She’s arguably the best female basketball player of all time, and she’s being held captive in Moscow in the midst of a conflict. Fans are curious as to why fewer people are paying attention.
Brittney Griner, an American professional basketball player, is seen walking through airport security with a small black suitcase in one of her last public sightings, which was captured on CCTV.
Ms. Griner, a star center for the Phoenix Mercury, had arrived at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport for a second season with a Russian league.
Her dark hair is braided down past her shoulders, and she wears running shoes, black sweatpants, and a black hoodie with “Black Lives for Peace” written on the back.
She towers over the customs agents and other travelers at 6ft 9in, which is tall even by basketball standards.
She is also seen sitting in front of a man, who appears to be a customs agent, shaking her head “no” in another shot. Then nothing, until last week, when a Russian mugshot was broadcast on state television.
Ms Griner, 31, is suspected of being detained by Russian authorities on drug-related charges.
Little is known about her situation a month after her arrest.
The uncertainty surrounding her fate has fueled an outpouring of support for the player, who is widely regarded as the greatest female basketball player of all time by fans and sports analysts alike.
It has also sparked outrage among some fans, who claim that the reaction to Ms. Griner’s detention has been unusually quiet.
The attention she’s received in comparison to male players, according to fans and experts, reveals long-standing gender inequities in professional sports.
“This would be on the cover of not only every sports page but every news media page in the world if this was an NBA [professional men’s league] player of her calibre,” said Tamryn Spruill, a sports journalist who is writing a book about the WNBA and Ms Griner.
Brittney Griner, a nine-year NBA veteran, is the “best of the best,” according to Melissa Isaacson, a sportswriter and professor at Northwestern University in Illinois.
Ms Isaacson described her as “every bit the Tom Brady of her sport.” “You could make a compelling case that she is one of the best athletes on the planet.”
She was born in Houston, Texas, and attended Baylor University, where she earned a basketball scholarship and led the team to a national championship.
She is now one of the most dominant players in WNBA history, widely regarded as the league’s best offensive player.
Few women have won a college championship, WNBA and Euroleague titles, and an Olympic gold medal, as Ms. Griner has. And, of course, her dunking prowess is legendary.
She has also been hailed as a trailblazer off the court, having come out as gay at the age of 22, right around the time she began professional sports.
She went on to become the first openly gay athlete to be endorsed by Nike and the first overall draft pick in the WNBA that year.
“There was this shadow over the league before Griner, where it was like ‘don’t say gay,’” Ms. Spruill explained. “And she just said, ‘Fuck it, this is who I am.’”
Griner’s teammate Diana Taurasi has said, “BG’s always been a pioneer.”
Despite this, Ms. Griner had a second job, which was why she had flown to Russia: to play for UMMC Ekaterinburg, a EuroLeague team for which she had worked since 2014 during the US off-season.
In the off-season, roughly half of WNBA players compete overseas. For the most part, it’s a way to supplement their domestic income: WNBA players in Russia earn roughly five times as much as they do in the United States.
“She wouldn’t be over there at all if she were Steph Curry or LeBron James because she’d be making enough money,” Ms. Spruill said.
Ms. Griner’s male counterparts earn more than 200 times the WNBA’s maximum salary.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the EuroLeague suspended all Russian teams, and officials from the NBA and the WNBA began removing players from the country.
But it was too late for Brittney Griner, who arrived in Russia a week earlier, on February 17th, though the exact date is unknown.
According to a press release from the Russian Federal Customs Service, a sniffer dog led authorities to search the carry-on luggage of an American basketball player, where they discovered vape cartridges containing hashish oil. Ms. Griner was identified as the player by Tass, a state-owned Russian news agency.
Though she was stopped at the airport in February, Russian authorities only confirmed her detention in the third week of March. It is unknown where she is being held or under what circumstances she is being held.
US authorities and Brittney Griner’s representatives have remained mostly silent, other than to say that they are working to bring her home.
The player’s detention was confirmed by a state department spokesperson, who told the BBC that they were “aware of and closely engaged on this case.”
Last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that the US is “doing everything we can” to assist her.
“Given the privacy concerns at this point, there’s only so much I can say,” Mr. Blinken said.
Lindsay Colas, Ms. Griner’s agent, said she was in “close contact” with the player and her lawyer in Russia, but couldn’t say more.
While there is no evidence linking Ms Griner’s arrest to the invasion of Ukraine, some US officials have suggested that strained US-Russian relations could jeopardize her safe return.
“We don’t want Ms Griner to become a pawn in the global political battle that’s going on right now,” said John Garamendi, a member of the House of Representatives’ armed services committee.
Mr. Garamendi stated, “The war in Ukraine has effectively severed diplomatic ties between the United States and Russia.” “That’s only going to make things worse.”
According to him, Russia has so far denied Brittney Griner consular access to the US embassy.
If convicted of drug charges, she could face up to ten years in prison.
A request for comment from the US embassy in Russia was not returned.
As Ms. Griner approaches the end of what is believed to be a month in detention, some fans have been left perplexed by the sports media’s apparent lack of interest in a world-class athlete in prison.
Some have speculated that the silence is deliberate, in order to avoid inflaming an already tense situation in the midst of talks with Russia.
Others, such as Ms Spruill, argue that Ms Griner’s somewhat muffled coverage exposes the clear inequities faced by female athletes.
Ms Spruill points out that male athletes have received far more attention than Brittney Griner, whether it’s because of Tom Brady’s on-again, off-again retirement, Novak Djokovic’s Covid saga in Australia, or Aaron Rodger’s vaccination status.
Ms Spruill organized an online petition with nearly 60,000 signatures demanding that the US government prioritize her safe return and treat her like “any other sports icon.”
“There hasn’t been nearly enough coverage,” Ms Spruill stated. “It’s difficult for me to read that as anything other than a decision made by the larger media.”
Ms. Griner’s wife, Cherelle, expressed her dissatisfaction with the long wait on Instagram last week.
‘Stay busy,’ they say. There isn’t a task on this planet that can keep any of us from thinking about you. Every day that passes, my heart, and our hearts, skip a beat “she penned
“There are no words to describe the agony I’m feeling. I’m in pain, and we’re both in pain “.
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