Recentering Brittney Griner's plight
The Phoenix Mercury are out of the WNBA playoffs. Brittney Griner's story shouldn't be.
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The WNBA playoffs are off to an incredible start, with both best-of-five semifinal series (Connecticut Sun vs. Chicago Sky, and Las Vegas Aces vs. Seattle Storm) tied at 1-1 heading into Game 3s on Sunday.
The grand finale of the 2022 season — which has already set record attendance and viewership marks — is shaping up to be a memorable one.
But amidst the excitement, it's crucial to keep the biggest story of the WNBA season top of mind: The absence of Brittney Griner.
The 31-year-old Phoenix Mercury center has been wrongfully detained in Russia for an excruciating 197 days.
To be completely frank, I’ve been a bit paralyzed over the past few months, unsure of how to write about this story in an ethical way. So much of the commentary on Griner’s case has centered around dubious whataboutisms and sanctimonious declarations — and that’s just the stuff coming from the well-meaning side, who want to see Griner freed!
There’s also the never-ending stream of drivel from bigoted Americans (and Russian bots), who are filling up twitter replies and comment sections gloating that Griner got what she deserved for breaking the law in another country, willfully ignoring that Griner’s imprisonment isn’t about laws or justice, but rather about bargaining power and political theater.
This is all so terrifying and unprecedented, that it can be comforting to cling to familiar narratives about racism, sexism, homophobia, and the failures and systemic inequities of the United States government and judiciary.
And while those are all pieces to this puzzle and worthy of discussion and scrutiny, the narrow focus on them often eschews the reality of Griner’s situation — the reality that so much of Griner’s future rests in the hands of Vladimir Putin, a war-mongering authoritarian who hates the West; is deft at stoking internal divisions about race/gender/sexuality in the United States; and sees Griner not as a human being, but as a valuable political pawn.
That complicates things!
We actually don’t know for sure that Griner would have already been released if she was Tom Brady or LeBron James. As fucked up as our criminal justice system is, Russia’s is a whole separate beast. And while it's understandable to blanketly blame President Biden and his administration for Griner’s continued detainment, getting Griner home is a lot more difficult than just calling Putin up.
So, alas, here we are. The WNBA season has come, and is now almost gone, with Griner still detained. She has been sentenced to nine years in prison for allegedly bringing less than one gram of hashish oil into Russia.
A prisoner exchange is the most likely path forward. Talks have begun. But there’s no set timeline, and no way to know whether progress is being made. In this case, public silence doesn’t necessarily equate to private inaction.
Meanwhile, the paradox remains: Saying Griner’s name too much or too loudly could give more power to Putin, but not saying her name at all is simply not an option.
I’ve explored all of these dichotomies in Power Plays previously, but before going forward and looking at other things going on in the world of women’s sports — which, I promise, we will be doing a lot of in September — I wanted to get us all fully caught up on Griner’s case.
It’s crucial that we educate ourselves by leaning on well-sourced reporters and experts on Russian diplomacy, rather than relying on commentary and takes. (This is a good rule in general, but ESPECIALLY given a situation as sensitive as this one.) I highly recommend following T.J. Quinn of ESPN, an extremely responsible journalist who has been at the forefront of reporting on this case since the news broke in March.
Additionally, here are a few podcasts I’ve listened to in recent months that have helped give me a better understanding of what we’re dealing with:
How Brittney Griner became a Political Pawn (The Daily, 7/6/22)
WNBA’s Brittney Griner Detained in Russia: What We Know (ESPN Daily, 3/14/22)
Brittney Griner’s Guilty Plea, Explained (ESPN Daily, 7/8/22)
Brittney Griner for the Merchant of Death (Today Explained, 8/9/22)
What Happens Next With Brittney Griner? (Sports Media with Richard Deitsch, 8/8/22)
In August, I compiled a timeline of events related to Griner’s case, mainly to help myself sort through it all. I thought it would be helpful to share that work. So here’s a breakdown of how we got here, why her trial played out the way it did, what we know about the fight to get her home, and what I think we can (realistically) do to help. In true Power Plays fashion, it’s lengthy and a bit chaotic, but I think it’s useful (for me, at least) to have this all in one place.
We miss you, BG. This season will forever have an asterisk by it, and the WNBA won’t be whole again until you’re home.
The detainment
On February 17, 2022, Griner was detained at a Moscow airport while she was going through security.
Allegedly, authorities found vape canisters containing less than a gram of hashish oil in her luggage.
Less than one gram!
She wasn’t going to Russia for a vacation. She was traveling there for work.
Griner was returning Russia to play for UMMC Ekaterinburg, a Russian team that competes in the Russian Women’s Basketball Premier League and EuroLeage Women. Griner has played for UMMC Ekaterinburg since 2014, and has helped lead them to four EuroLeague championships and three Russian National League championships in that time.
Griner earns about six times more in Russia than she does in the WNBA.
In the WNBA, Griner has amassed eight All-Star appearances and one championship as a center for the Phoenix Mercury, which drafted her No. 1 overall in 2013. While she currently earns the max salary in the WNBA, that is only $227,900. Because the WNBA season usually runs from May through September, many WNBA players play overseas during the offseason to earn more money. Griner reportedly earned about $1.5 million per year playing in Russia, where her team was funded by oligarch-backed corporations.
You can read more about why WNBA players go overseas and what life is like for them there in ESPN, the New York Times, and the Washington Post.
Originally the public was encouraged to be quiet about Griner’s detainment.
Word of her arrest didn’t become public in the United States until early March, when it was publicized by Russian state media.
Griner’s inner circle was already aware of her detainment, but hoped the case could be quietly handled behind the scenes. The fear was that publicity would encourage Russia to use Griner as a political pawn/high-profile hostage — a particularly terrifying prospect given Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24. (This ESPN Daily podcast from March gives a great overview of the early strategy.)
On April 27, the United States and Russia engaged in a successful prisoner swap.
The United States exchanged Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot convicted of cocaine smuggling, for former Marine Trevor Reed, who had been held captive in Russia since 2019. Reed’s freedom was a high priority because his health was rapidly declining. (Read more about Trevor Reed’s horrific treatment in Russia here.)
While Griner’s supporters were sad that she was not included in this prisoner swap, it was seen as a very positive sign, because it meant there were diplomatic channels open between the U.S. and Russia, despite the U.S. implementing harsh sanctions on Russia due to its war in Ukraine.
Cherelle Griner, Brittney’s wife, showed her support for the Reed family on Instagram, saying, “As I do everything in my power to get BG home, my heart is overflowing with joy for The Reed Family.”
In early May, everything changed when the U.S. State Department officially classified Griner as being “wrongfully detained.”
With this designation, Griner’s case was moved under the purview of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, and those closest to Griner began speaking out more, encouraging President Joe Biden to make getting Griner home a top priority. This article by T.J. Quinn goes into detail about the decision.
At this point, a prisoner swap became the most likely way to get Griner home.
But first, her legal case needed to run its course.
The trial
On July 7, Griner pleaded guilty to drug possession charges.
Speaking through a translator in a court in Khimki, a suburb of Moscow, Griner said she had brought the vape cartridges into Russia accidentally. She explained that she had a prescription for the use of medical cannabis in Arizona, and when she was packing quickly for her return to Russia, she hadn’t realized the cartridge was still in her backpack.
It is important not to read too much into Griner’s guilty plea.
Here’s my opinion: Vape pens are small. (As the name suggests, they’re pen-sized.) I find it extremely plausible that Griner did simply inadvertently pack them.
But there’s also a chance the hashish oil was planted in her luggage and she was framed. The United States has classified her as being “wrongfully detained,” and there is zero reason to take Russia at its word on the charges. But Russia has forcefully shuttered any media entities that aren’t run by the state, and the truth is essentially irrelevant at this point.
There is a 99% conviction rate in Russian criminal cases.
While the United States legal system is certainly no paradigm of justice, the Russian system is exponentially worse.
So Griner’s guilty plea was part of a legal strategy to hopefully inspire a more lenient sentence (which it didn’t), and to bring the trial to a close as quickly as possible.
As mentioned above, any prisoner swap couldn’t commence until the trial was over. Plus, it’s believed she would have to admit fault before any prisoner swap could take place.
On August 4, a Russian court sentenced Griner to nine years in prison.
Griner was convicted of drug possession and smuggling and sentenced to nine years in prison, just one year shy of the maximum sentence.
There’s no way to spin this: It was excruciating news, and Griner was reportedly extremely upset and almost unable to talk.
Even given Russia’s draconian drug laws, this punishment was seen as severe.
Griner’s lawyer, Aleksandr Boikov, told the New York Times that the sentence was “unprecedentedly harsh.” According to the Associated Press, defendants in similar cases in Russia typically receive a sentence of about five years, with one-third of them getting parole.
A few days after the sentence was issued, her lawyers issued a formal appeal.
Boikov said they appealed not only because the sentence was excessive, but also because the Russian court ignored “serious procedural violations during detention, extraction of physical evidence, arrest and investigation” that could have led to Griner being acquitted on procedural grounds, even though she pleaded guilty.
There is no set timeline for the appeal, though I’ve read speculations ranging from one to three months.
The appeal does, crucially, keep Griner from being transferred to a penal colony, where she would likely be subjected to MUCH harsher conditions than she is experiencing in detainment.
The potential prisoner swap
On Wednesday, July 27, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the U.S. government provided a “substantial proposal” to Russia “weeks ago.”
Blinken said that President Joe Biden himself had signed off on a proposal to Russia to secure the freedom of Griner and Paul Whelan. (Whelan is another wrongfully detained American who has been held in Russia on espionage charges since 2018.)
Later that week, Blinken spoke on the phone with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for the first time since the war in Ukraine began, a good sign that channels of communication are opening up between the two nations despite the sanctions.
On August 15, the Russian government publicly confirmed via state media that discussions are ongoing.
“The discussion of the quite sensitive topic of prisoner exchange of Russian and American citizens has been ongoing along the channels set out by the two presidents,” said Aleksandr Darchiev, a high-ranking Russian diplomat, as reported in the New York Times.
CNN confirmed that the United States offered to exchange Viktor Bout for Griner and Whelan.
Viktor Bout is a Russian arms trafficker accused of selling weapons to Al Qaeda and the Taliban, among other militant groups. He was arrested by U.S. authorities in Bangkok in 2008, extradited to the United States in 2010, convicted in 2011, and sentenced to 25 years in federal prison in 2012.
He is an infamously dangerous man. His story inspired the 2005 Nicholas Cage film, “Lord of War,” and his nickname is “the merchant of death.”
Biden actually overrode the Department of Justice in order to approve the proposal, because the DOJ is usually against prisoner trades.
If the thought of swapping Griner and Whelan for a MERCHANT OF DEATH makes you extremely uncomfortable, well, you’re not alone!
I highly recommend listening to one of the podcasts I linked at the top, an episode of Vox’s Today Explained podcast featuring a conversation with Douglas Farah, the co-author of a biography on Bout, Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes, and the Man Who Makes War Possible.
Regarding Bout, Farah noted that although “he has actual blood on his hands from many conflicts,” after spending the last 14 years in custody, “he is not in a position to wreak a lot more havoc in his life.” Additionally, Bout has already served about half of his sentence and could be up for parole in a few years anyways.
I also recommend reading this great piece in Foreign Affairs by Danielle Gilbert, a Rosenwald Fellow in U.S. Foreign Policy and International Security at the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College, “The Prisoners Dilemma.” Gilbert explains that prisoner swaps are necessary for the United States to engage in once hostages are taken, but says that more policy should focus on preventing hostage taking from occurring in the first place.
The outlook
So wait, how likely is it that this prisoner swap actually happens? And do we know when?
To answer … myself, we definitely don’t know when. On ESPN Daily, T.J. Quinn said that when a deal is done, we probably won’t find out until Griner is on a plane on her way home. (Oh how I cannot wait for that day!) I know we WANT full transparency and daily updates on the progress of negotiations, but that’s just not how this works.
BG could be home next week. It might take until 2023. We don’t know.
There is some good news, though: Russia really wants Bout to be freed.
Putin has been angry about Bout’s imprisonment from the beginning, and very much wants him free. By all accounts, this is the first time the United States has offered him in a deal.
Bout’s attorney told CNN last month he is “confident that this is going to get done.”
Still, Russia knows how important it is for the United States to bring Griner and Whelan home, and they are reportedly trying to get at least one other Russian freed as part of the deal. (This is where the popular narratives don’t always fit with the facts of the story — Griner’s celebrity makes her more valuable to Russia than hostages like Whelan, especially as the public puts pressure on Biden to free her as soon as possible.)
This process is fucking excruciating, friends.
How to help BG
After writing all of this, I feel more helpless than ever! If you’ve read any of it, you likely do, too. So here are a few ways to help:
Tweeting/social-media-of-your-choice-ing about Griner and educating people about the facts of her case is important, so keep doing that. (Don’t feel the need to argue with every troll, though — some of them are Russian bots, and nobody has time for that.) It helps to let the Biden administration know that the public will support whatever deal he can make to bring BG home.
Sign the Change.org petition started by Tamryn Spruill and the WNBPA, “Secure Brittney Griner's Swift and Safe Return to the U.S.”
Buy a “WE ARE BG” tee via The Uninterrupted. All proceeds go to the BG Advocacy Fund, as do the proceeds from purchases of these “WE ARE BG” masks.
The New York Times recently did a profile of Isabella Escribano, a 14-year-old hooper who is responsible for designing some of the Brittney Griner “WE ARE BG” shirts and hoodies we’ve seen WNBA players don this season. Escribano has her own WNBA streetwear company, Break the Curse, and Griner’s agent, Lindsay Kagawa Kolas, approached her directly about designing the shirt. The results are incredible, but Escribano splits the production costs with the Wasserman agency, and as of August 31, she had yet to recoup her production costs. The “WE ARE BG” merch is currently sold out, but there are other phenomenal products on her site, and it would be great to support her work.
Support the WNBA and other women’s sports! I’m serious about this. While it won’t bring Griner home any faster, supporting the WNBA and other women’s sports will help ensure a future where athletes like Brittney Griner don’t have to go play in authoritarian states to maximize their career earnings. Tuning into WNBA playoff games, attending games if you can, buying jerseys, it all helps! Together we can make a huge difference.
Visit WeareBG.org for more information on the case and how to help.
Thank you for going so in-depth with this piece! I'm going to check out all of the links. Free BG!
Thank you for pulling all of this together. I wear my WE ARE BG pin every day. I retweet Coach Staley's post counting the days every day. I have to hope that stuff is happening that we don't know about and, one morning, we will wake up to images of her landing in Germany or somewhere safely out of Putin's grasp.