Brittney Griner: WNBA Commisioner says detention is ‘huge priority’
WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert stated on Sunday that getting U.S. basketball participant Brittney Griner dwelling from Russia, the place she faces as much as 10 years in jail on a drug cost, stays a prime precedence for the league.
Griner pleaded responsible to a medication cost in a Russian courtroom final week however denied she had deliberately damaged the legislation. Her subsequent courtroom listening to was scheduled for July 14.
“Clearly we’re pondering of Brittney Griner right now,” Engelbert stated in her opening remarks to media forward of Sunday’s WNBA All-Star Sport in Chicago.
“She stays an enormous precedence for us, continues to have our full help, absolutely targeted on getting her dwelling safely and as quickly as potential in fact.”
Griner was beforehand named an honorary starter for the All-Star Sport and her initials and quantity will characteristic on the courtroom and likewise on the again of the gamers’ warm-up shirts.
The 2-time Olympic gold medallist was detained in February at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport with vape cartridges containing cannabis oil, which is illegitimate in Russia, and has been stored in custody since.
The 31-year-old Griner, a centre for the Phoenix Mercury within the Ladies’s Nationwide Basketball Affiliation, has usually performed for a Russian skilled workforce through the WNBA low season to assist complement her revenue.
U.S. President Joe Biden final week informed Griner’s spouse that he’s working to safe the participant’s launch from Russia as quickly as potential, describing her detention on drug fees as “insupportable.”
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Enhancing by Toby Davis)
