America has failed Brittney Griner
Brittney Griner must be at house proper now.
No person must be jailed for hashish within the first place, both in Russia or right here. No person must be detained for 3 weeks over cannabis oil of their baggage on their manner out of a rustic. must be held prisoner as a way to use diplomatic strain, because it seems Russia is doing in detaining a high-profile American athlete as a response to the US backing Ukraine’s resistance to Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
And Griner isn’t only a common American. The 31-year-old is a future Corridor of Famer, a champion in each faculty and the professionals, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, a seven-time WNBA All-Star, a part of the WNBA’s twenty fifth anniversary group, and the primary participant to dunk within the WNBA playoffs. She’s additionally a distinguished Black lesbian, and Putin’s document on each race and sexuality is nightmarish.
So, crucial factor is ensuring that Griner will get house safely. However Griner must be house proper now.
America is the richest nation on the planet and Earth’s most dominant pressure in girls’s basketball. But Griner, one of many easiest the sport has ever seen, has spent years in China and Russia, enjoying throughout the WNBA offseason as a result of these nations pay higher. If something, Griner and lots of others are enjoying within the WNBA throughout the European offseason, not the opposite manner round.
This isn’t a brand new phenomenon. Becky Hammon, born and raised in South Dakota, faculty star at Colorado State, and WNBA star with New York and San Antonio, played for Russia on the 2008 Olympics, as a result of she additionally starred for CSKA Moscow and Russia provided her citizenship to hitch their nationwide group, and she or he was getting $500,000 a 12 months to play there.
Although the WNBA has the letters NBA, the league nonetheless isn’t even near treating gamers in addition to the international leagues. The WNBA is out right here as a substitute fining the Liberty a half-million bucks and threatening to kick New York out of the league over the group chartering flights in order that gamers wouldn’t be topic to the whims of business aviation.
The very best gamers on the earth deserve to have the ability to play at house, not simply have a stopover right here throughout the summer season, on break from the gig the place they make their actual cash. Griner ought to have been getting what she’s value from the Phoenix Mercury all alongside, not from UMMC Ekaterinburg.
Brittney Griner must be at house proper now.
