One of the Best Players in WNBA History is in a Russian Prison and No One Cares

This week, Britney Griner appealed her 9-year sentence on drug charges in Russia. That appeal was denied and Griner is being transferred to a prison colony after already being detained since February.

Insane to me that the world isn’t stopping to address this. Griner is going to a prison in which inmates are beaten and forced to work 16-hour days. In a country where she doesn’t even speak the language. She’s going to hell and no one cares.

Perhaps people do not understand how great of a player she is so let’s just quickly run through some of her accolades:

1-time WNBA Champion
2-time scoring champ
2-time Defensive Player of the Year
3-time All-WNBA First Team
3-time All-WNBA Second Team
3-time All-Defense First Team
4-time All-Defense Second Team
8-time All-Star
8-time block leader
NCAA Champ
AP Player of the Year
McDonalds All-American
4-time Euroleague champ
3-time RUSSIAN National League champ
2-time Olympic gold medalist
Most blocks per game in WNBA history

Do you see this fucking resume?? Britney Griner is one of the greatest players in the history of women’s basketball. If Tim Duncan was imprisoned in a Russian jail for a weed vape pen, he would be home back in the states before that vape battery died.

Even Griner’s former coach at Baylor had absolutely nothing to say regarding the girl who helped her win a championship.

“I wanted to get your thoughts on the Britney Griner situation, I don’t think I’ve seen anything from you on that.”

LSU basketball coach Kim Mulkey: “And you won’t.” https://t.co/C9sFFVktn8

pic.twitter.com/Rxtvu6uynV

— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) September 26, 2022

Not only did she refuse to comment but she was an asshole about it.

Whenever Griner is discussed, it always comes with some variation of this lazy ass comment: well, you shouldn’t bring weed to Russia.

No one ever provides the important context that Griner shouldn’t even be playing in Russia but has to because the WNBA doesn’t pay their players enough money so they have to moonlight and play in war-torn nations to make ends meet.

The WNBA forces players to fly coach across the country every week. Until recently, these women weren’t even given maternity leave. A LEAGUE COMPRISED ENTIRELY OF WOMEN DIDN’T HAVE PAID MATERNITY LEAVE.

As far as weed goes, it’s always hilarious when people think Russia is the place where you should never be caught with bud. Over 7 million people were arrested for weed from 2001 to 2010 and black people are overwhelming the targets of these arrests.

A drug that makes people lay down and eat chips has been weaponized against entire communities. Just the fees alone to pay lawyers and fines can completely set back a young man’s life for no reason at all.

Alcohol makes people hit and rape other humans but as long as you’re 21 and not behind the wheel, all you can drink. But if you have a little bag of weed in your pocket, you owe the state money for years and are stuck stagnant under the thumb of probation for however long your judge feels like it on the day.

So for everyone who says ‘hey, you can’t break the law’ I need you to take a step back and ask yourself why it’s even a fucking law. Uh, you guys know it was once a law that like, people could own slaves right? If a slave escaped and ran to your front door would you just shrug and be like ‘hey look, the law is the law. I have to bring you back to the plantation. It’s the law’.

This isn’t about laws. This is about a country not giving a shit about a black woman.

And I’ll even go a step further. *shoots machine gun in the air* if Kelsey Plum was arrested in Russia for having a weed pen, she’d be home in time to catch Jeopardy that night because you know how to make a misogynistic country care about a woman basketball player? Make her cute.

Guys don’t care about Britney Griner because they don’t want to fuck her. It’s truly that simple. A white girl like Gabby Petito goes missing and the entire country holds its breath waiting to find her. A Hall of Famer women’s basketball player like Britney Griner gets caught with weed and we all act like she’s some idiot who should’ve known better so we shouldn’t feel sorry for her.

Even the way we walk about the Russian justice system as if it is soooo dissimilar from America makes no sense.

A recent report found about 800,000 out of 1.2 million prisoners are forced to work for about 13 cents an hour in order to generate around $11 billion. EVERY AMERICAN PRISON IS JUST AS BAD IF NOT WORSE THAN RUSSIAN PENAL COLONIES.

Because the news cycle moves so quickly, we seem unable to recognize when we are witnessing history and most people are completely unaware that they are on the wrong side of history. Textbooks will write about one of the greatest WNBA players ever just being taken in the midst of her prime and sent to a Russian prison for a decade because she had a little weed.

Free Britney Griner.