Brittney Griner

Gets arrested, presumably to put pressure on US about Ukraine (and other things).

One part about this story sticks out, to me:

Griner, 31, is a championship-winning player with the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and spends her offseasons playing for the Russian team UMMC Ekaterinburg.

Um, no, she spends her offseasons playing in a shit league where teams are not allowed to use chartered flights, gets paid a sixth of her salary of the other league. Guess which one is which.

Anywho, had some vape cartridges with hash oil in her luggage.

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Seems she was arrested a month ago or so. A bit before the invasion was launched.

Not sure what day in February. Could have been seven days ago or 34 days ago. Trying to find a day on various news sites.
OK, so she last played for her Russian League team on January 29. League took a two-week break for FIBA Women’s World Cup Qualifications. Griner plays for USA, which had already qualified due to winning the Olympics.
So, Griner presumably left for the USA, returned with Russia-illegal drugs mid-February.

So, is it simply one oligarch basketball owner doesn’t want Griner to play in the league, so his team can win? Her team are the 13-straight defending champions. Let’s see who owns Dynamo Kursk…
How much trouble am I going to get into by clicking the russian premier league basketball site?
Eh. nothing there about Griner. Surprise.

Her team are undefeated in 20 games. Dynamo Kursk are right behind at 18-1.

OK, I’m not that up on modern basketball (or European basketball): what is an “attacking defender”? I don’t see “shooting guard” noted, but Center, Power Forward, Small Forward, and Point Guard are all listed under player’s names.

From an article saying that the WNBA is really the one responsible for Griner’s detainment.

Had she made even a fraction of what her NBA counterparts do while playing domestically, Griner could have stayed in the United States for the offseason without fear that she wouldn’t have enough money for retirement.

I was thinking maybe I should put that in the innumeracy thread. Pretty sure she does make a fraction of what her NBA counterparts make.

It also talked about how playing overseas doesn’t give the women a chance to recover from the season. But they didn’t mention that the WNBA regular season consists of 32 games vs the NBA’s 82 games. And playoffs that are basically 2 rounds of play in games then 2 rounds of best of 5 series. Not sure they need as much of an off season to recover as the NBA does.

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Did you see that on the roster of some basketball team? Because when I google that term, I only get soccer results which I expected you would fully understand.

And I saw an article that indicated another WNBA player tweeted or said it has been about 3 weeks now.

Yup. I’m thinking there is a translation issue.

Makes me wonder why they (US players who play in Europe) play at all in the WNBA. 'cause that will be more helpful in raising salaries and getting chartered flights with more legroom. Or, it would cause the league to fold. Not sure if the league is necessary to exist (sorry, on National Women’s Day, no less) if it’s going to be so financially unpopular that it cannot compete with other places that pay more.

If they couldn’t get decent US based talent it would probably fold pretty fast. I wonder if WNBA player make much on endorsements in the US.

I always thought the WNBA played when they did to avoid competing for fans in the seats with the NBA but now I’m thinking it might be to avoid competing for talent with Euro leagues.

Why not both?

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BTW, I’m pretty sure it is Brittney’s fault for bringing “hemp oil” in a vape. I mean you probably could run into the same thing at many airports in the US for having that in your bag.

Yes.
But, we cannot prevent Russia from being so behind on drug policies. I read somewhere that “they” were “cracking down on a large smuggling operation.” Yeah, Brittney’s the ringleader, sure, with her couple of vapes.

People need to be smarter about flying with drugs. Cartridges are too obvious. At least bring edibles wrapped in plastic. Anything with strong smell (to humans) is a no. Dogs don’t generally smell for drugs at airports so most drugs are fine.

Powders and crystals are super suspicious too. If you absolutely need to bring them on the plane, dissolve them in water and put them in like a facial serum vial, and bake them when you arrive.

What I heard from friends.

Her WNBA salary was $221,450. That’s more than a lot of actudonks make and we manage to save for retirement. Granted, our careers are longer, but we also don’t get endorsement deals.

That said, she reportedly makes in the vicinity of $1,500,000 playing for UMMC Ekaterinburg, so it’s pretty understandable that she’d want to make that money too, even if a lot of that is going to foreign and domestic taxes.

Let’s see, Russian drug policies for athletes…

Performance-enhancing drugs: Not only acceptable, but encouraged! In fact, we might slip you some when you’re not looking.

Hemp oil: We will lock you up and throw away the key.

Without considering whether the cartridges were hers or not, the best chance she has is for Ekat… team owner to beg Putin to let her out.

Her best chance is probably for the US to arrest a spy and offer a trade. We need to get on that.

Yep, if they’re paying her $1.5 million, presumably they want her services. But the team was suspended from the EuroLeague after the invasion of Ukraine. However they’re still in the Russian Premier League.

I don’t know enough about how this all works to know how that impacts revenue / schedules and just how much her absence will be felt.

Is she protesting her innocence? A cynical possibility is that if they don’t have to pay her while she’s incarcerated (but otherwise would) then maybe the EuroLeague suspension means the owners want her incarcerated so they don’t have to pay her???

No clue how plausible that is… maybe it’s absurd.

Meh, people retire on much less but I’m not about that life