Brittney Griner is probably the best female basketball player of all time and She was detained in Moscow as part of a war in Ukraine. Many wonder why she isn’t getting more attention.
One of the last times she was seen in public was through CCTV footage. The basketball player was passing through the security zone of an airport dragging a small black suitcase.
Griner, a star pivot for the American team Phoenix Mercury, had landed at Sheremetyevo airport, outside Moscow, to compete in another season in the Russian league.
In the security video footage, she is wearing sneakers, a hoodie with “Black Lives for Peace” written on the back, and her long black hair in braids falling past her shoulders. .
At 2.6 meters tall – very tall even in the world of basketball – he towers over immigration agents and other passengers.
In another image, she is seen sitting across from a man, apparently an immigration agent, shaking her head “no.” Then nothing, until a mugshot appeared on Russian state television last week.
Griner, 31, was arrested by Russian authorities on charges of transporting drugs, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
A Russian court on Thursday extended Griner’s detention for another two months, the state news agency Tass reported.
“The court granted the request for investigation and extended the period of detention of the US citizen Griner until May 19,” the court was quoted as saying by Tass.
Ekaterina Kalugina, a member of the Public Oversight Commission, a semi-official body with access to Russian prisons, told Tass that Griner shares a cell with two other women with no criminal record.
Beyond that, little is known about her a month after her arrest.
The uncertainty surrounding her fate has generated a wave of support for the player, who is considered by fans and sports analysts alike to be possibly the greatest female figure to ever play basketball.
It has also sparked a sense of outrage among fans who point out that the response to the player’s arrest has remained curiously silent.
Fans and experts alike say the scant attention it has received compared to male players highlights long-standing gender inequalities in professional sport.
“If he were a player of his caliber from the NBA (the men’s professional league)… this would be not only on the cover of every sports publication but in every news outlet in the world.”said Tamryn Spruill, a sports columnist who is writing a book about the WNBA and Griner.
Brittney Griner, a nine-year veteran of the league, is “the best of the best,” said Melissa Isaacson, a sportswriter and professor at Northwestern University in Illinois, USA.
“She’s the Tom Brady [estrella del fútbol americano] of her sport,” Isaacson said. “One could argue very accurately that she is one of the best athletes in the world.”
Star and undisputed pioneer
A native of Houston, Texas, she earned a basketball scholarship to attend Baylor University, where she led the team to a national championship.
She is currently one of the most dominant players in WBNA history, widely considered the best offensive player in the league.
Few and few have matched what Griner has accomplished – winning a college championship, WNBA and EuroLeague titles and an Olympic gold medal. Plus, her famed ability to spike the ball into the basket is unrivaled.
She has also been a pioneer off the pitch, declaring his homosexuality at the age of 22, at the time he entered professional sports.
That year she was the first selected in the WNBA draft round and, shortly after, became the first openly gay athlete (male or female) to be sponsored by the sports firm Nike.
“Before Griner, there was a shadow over the league, where you were told ‘don’t say gay,'” columnist Spruill explained. “And she just said, ‘To hell with that, this is who I am.'”
“BG was always destined to be a trailblazer,” said teammate Diana Taurasi.
income inequality
Despite that, Griner had a second job and that’s why he had traveled to Russia – to play with the EuroLeague team UMMC Ekaterinburg, where he had played since 2014 during the US offseason.
About half of the WNBA players compete outside during the offseason. For most it is a way to increase their income: WNBA players earn almost five times more in Russia than in the US.
“If she was Steph Curry or LeBron James (male NBA star), she wouldn’t have to go there because she’d be making enough money.”Spruill said.
Griner’s counterparts in the men’s league earn more than 200 times the WNBA’s maximum salary.
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the EuroLeague suspended all Russian teams, prompting the US and the WNBA to recall their players.
But it was too late for Brittney Griner, who is believed to have entered Russia a week earlier, on February 17, although that date is not entirely clear.
Russia’s Federal Customs Service said in a press release that a sniffer dog prompted authorities to search the carry-on luggage of an American female player and that they had found e-cigarette cartridges laced with hashish oil. The Russian state news agency Tass identified the player as Griner.
The Russian authorities only confirmed his arrest in the third week of March, although they reported that his arrest at the airport was in February. It is not publicly known where she is being held and under what circumstances.
In the US, almost all authorities and representatives of Brittney Griner have remained silent with the exception of saying that they are working to bring her back to the country.
A State Department spokesman confirmed the athlete’s detention, telling the BBC they were “aware of the case and closely involved in it.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week that US officials are “doing everything possible” to help her.
“There’s not much I can say given the privacy considerations in this instance,” Blinken said.
Griner’s agent, Lindsay Colas, spoke of being in “close contact” with the player and her legal representative in Russia, but had no further comment.
A “pawn” in the political game?
Although there is no indication that Griner’s arrest was connected to the Ukraine invasion, some US officials noted that strained US-Russian relations could compromise his safe return.
“We don’t want Griner to become a pawn in this political battle that is taking place around the world right now,” said US Congressman John Garamendi, a member of the House Armed Services Committee.
“The war in Ukraine has essentially severed diplomatic ties between the US and Russia,” Garamendi said. “That’s going to exacerbate this issue.”
So far, Russia has blocked the US embassy’s consular access to Brittney Griner, he added.
He could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted of drugs.
The US embassy in Russia did not respond to a request for comment.
The silence of the media
As Griner completes what is believed to be a month of detention, some supporters have reacted with disbelief at the apparent lack of attention in the sports media for a world-class athlete who is in prison.
Some have speculated that the silence could be intentional, in an effort to avoid fanning the flames of an already precarious situation amid negotiations with Russia.
But others, like Spruill, they say the rather quiet media coverage of Griner exposes the stark inequalities female athletes face.
Much more ink has been spent on male players, whether it’s the intermittent retirement and return of football player Tom Brady, the saga of Novak Djokovic and covid in Australia, or the vaccination status of Aaron Rodgers, another football star. , Spruill points out.
Nearly 60,000 fans have signed an online petition, organized by Spruill, demanding the US government prioritize her safe return and treat her like “any other sports icon.”
“There definitely hasn’t been enough coverage,” Spruill argued. “It’s hard for me to see it as anything more than a general media decision.”
Griner’s wife, Cherelle, posted a message on Instagram about her painful wait.
“People say, ‘stay busy.’ But there isn’t a task in this world that will keep us from worrying about you. My heart, our hearts skip a beat with each passing day,” she wrote.
“There are no words to express this pain. It hurts me, it hurts us.”
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BBC-NEWS-SRC: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-internacional-60765534, IMPORTING DATE: 2022-03-16 15:40:05
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