WNBA player Brittney Grinner has been detained in Russia after a vape with hashish oil in it was found in her luggage at the Sheremetyevo airport near Moscow, The New York Times reported Saturday morning.
Grinner has been charged with large-scale transportation of drugs. Russian Costume Services released a video of Brittney Grinner bag being checked while going through security. The security video is from February, but it is unknown exactly how long Grinner has been detained.
In addition to the Phoenix Mercury, Grinner plays for UMMC Ekaterinburg in the Russian Premier League during the WNBA offseason.
There is a choir of people pointing out that she should not have been transporting an illegal drug through an airport while fleeing a country engaging in a barbaric invasion of Ukrain (thank you, captain hindsight). There is no argument it was major mistake, but everyone should be concerned about her safety. She is a notable athlete that could be used as a political pawn in the battle between Russia and the western world.
The attention has brought a light how women basketball players, even the stars, play for these Russian teams for owner’s with mysterious motivations.
Russian leagues are not profitable. Kate Fagan wrote an excellent profile about Griner and Diana Taurasi while they were in Russia from 2017 that is relevant now. She explained what the attendance is like for the games:
To be clear, UMMC has not developed some winning algorithm for women’s hoops popularity; tickets on the floor and in the lower bowl are just a few bucks, and tickets in the upper bowl are free. Some who attend the games truly enjoy women’s hoops, but most just appreciate the possibility of free entertainment in a heated arena in the dead of winter.
UMMC in addition to owning a basketball team, it is a large copper organization in Russia. The basketball team is a prestige purchase for their owner. As the Fagan and other players like Sue Bird point out, they are treated extremely well in Russia. There a bit of irony in that because Russian laws and culture that is intolerant of the LGBT+ community. However, in addition to often making more than double the salary, the stars are treated like the men basketball players in here in the states by the owners.
An extreme example is when Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi were the biggest women’s basketball stars played for a former KGB spy, Shabtai Kalmanovich. In addition to being payed a life changing amount of money, they were set up in a mini-mansion, put up in the best hotels, had travel accommodations much better than the WNBA. Kalmanovich was later killed in a contract hit.
As scary as this situation is, blame is not on the WNBA. The argument of what is the right pay for a WNBA player is irrelevant to what happened. Russia pays athletes well and the WNBA is not a full-year season, it is four month. Unless the WNBA makes the league longer, which is not a good idea to compete against the NBA, women basketball players will continue to play overseas to continue to play and supplement their income.
This is not one of those annoying, ‘the WNBA players are getting paid what they deserve’ takes. The league is growing a niche pocket of fans. There potential to grow. As a fan of the sport, I want to see it grow where it becomes treated like an actual league and not a social movement.
The product is good, the games are fun, if you like watching basketball you will enjoy watching their games. In terms of personalities to market, the women’s basketball game cannot be beat. A lot of the top players are lively, funny and intelligent. The league has a lot going to it.
WNBA stars make a nice living if they play year round. That could be in trouble if the Russia league is not tenable for America. There are much bigger tragedies happening, but the women’s basketball players could be hurt economically if the women’s basketball with the fallout happening with Russia.
Although it is difficult to even speculate on what is going to happen, here is a try: Grinner’s arrest probably has no relationship to what is happening in Ukraine. The arrest took place before the invasion of Ukraine began. Her fate is now in the hands of government that is extremely volatile and unpredictable. No one knows what is going to happen. Diplomats could negotiate to get her out of her tonight or she could become a high-profile political pawn. As scary as this situation is, no one is to really blame.
Photo Courtesy of The Associated Press
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