Griner was arrested on February 17 at Sheremetyevo Airport near Moscow after Russian customs authorities found cartridges of e-cigarette containing hashish oil in his luggage. He is facing a prison sentence of 5 to 10 years for drug smuggling.
Since then, nothing has just been heard. Where is he being held? Has he been in contact with his home country?
The superstar situation in the United States has been described as disappearing and being forgotten. It has caused the Yankee media and fans to worry and demand a decent response from the U.S. authorities. The same has been demanded by many politicians Hillary from Clinton since.
Several people see Griner’s arrest as a political game, and Griner’s sexual orientation has also been raised as a factor.
Who is Brittney Griner?
Brittney Griner is considered by many to be the best female basketball player in the world, at least one of the best. She has led U.S. women twice to her Olympic gold (2016, 2021) and twice to World Cup gold (2014, 2018).
In the women’s NBA league, the WNBA, she has represented Phoenix Mercury since 2013. The championship was celebrated by Mercury in 2014.
Above all, the 206-cent cent is considered the best defensive player in the series. He has won the WNBA block stats less than once in every season he plays.
– Griner has raised the profile of the WNBA. His presence on the field is both inspiring and frightening. He can control the game at both ends, especially in defense, where he is one of the best in the history of the league, ESPN writes (you switch to another service).
The Griner can throw, and donkata. She has been the WNBA points queen twice. Already in Griner’s junior years, YouTube videos of his donkeys were hits.
When ESPN ranked the best players of all time in the 25-year-old WNBA last fall, Griner was No. 17 on the list.
For seven years Griner has played for the winters in Russia for the Yekatenburg team, where he has won the Russian League Championship three times and the Euroleague Fourth.
Griner has also broken walls outside the parquet floors. In 2013, he became the first openly homosexual athlete to sign a contract with Nike.
Griner has spoken in public about, among other things, the harassment faced by sexual minorities. In his first WNBA season of 2013, Griner was selected to cover the action on ESPN’s Tabu release.
– People have told me that I break obstacles and I am a pioneer. Personally, I think I’m just trying to help. I’m just trying to do things so the world isn’t that hard for the next generation, Griner said In an interview with People magazine (you switch to another service) 2014.
“If it was an NBA player of this caliber …”
The latest publicized images of Griner are surveillance camera footage from the airport. Since no basketball star has been heard since, and Griner’s arrest was reported almost a month after flying to Russia, it has sparked outrage in the United States.
– If it were an NBA player of this caliber, this would not be the main story in all sports news, but in all the news around the world in general, said the WNBA Tamryn Spruill.
In the WNBA, the minimum wage for the period is $ 60,471 (approximately $ 55,000) and the maximum salary is $ 228,094 (€ 207,000).
In the NBA, the minimum wage is $ 925,000 (€ 840,000) and the maximum wage can hover over $ 28 million (€ 25.5 million). The regular season lasts 82 matches in the NBA, 36 games in the WNBA.
According to sources, Griner earns five times what he can earn in his home country in Russia.
When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, the Euroleague excluded Russian teams from its league and U.S. authorities recalled Yankee players back to their homeland. Griner had time to travel to Russia, and be arrested, a week earlier.
There are no indications so far that Griner’s arrest was linked to Russia’s hostilities in Ukraine. However, political tensions could jeopardize Griner’s safe departure from Russia, U.S. officials have said.
– We do not want Griner to become a pawn in the political struggle that is currently taking place all over the world. The war in Ukraine has severely severed diplomatic relations between the United States and Russia. It exacerbates this problem as well, said a member of the House of Representatives as early as March John Garamendi.
United States Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has, in turn, only commented that he is aware of the case and that the authorities are doing everything they can to help Griner. Also Griner’s player agent Lindsay Colas has been silent, although said to have been in contact with the player.
Griner’s Yankee Society Phoenix has posted a brief bulletin on Twitter about the case. A similar text has been published by the U.S. Basketball Association and the WNBA.
– We are aware and are following the situation of Brittney Griner closely. We are in touch with his family, his representatives, the WNBA and the NBA. We love and support Brittney, and at the moment our main concerns are her safety, her mental and physical well-being, and her safe return home, the club wrote.
Will Griner become part of “political chess” or “high-profile hostage”?
– We demand that the Russian government provide consular access to all U.S. citizens arrested in Russia, including those in pre-trial detention, such as Brittney Griner. We have repeatedly asked the consul for access to these detainees, and access has been repeatedly denied, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives said earlier. Sheila Jackson Lee.
“Our clerk said Brittney Griner was in good shape and we will continue to do our best to ensure that she is treated fairly throughout this ordeal,” said a U.S. State Department spokesman. Ned Price.
Russian state-owned news agency Tass has reported, according to U.S. media, that Griner shares Selli with two other English-speaking prisoners and that the only problem with this is that the basketball player has too small a bed.
The concerns of American politicians have not been allayed.
– This follows a pattern in which Russia is abusing and imprisoning US citizens. U.S. citizens are not political pawns, a congressman wrote Joaquin Castro On Twitter earlier (switching to another service).
Garamendi fears that Griner’s sexual orientation may complicate matters.
“Russia has some really, really strict laws and rules that target sexual and gender minorities,” Garamendi said.
The United States fears that Russia could use Griner as some sort of “negotiation trump card.”
However, U.S. diplomats have not, at least not yet, placed Griner in the category of U.S. tourists it considers to have been illegally detained, which in turn would allow for additional government attention.
– I think there is no doubt that the purpose of arresting Griner and then continuing his imprisonment is only to make him a hostage and part of this game of chess, According to The Guardian (moving to another service) lawyer and democratic senator Tim Kaine.
– Vladimir Putin and the Russians want to use him as a chip in the negotiations, and how awful it is to do so to someone, Kaine added.
Former Pentagon official, security expert worked Evelyn Farkas even said Russia may want Griner to be a “high-profile hostage.”
– If we want him out of jail, Russia has some conditions. It can be an exchange of prisoners. They can also use it as an indirect threat or blackmail to make us do something or not do something. In any case, they find Griner useful, Farkas said For Yahoo Sports (switch to another service).
Russia expert at the highly ranked Australian Melbourne Law School William Parlett for his part, Griner is now in greater danger than before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It is also questionable what kind of legal proceedings Griner will receive in Russia.
“It is likely that the judge and investigators are waiting from above for instructions on how to proceed, and this may include an attempt to use his release as a chip in the negotiations,” Parlett said.
According to Parlett, it is clear that the US will not ease economic sanctions on Russia or reduce its aid to Ukraine because of Griner, but Russia may use Griner to try to negotiate the exchange of prisoners, for example.
Lawyer Drew Holiner commented to Yahoo Sports that it could not predict whether Russia would try to use him as a political pawn. However, Holiner believes it is “legitimate to consider it because of the cases we have seen before.”
Legal Expert: The arrest was known in the United States but was blackmailed
When Griner’s arrest came to light weeks later, his relatives, his club, and his agent already had a written statement, notes For The Insider (switch to another service) legal expert Adrienne Lawrence.
It is therefore likely that Griner’s arrest was known in the United States, but it was sought to be kept secret from the public.
– It makes sense that they did not tell anyone because we were on the brink of this (Ukrainian) conflict, but also because they want to get him out. The less public pressure and the less people involved, the easier it was, Lawrence described the tactics chosen.
In addition, Griner’s case has been silent because Americans fear Russia, Lawrence’s view was heard.
– People have succumbed to the idea that Griner will stay there for a while because we are trying to avoid a nuclear war.
However, not everyone thinks that silence is the right strategy. WNBA League writer Tamryn Spruill has opened an online petition urging the U.S. government to prioritize Griner’s safe return and treat him “like any sports icon.” The petition was quickly signed by 60,000 people.
– We don’t know the circumstances under which Griner is being held. We do not know how he will be treated. We don’t know if he was able to contact his loved ones. We also hear silence from the sports world. Imagine if Kevin Durantia would be held in a Russian prison awaiting months of trial in the middle of the war, wrote a well-known US weekly The Nation (switch to another service).
– The primary reason for this is that the Foreign Ministry is trying to secure his release, and any effort to raise the profile of his plight may pay off. Choosing silence must be incredibly painful for Griner’s family, friends, and the WNBA. It is also a strategy that should be considered for abandonment, continued The Nation Dave Zirin.
According to Zirin, the sports media chooses to be silent, in part because it can’t speak for a black, sexually minority athlete.
– The silence that the US government demands of the people will not help Griner.
At least Hillary Clinton chose Zirin’s line that Griner’s name should stay on display.
– Free Brittney, wrote Clinton on March 16th.
Experts agree that the release of Griner is difficult – and much more difficult than usual because of the war in Ukraine.
26. The WNBA season on May 6 is set to begin without one of its biggest stars.
There is also a more humane side to this than questions about political pawns.
– We love you! People say, “Stay busy.” Yet, there is no mission in this world that could stop any of us from worrying about you. My heart, our heart, misses the beats every day. I miss your voice. I miss your presence. There are no words to express this pain. It hurts me, it hurts us. We look forward to the day to love you as a family, wrote Brittney Griner’s wife on Instagram Cherelle Griner March 7th.