Brittney Griner's No. 42 Jersey to Be Retired by Baylor WCBB on Feb. 18

Brittney Griner is a Baylor legend and will be remembered as such on Feb. 18 when the women's basketball program retires her No. 42 when the Bears face Texas Tech.

"I'm honored to return home to Baylor and celebrate where so much of my journey started," Griner said Monday in a statement, per Michael Voepel of ESPN. "I'm grateful to Coach Nicki [Collen] and the entire Baylor community and am 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."

Griner played at Baylor from the 2009-10 season through the 2012-13 one and built an all-time resume.

She was a national champion, two-time Associated Press Player of the Year, two-time Wooden Award winner, two-tine Naismith Award winner, three-time Big 12 Player of the Year, four-time AP All-American and four-time Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, among other honors.

She finished her career with averages of 22.2 points, 8.8 rebounds and 5.1 blocks per game and was the No. 1 overall pick of the Phoenix Mercury in the 2013 WNBA draft. She is also a WNBA champion, eight-time All-Star and two-time Olympic gold medalist.

Griner is widely seen as one of the best athletes in Baylor history, regardless of sport:

Voepel explained that Griner had a "strained relationship" with former Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey, who previously said players had to graduate to have their jersey retired. Griner did return to Baylor and finished her degree in education in 2019.

Yet Collen has stressed the need to retire the legend's jersey ever since she took over following Mulkey's departure.

"I have been saying this since I arrived at Baylor that she deserves to have her jersey retired and I wanted to make sure that happened when the timing was right," Collen said. "With the opening of Foster Pavilion, and the WNBA offseason fitting into our season, this seemed like the right time to honor Brittney and welcome her back home.

"She is one of the best basketball players in Baylor's history, and we're thrilled that the time has come to celebrate Brittney and all of her accomplishments."

Voepel noted Collen and Baylor had hoped to retire Griner's number during the 2021-22 campaign, but she was detained and imprisoned in Russia for 10 months in 2022 before she was eventually freed in a prisoner swap between the United States and Russia.

Yet the ceremony will happen in February, which will make her the seventh player to have their jersey retired by the women's basketball program.