MIAMI — It is five months now into WNBA star Brittney Griner’s captivity in Russia, one the U.S. State Department has called a “wrongful detention,” and awareness spikes anew — but oddly, dubiously, ironically — thanks to basketball’s biggest star still, LeBron James.
From his throne, King James addressed Griner’s situation in the trailer for the newest episode of his YouTube talk show, The Shop: Uninterrupted: “Now, how can she feel like America has her back?” James says. “I would be feeling like, ‘Do I even want to go back to America?’ ”
Griner faces 10 years in jail under Russia’s rigged judicial system as the U.S. works behind the scenes to win her release, most likely though a prisoner exchange. In a letter to President Joe Biden she wrote, “I’m terrified I might be here forever. Please don’t forget about me.”
With due respect to LeBron, whose activism and outspokenness are to be admired in most cases, imagining that Griner might be wondering if she even wants to go back to America was a rather callous, outrageous thing to say. Worse, he said it timed to promote his latest talk show, which happens to premiere on Friday.
(This is what happens when active athletes dive into podcasting and other content creation. Stars who spend entire careers wanting no headlines for any off-the-field stuff now must chase attention for their side projects. We’ve seen it with Draymond Green. Now we see Griner as a pawn played by LeBron to draw eyes to his own latest new episode).
James’ comments in the trailer hit with such an off-key thud, the mea culpa was immediate. He tweeted Tuesday that his comments were not meant to disrespect “our beautiful country.”
NBA free agent Enes Kanter (now legally Enes Kanter Freedom), an activist in the politics of Turkey, scolded James on Twitter, telling him, “Keep taking your freedom for granted.”
Unlike James I imagine very much that Griner wants not only to go back to America but to go back to an America and a sport that does a much better job of reaching anything remotely approaching pay equity.
The irony of LeBron weighing in is that WNBA salaries, relative to LeBron’s and those of other NBA players, is how this story begins. With money, or the lack of it on the women’s side.
I first addressed Griner’s detention more than four months ago, on March 10, soon after it happened. The headline on that column: Why is Brittney Griner lost in Russia? Start with low WNBA pay — and NBA failing to help.
The elevator recap is that this whole thing starts because Griner, a superstar in American women’s basketball, in effect has a second job in the offseason overseas due to the pay disparity in her sport — as do many, many other women.
LeBron James’ current contract pays him $42.8 million per season (not counting endorsements).
Griner’s deal pays her $221,511 per season.
Even average NBA players make money that dwarfs what WNBA stars get. The Miami Heat’s Duncan Robinson couldn’t get off the bench in the playoffs, yet he “earns” $18 million per season, or 85 times Griner’s pay.
The women are chasing dollars all over the globe, including remote outposts in Russia, trying to make up for the gaping inequity.
It cost Brittney Griner her freedom.
At a time in America when the U.S. Supreme Court has taken away the rights of women over their own bodies, nowhere in sports is the pay gap based on gender a greater insult to women than it is in professional basketball.
I am not saying WNBA players deserve equal pay when the NBA is so much bigger, more popular and more economically buoyant. But the NBA always has had a business stake in the women’s league, and therefore has a moral obligation to make WNBA pay such that even superstars are not looking for second jobs.
Griner was arrested trying to leave the country on an unspecified date in February, when allegedly found in possession of a vape pen cartridges containing hashish oil. She has since pleaded guilty in what was seen as a strategic move, a necessary step toward a prisoner exchange.
She is one of many Americans including former marine Paul Whelan, whom the U.S. is trying to extract.
WNBA players at their recent all-star game all wore Griner’s name and number (42) on their backs in the second half, a poignant gesture. Griner’s Phoenix Mercury coach, Vanessa Nygaard, expressed her frustration afterward:
“If it was LeBron, he’d be home right? “ she said. “It’s a statement about the value of women. It’s a statement about the value of a Black person [James is Black]. It’s a statement about the value of a gay person. All of those things. We know it, and that’s what hurts the most.”
I would add that this is also about, maybe even more, geopolitics and timing.
Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. That means the war was about to happen, if it hadn’t already begun, when Russia happened to detain a very prominent U.S. citizen.
Hmm. One needn’t lead the league in skepticism to wonder if this was not coincidental, but rather Russia looking for a pawn as a bit of leverage, knowing the U.S. would condemn the war and likely be sending military aid to Ukraine. The war only further complicates Griner’s release, as I am sure LeBron James and Vanessa Nygaard must appreciate. Right?
Look, all of these things might be true.
Griner being Black and gay and a woman might have played a role. So might her being a prominent U.S. citizen trying to leave Russia as an invasion of Ukraine was erupting.
But do not forget or dismiss the root-cause of all of this in the first place:
A veteran 31-year-old WNBA superstar having to chase dollars in the offseason with a far-flung Russian team called UMMC Ekaterinburg. Because that superstar, in an entire season back home, makes less than one-third what LeBron James makes in a single game.
Brittney Griner — where she is and why — is first and foremost a shame that basketball and American sport must carry.
