While a large portion of the basketball world is focused on NBA playoff races, and March Madness, something far more concerning is taking place roughly 7,000km away.
7x WNBA All-Star Brittney Griner continues to be detained in Moscow, stemming from a February 17th incident at a Moscow airport. During a search of the basketball star’s luggage, authorities allege they found vape cartridges containing oil derived from cannabis.
The timing of the detention coincides with heightened tensions between Russia and the western world stemming from their invasion of Ukraine. The 6’9” forward is reportedly sharing a cell with two other female detainees accused of similar narcotics offenses.
Griner, like many WNBA stars, was playing overseas during the offseason. High profile North American players regularly make significantly more money playing in European or Asian leagues than they do in the WNBA. In Griner’s case, she was making $1M per season with UMMC Ekaterinburg, which would have been 4x what she makes with the Phoenix Mercury.
The two time Olympic Gold medallist has played overseas in Russia for the last seven years. Over a dozen current and former WNBA players were playing in either Russia or Ukraine when the conflict broke out. All except Griner have since returned home safely.
Making matters worse, it was announced this week that a Moscow court has extended the detention of Griner until May 19th. That timeframe would mean she would miss the beginning of the WNBA season which is currently scheduled to kick off on Friday May 6th.
Due to the severity of the situation, many WNBA fans have been left wondering why the league, and the State Department haven’t been more vocal about the already month long detention. In comments to the press this week, both Griner’s wife, as well as representatives from the State Department have alluded to the fact that there is a tremendous amount of work being done behind the scenes, but that due to the political nature of the detention that they wouldn’t be offering any public comments.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tweeted “Free Brittney” late last night as news of the court ruling broke. Outside of that however, there has been very little media coverage of the ongoing saga, leading many to wonder what the response would have been had it been a straight white male being held captive:
According to legal experts, Griner could face up to ten years in prison if convicted of the narcotics charges, and could see a pre-trial detention of anywhere from 12-18 months if the Russian courts deem it necessary.
Photo: Lorie Shaull. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.