Brittney Griner’s stay in Russia has been extended to a far greater extent than she certainly intended. Griner has been in Russian custody since she was detained at an airport outside of Moscow after it was discovered hashish oil in her luggage. What many hoped would be a relatively expeditious return of the WNBA star to U.S. soil have been disappointed, as Russia , who just happens to be in a military conflict with a country that the United States has decided to supply finances and armaments to, has played hardball and has decided to subject Griner to the rigors of the Russian judicial system.
As the saga has dragged on there was a period of time where the story of Brittney did not get the run in major media that one might think it could or should have, However multiple mass shootings, the aforementioned war, record inflation and the seemingly exponential rise in gas and food costs have caused it to be somewhat pushed into the background.
The outcries from Brittany’s family, particularly her spouse, Chenelle Griner have become louder, as she has been very critical of the Biden adminstration and their response, specifically their lack thereof. A recent handwritten letter from Brittany to President Biden did little to jostle the administration from their inactivity.
When a group or a high profile people getting heat for their misdeeds, it seems a way must be fabricated in order to lay the feet at black people, in this case, black men through the proxy of Lebron James and NBA players.
Enter Vanessa Nygaard, Phoenix Mercury head coach, who had this to say:
“If it was LeBron, he’d be home, right? It’s a statement about the value of women. It’s a statement about the value of a Black person. It’s a statement about the value of a gay person. All of those things. We know it, and so that’s what hurts a little more.”
Phoenix Mercury Head Coach Vanessa Nygaard
Attorney Benjamin Crump took a break from pursuing settlements instead of justice for the black victims of race soldiers to weigh in, saying ” I think the NBA players should be saying more.”
Lebron James, nor any other NBA player is the reason that Brittany Griner is in a Russian jail, but this is a sloppy attempt to foist responsibility onto them. When they say NBA players it is crystal clear who is being referred to , because there has been not instances advocating that Luka Dončić , Kristaps Porzingis or Nikola Jokić speak out on this situation.
It should also not be lost that while LeBron is being called out to speak out on the Griner situation, they have no such fervor for him to lend his voice regarding the brutal murder of Jayland Walker, which happened in his hometown of Akron, Ohio. The 25-year-old young man had his life ended courtesy of 60 bullets from Akron, Ohio race soldiers on 27 June 2022 after fleeing his car 40 seconds into a traffic stop.
Perennial all-star on the blame black men for everything team Jemele Hill crawled from the abyss of her latest media failure to unprompted, as was not the case with Chad Wheeler’s attempted murder of his girlfriend, pen an article that not only joined in the misguided chorus of caucophony that is blaming NBA players. As deplorably disingenuous as that stance, it was rivaled by the article’s use of Griner’s situation as a football to push the “plight” of “underpaid” WNBA players. Hill’s attempt to portray the WNBA players as a as a downtrodden athletic underclass treated as second class citizens because they are women is not only patently false but fails to take into account the law of supply and demand. Without diving too far into this , as currently constituted, there is simply not the demand for the WNBA, and this is seen in the lackluster viewing and in-game attendance.
With all these people taking the time to get on NBA players for not saying anything, I have noticed how GLAAD, and the National Organization for Women (NOW) have been rather quiet on this matter. Particularly when it comes to GLAAD, compare their response was to jokes from Dave Chappelle, in which they strongly came out against him and Netlfix.; NOW has been sitting on their hands since Griner has been detained. Viewing the comments from Coach Nygaard, Ben Crump and Jemele Hill through this lens clearly elucidates their objective is to cast responsibility solely at the feet of NBA players ( black men) , while giving a complete pass to organizations, such as GLAAD and NOW, who not only have considerable public and political sway but also skin in the game. However these organizations continue be given a pass and is another example that GLAAD and the NOW feels that only some members of their respective communities are worthy of their help.
