator. Russian state-run news agency Tass reported last week that her detention had been extended until July 3.

Cherelle Griner said she was still hoping to talk to or meet with President Joe Biden, but "at this point, it's starting to feel like a no."

So far, Cherelle Griner says she's had to rely exclusively on others' assessments of her wife's condition. Lawyers and consular affairs officials have been able to speak with the basketball star, but her wife has not.

On the evening before the call, she went to sleep at 5 p.m. so that she'd be awake and alert at midnight to receive the anticipated call from Russia to Phoenix that never came.

"This was such a big moment because this would have been the first time where I truly could tell if she's OK," Cherelle Griner said, describing it as a "life-or-death" opportunity to discern how her wife was actually holding up. "This would have been the first time for me to actually just hear her in real-time and to truly know if she's OK or to know if she's seconds away from not being in existence anymore."

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U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner testified in a Russian courtroom Wednesday as part of her ongoing trial on drug charges, for which she faces up to 10 years in prison.

Griner, who arrived at the Khimki regional court near Moscow on Wednesday in handcuffs, testified that when she was stopped at the Sheremetyevo airport on Feb. 17, she was made to sign different documents without fully understanding what they included. Griner was not read her rights at the time, she testified.

Initially, Griner said, she signed some documents but was using Google translate on her phone and barely knew what was in them. She was later taken to another room, she said, where her phone was taken away, and she was made to sign more documents without an explanation.

No attorney was present, Griner said.

Griner has been detained in Russia since February when authorities said they found cannabis oil in her luggage at the Moscow airport and accused the WNBA player — who plays in Russia during the league's offseason — of smuggling significant amounts of a narcotic substance.

Griner pleaded guilty earlier this month, a decision the defense hopes will be taken into account by the court and perhaps lead to a less severe sentence. But the U.S. State Department has classified her as wrongfully detained, and her supporters have called for her release, fearing she might be used as a political pawn amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The decision to plead guilty was Griner's alone, a source close to her said. For weeks, Griner, her family, lawyers and experts had discussed the decision extensively, and given the 99% reported conviction rate in Russian criminal cases, Griner was urged to weigh all the factors, including a plea that could ultimately result in a shorter sentence.

Wednesday's hearing — the trial's sixth — was, like earlier ones, attended by U.S. Embassy Chargé d'affaires Elizabeth Rood.

The trial is expected to end early next month, Griner's lawyers have said.

Griner said she inadvertently packed cannabis oil, state media reported

At the start of her trial, a prosecutor accused Griner of intentionally smuggling drugs into Russia, but Griner later told the court she had not meant to commit a crime, according to state media agency RIA Novosti. The cannabis oil was in her luggage, she said, as a result of her packing in a hurry.

Griner's attorneys have told Russian judges their client was prescribed medical cannabis for "severe chronic pain," and in a hearing Tuesday they argued the cannabis oil was for medicinal purposes and not recreational.

A narcologist, called as an expert witness for the defense, testified that was likely based on Griner's prescription because "medical cannabis is a popular treatment specifically among athletes" outside of Russia, according to Maria Blagovolina, another attorney for Griner.

Boykov, however, stressed the defense's position is not that Griner was "allowed to import" banned substances into Russia, but they hoped to show the court "even in the United States, where it is allowed, she used these substances occasionally as prescribed by a doctor, strictly for medical purposes to relieve pain."

"We continue to insist that, by indiscretion, in a hurry, she packed her suitcase and did not pay attention to the fact that substances allowed for use in the United States ended up in this suitcase and arrived in the Russian Federation," Boykov said.

Some have speculated Griner could be released in a prisoner swap similar to Trevor Reed, an American veteran who was detained in Russia for three years before his release in April.

But before any potential prisoner swap, it was expected Griner would have to be convicted and also admit fault, a senior U.S. official previously told CNN.

'She's one of us'

Griner's detention has become a focal point for high-profile American athletes, including USWNT star Megan Rapinoe and four-time NBA champion Steph Curry who called on those listening to stay focused on achieving her release at last week's ESPY Awards.

"As we hope for the best, we urge the entire global sports community to continue to stay energized on her behalf," Curry said, when joined by WNBA stars Nneka Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins-Smith to address the issue.

"She's one of us, the team of athletes in this room tonight and all over the world. A team that has nothing to do with politics or global conflict."

Griner's wife, Cherelle Griner, spoke with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris earlier this month after publicly criticizing the administration's response to her wife's detention.

Cherelle Griner said she was "grateful" for the call, but added she would "remain concerned and outspoken" until her wife was home.

Brittney Griner is happy to be home.

“It feels so good to be home!” Griner posted to Instagram, ABC News and The Associated Press reported. "The last 10 months have been a battle at every turn. I dug deep to keep my faith and it was the love from so many of you that helped keep me going. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone for your help."

Griner's statement on Friday marks the first comment since she was released from a Russian prison earlier this month after being arrested in February on drug-related charges.

For months the Biden administration worked on bringing home the 32-year-old and another American detainee Paul Whelan, the Associated Press reported.

On Dec. 8, President Joe Biden announced that Griner was being released in a prisoner swap in the United Arab Emirates for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, the news outlets reported.

"President Biden, you brought me home and I know you are committed to bringing Paul Whelan and all Americans home too,” Griner said in her statement, the news outlets reported. “I will use my platform to do whatever I can to help you. I also encourage everyone that played a part in bringing me home to continue their efforts to bring all Americans home. Every family deserves to be whole.”

As she continued in her statement, the WNBA star expressed how "grateful" she was to those who helped her make it home, including thanking the staff and medical team at the military facility in Texas where she was recuperating since arriving in the U.S., the news outlets reported.

Griner also said she is already looking forward to playing professional basketball again with the Phoenix Mercury, saying she intends "to play basketball for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury this season, and in doing so, I look forward to being able to say ‘thank you’ to those of you who advocated, wrote, and posted for me in person soon," the Associated Press reported.

Griner said in her statement that she'll “transition home to enjoy the holidays with my family” but didn't say exactly where.

WNBA All-Star Brittney Griner was arrested last month at a Moscow airport after Russian authorities said a search of her luggage revealed vape cartridges.

The Russian Customs Service said Saturday that the cartridges were identified as containing oil derived from cannabis, which could carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. The customs service identified the person arrested as a player for the U.S. women's team and did not specify the date of her arrest. Russian media reported the player was Griner, and her agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, did not dispute those reports.

"We are aware of the situation with Brittney Griner in Russia and are in close contact with her, her legal representation in Russia, her family, her teams, and the WNBA and NBA," Kagawa Colas said Saturday. "As this is an ongoing legal matter, we are not able to comment further on the specifics of her case but can confirm that as we work to get her home, her mental and physical health remain our primary concern."

On Saturday, the State Department issued a "do not travel" advisory for Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine and urged all U.S. citizens to depart immediately, citing factors including "the potential for harassment against U.S. citizens by Russian government security officials" and "the Embassy’s limited ability to assist" Americans in Russia.

Griner, who plays for the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury, has played in Russia for the last seven years in the winter, earning over $1 million per season — more than quadruple her WNBA salary. She last played for her Russian team UMMC Ekaterinburg on Jan. 29 before the league took a two-week break in early February for the FIBA World Cup qualifying tournaments.

More than a dozen WNBA players were playing in Russia and Ukraine this winter, including league MVP Jonquel Jones and Courtney Vandersloot and Allie Quigley of the champion Chicago Sky. The WNBA confirmed Saturday that all players besides Griner had left both countries.

The 31-year-old Griner has won two Olympic gold medals with the U.S., a WNBA championship with the Mercury and a national championship at Baylor. She is a seven-time All-Star.

"Brittney Griner has the WNBA's full support and our main priority is her swift and safe return to the United States," the league said in a statement.