Brittney Griner, probably the best female basketball player of all time, is in custody in Moscow due to the conflict in Ukraine. Fans are curious as to why only fewer people are paying attention.
In her last public sighting, Griner is visible heading through airport security with small black luggage. The CCTV captured it.
She’s wearing running shoes, black sweatpants, and a black hoodie with “Black Lives for Peace” emblazoned on the back. Her dark hair is styled in locs down beyond her shoulders in the security footage.
Griner is a top center for the Phoenix Mercury. She had arrived at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport for a second season with a Russian league.
Griner is also seen seated in front of a man who appears to be a customs agent. She was nodding her head “no” in another clip. Then nothing, until last week, when a Russian mugshot was broadcast on official television.
Griner, 31, is suspected of being detained by Russian authorities on drug-related accusations.
Little is clear about her situation a month following her arrest.
More about Brittney Griner
The uncertainty surrounding her destiny has fueled an outpouring of support for the star, who considers being the best female basketball player of all time by fans and sports commentators alike.
It has also sparked outrage among some fans, who claim that the reaction to Griner’s detention has been unusually quiet.
.”If this was an NBA [professional men’s league] player of her caliber… this would be on the cover of not only every sports page but every news media page in the world,” said Tamryn Spruill. She is a sports journalist who is authoring a book about the WNBA and Griner’s accomplishments in the league.
Griner, a nine-year league veteran, is the “best of the best,” according to Melissa Isaacson. Melissa is a sportswriter and lecturer at Northwestern University in the United States.
She is presently one of the most dominant players in WNBA history
“She’s every bit the Tom Brady of her sport,” Ms. Isaacson also said. “You could argue very accurately that she is one of the best athletes in the world.”
She was born in Houston, Texas, and attended Baylor University, where she received a basketball scholarship and led the team to a national championship.
She is presently one of the most dominant players in WNBA history, often regarded as the league’s top offensive player.
Few women have won a collegiate championship, WNBA and Euroleague titles, and an Olympic gold medal, as Ms. Griner has. And, of course, her dunking prowess is legendary.
She has also hailed as a trailblazer off the court, having come out as gay at the age of 22, just around the time she began professional sports.
She went on to become the WNBA’s first overall draft pick that year. Then, she is also the first openly homosexual athlete that Nike sponsored.
“Before Griner, there was this shadow over the league, where it was like ‘don’t say gay,'” Spruill said. “And she was just like ‘screw that, this is who I am.”
“BG’s always been one to be a pioneer,” Griner’s teammate, Diana Taurasi has said.
Despite this, Griner had a second job, which was why she had traveled to Russia: to play for UMMC Ekaterinburg, a EuroLeague team for whom she had worked since 2014 during the US off-season.
In the off-season, over half of WNBA players compete internationally. For the most part, it’s a method to supplement their domestic income: WNBA players in Russia earn about five times as much as they do in the United States.
“If she were Steph Curry or LeBron James, she wouldn’t be over there at all because she’d be making enough money,” Spruill said.
WNBA players in Russia earn about five times as much as they do in the United States
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the EuroLeague suspended all Russian teams, and authorities from the NBA and the WNBA began removing players from the country.
But it was too late for Brittney Griner, who arrived in Russia a week early, on February 17th, though the exact date is unknown.
According to a press release from the Russian Federal Customs Service, a sniffer dog led officials to inspect the carry-on luggage of an American basketball player, where they discovered vape cartridges with hashish oil. Griner was named as the player by Tass, a state-owned Russian news service.
She got detention at the airport in February. But Russian authorities only verified her detention in the third week of March. It is unknown where she is being held or under what circumstances she is being held.
US authorities and Brittney Griner’s lawyers have remained fairly silent, other than to declare that they are working to bring her home.
“We are doing everything we can” – US Secretary of State
A state department spokeswoman confirmed the player’s imprisonment. She told the BBC that they were “aware of and closely engaged on this case.”
Last Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that the US is “doing everything we can” to assist her.
“There’s only so much I can say given the privacy considerations at this point,” Mr. Blinken said.
Lindsay Colas, Griner’s agent, said she was in “close contact” with the player and her lawyer in Russia, but couldn’t say more.
While there is no evidence linking Griner’s detention to the invasion of Ukraine, some US officials have suggested that strained US-Russian relations could jeopardize her safe release.
“We don’t want Ms. Griner to become a pawn in the political battle that’s being waged throughout the world right now,” said John Garamendi. He is a member of the House of Representatives armed services committee.
Russia has so far denied Brittne Griner consular access to the US embassy: Reports
“The war in Ukraine has essentially severed diplomatic ties between the US and Russia,” Garamendi said. “That is going to exacerbate this issue.”
According to him, Russia has so far denied Brittney Griner consular access to the US embassy.
If convicted of narcotics charges, she may face up to ten years in prison.
The US embassy in Russia did not respond to a request for comment.
As Ms. Griner approaches the end of what is likely to be a month in detention. Some fans are upset over the sports media’s apparent lack of interest in a world-class athlete in prison.
Some have theorized that the quiet is deliberate, to avoid inflaming an already tense situation amid talks with Russia.
Others, such as Ms. Spruill, argue that Ms. Griner’s slightly muffled coverage exposes the apparent disparities experienced by female athletes.
Spruill points out that male athletes have received far more attention than Brittney Griner, whether it’s because of Tom Brady’s on-again, off-again retirement, Novak Djokovic’s Covid issue in Australia, or Aaron Rodger’s vaccination status.
Spruill organized an online petition with nearly 60,000 signatures urging that the US government prioritize her safe return and treat her like “any other sports icon.”
“There has absolutely not been enough coverage,” Spruill said. “It’s hard for me to read that other than a choice by the broader media.”
Griner’s wife, Cherelle, expressed her dissatisfaction with the long wait on Instagram last week.
“People say ‘stay busy.’ Yet, there’s not a task in this world that could keep any of us from worrying about you. My heart, our hearts, are all skipping beats every day that goes by,” she wrote.
“There are no words to express this pain. I’m hurting, we’re hurting”.