Star Center for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury Brittney Griner was previously arrested and detained in Russia, after pleading guilty to possession of hashish oil. Her current situation looks bleak as she presently sits in a Russian prison for the next 140 days, only to look forward to the grim future of a possible 10 years in a foreign prison: Russia’s repercussions for ‘large-scale transportation of drugs’ can reach anywhere up to a lifetime of incarceration if found guilty.
Over a month after Griners’ arrest, Phoenix’s head coach, Vanessa Nygaard, began to vocalize her frustration with her county not showing any initiative towards helping out her player. This past Tuesday, July 5, 2022, Nygaard raised the question, “What if someone like LeBron James was in Griner’s place?.” She continued, “If it was LeBron, he would be home, right? It is a statement about the value of women. It is a statement about the value of a black person. It is a statement about the value of a gay person. All of those things. We know it, and so that is what hurts a little more.”
The 31-year-old professional athlete recently wrote a direct letter to United States President Joe Biden expressing her extreme fear that she might never return home. “As I sit here in a Russian prison, alone with my thoughts and without the protection of my wife, family, friends, Olympic jersey, or any accomplishment, I am terrified I might be here forever,” Brittney wrote. As Griner remains incarcerated until either President Biden or Russia makes a move to continue her specific case, all her family, friends, and fans can do is pray that our competing country has mercy on one of our beloved citizens and athletes.