It should have been a holiday for American basketball: in university sports, the finals of the als Marchmadness well-known tournament, in which the whole nation always takes part; South Carolina won for the women and Kansas University for the men. In the professional league NBA, 27 games over three days were about playoff places. And the women’s national team met in Minneapolis for the first training camp for the World Cup in Australia in autumn. But then it turned into a celebration with worried, but above all highly unsettled guests, because one question hung over their heads: What will happen to Brittney Griner now?
As a reminder, Griner is a famous American basketball player. During the winter break of the US women’s professional league WNBA, she always played for the Russian club UMMC Yekaterinburg. But on February 17, she was arrested at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport after officials found cartridges of hashish oil in her luggage. The pre-trial detention has now been extended until May 19, when a hearing will decide how to proceed. If convicted, Brittney Griner faces up to 10 years in prison.
It’s a case that shouldn’t be discussed too politically in the United States – because it has been for a long time.
“We’ve been told not to make a big deal out of it.”
“We’ve been told not to make a big deal out of it lest Griner be used as a pawn on the political chessboard,” basketball legend Lisa Leslie said on the recent podcast I Am Athlete. Russia is waging a war of aggression in Ukraine, and the country, in justifying this war, misuses just about every issue as a hint at how Western countries are allegedly interfering in Russia’s affairs. Anyone who contacts the US basketball association or asks national team players — Griner has won two Olympic gold medals and won two world championships — hears even more cautious words than Leslie’s.
It is now even said in the USA that maybe it wasn’t so bad that the actor Will Smith caused a scandal at the Oscars in mid-March with his slap in the face on the open stage. That happened seconds before director Ben Proudfoot received the award for his short film “Queen of Basketball” and appealed to US President Joe Biden: “Bring Brittney Griner home!” The appeal was lost in the excitement, which does not necessarily harm the detainees. Griner’s parents are also deliberately not saying anything in public at the moment, and Brittney’s wife Cherelle Watson only says: “It hurts. We can’t wait to be able to love them as family again.” From the White House and the US Department of Defense: no concrete statements.
One of the concerns: Griner’s sexual orientation could also play a role in a court hearing
Relations between Russia and the USA are logically more strained than they have been for a long time. That turns the case into a political issue, even with small things. It could hurt Brittney Griner if she’s considered a political prisoner.
The state-controlled Russian news agency Tass recently reported that Griner is doing well and that she has borrowed a book by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Officials at the US Embassy in Moscow would not visit Griner, although Russian authorities would make it possible. The reading: An American violates Russian laws, is arrested and treated appropriately – but in the USA this is made into a scandal, even though no one visits her.
A spokesman for the US Department of Defense said that despite several attempts, a visit had not been possible since March 23; At that time, a diplomat confirmed after a visit that Griner was doing well given the circumstances. However, one is in contact with Griner’s Russian lawyers. “It is unusual and worrying that despite several requests, we have not been able to access it,” said House Representative Colin Allred. The fear: An example could be made of Griner because of the tensions, and her sexual orientation could also play a role in a court hearing. Griner is homosexual, she has been supporting other athletes in coming out for several years.
The case is also now sparking a debate about pay in the WNBA
Subordinate, but still noticeable, her case is now also the reason for another debate in the USA: that about payment in women’s sports. Griner is 31 years old, she was chosen at the 2013 Phoenix Mercury Talent Fair and she still plays there. 2014 championship, 2017 and 2019 top scorer, seven All-Star nominations. Griner is a star, her annual salary in the WNBA: $227,900. For comparison, the minimum salary in the NBA men’s league is $925,000.
During the WNBA break, Griner has played for Yekaterinburg since 2014, before that she spent a year with the Chinese club Zhejiang Golden Bulls. She was champion three times in Russia and won the Euroleague four times with her club. Most importantly, she earns a million dollars a season there.
Ask US basketball, which likes to boast of educating the best talent in the world at universities: Why are the structures and prospects for women in countries like Russia and China so that they earn so much more – or, like them German Satou Sabally, also at Fenerbahce Istanbul in Turkey? “It’s a shame that performances by the likes of Griner are valued higher than teams in the United States in nations we see as oppressed,” writes author Jemele Hill. Russia would not be at all enticing for the best US players if they were better paid and respected at home.
But first of all it’s about Griner’s freedom. “We talk about her every day, it breaks your heart,” said national player Kelsey Plum on the sidelines of the training camp, like everyone else she says nothing more. The new WNBA season is scheduled to begin May 6, two weeks before Griner’s next scheduled hearing in Moscow.