WNBA Center Brittney Griner Is Detained in Russia

Although it is unclear whether Russia might have targeted Griner for being an American or saw her detention as a useful bargaining tool with Washington, one Democratic member of Congress depicted her case that way on Saturday.

“This follows a pattern of Russia wrongly detaining imprisoning US citizens, including Trevor Reed,” the lawmaker, Representative Joaquin Castro of Texas, wrote on Twitter. “US citizens are not political pawns. Brittney, Trevor, and other Americans must be safely returned.”

In 2020, a court in Moscow sentenced Reed, a former U.S. Marine, to nine years in prison on charges of assaulting and endangering the lives of two police officers, accusations that his family and supporters say are fraudulent and politically motivated.

Earlier the same year, another former Marine, Paul Whelan, was sentenced to 16 years in prison on espionage charges during a trial that was closed to the public.

The Mercury, the W.N.B.A. players’ union and U.S.A. Basketball, which oversees the Olympic teams, also released statements expressing support for Griner.

Many W.N.B.A. players compete in Russia, where salaries are more lucrative, during the American league’s off-season. Griner has played for the Russian team UMMC Ekaterinburg for several years.

Griner is set to earn about $228,000 with the Mercury in the 2022 season, according to the website Her Hoop Stats, just shy of the league’s maximum salary. Some players have made substantially more money with Russian teams, like Griner’s Mercury teammate Diana Taurasi, who reports said earned around $1.5 million with UMMC Ekaterinburg in 2015.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/05/sports/basketball/russia-brittney-griner.html