Griner faces 9 years in Russian prison
TweetFrom BOB CRAVEN, Seattle
IN a preordained and unusually swift verdict even by Russian standards, US women’s basketball star Brittney Griner was today convicted in a Moscow court of drug possession and smuggling. The star WNBA centre was sentenced to nine years in a remote prison.
Adding insult to injury, she was also fined one million rubles (approximately US$16,700).
US president Joe Biden almost immediately denounced as “unacceptable” the verdict and sentence.
The nine-year sentence was close to the maximum of 10 years that Griner faced under the charges. Legal observers said most Russians possessing small quantities of drugs get at most five years in prison.
Under Russian law, Griner has 10 days to appeal, and her lawyers say they expect a hearing in Moscow regional court next week.
Griner’s US agent tweeted that her sentence “was severe (even) by Russian legal standards … and goes to prove what we have known all along — that Brittney is being used as a political pawn”.
To that point, it is relevant to note Russia did not announce her arrest and imprisonment until after the invasion of Ukraine, some weeks after her actual arrest.
A conviction is usually a prerequisite for arranging a prisoner exchange and also allows Griner to apply for a presidential pardon.
US and Russian media have speculated for some time that she and another American detained on spying charges could be swapped for Viktor Bout, the so-called “Merchant of Death” arms merchant currently serving a 25-years sentence in the US for international arms trafficking.
Griner is a 206cm post players who has 12 of the 15 regular season dunks in WNBA history and who set the single-season record for blocked shots with 129 in 2014.
She has led the league in scoring twice and is a two-time Associated Press college basketball player of the year. She led Baylor U. to a 40-0 season and the 2012 NCAA title.
She was the overall #1 pick by Phoenix Mercury in the 2013 draft.
SAD and bad news for U. of Connecticut’s supergirl hoopster, Paige Bueckers, who won just about every possible Player of the Year award after her first season two years ago, helping to lead UConn to the Final Four.
She had to undergo ankle surgery prior to her second year campaign, then ran into more injury trouble when she suffered a tibial fracture in December.
Following successful rehab, she returned to the lineup ahead of the NCAA Tournament and helped push her team to the championship game against South Carolina.
Though they lost that game, optimism was high looking ahead to this coming season because she’d be fully healthy and ready to lead the charge again.
It was not meant to be, however, as UConn announced today that she tore her ACL playing in a pick-up game and will miss the entire upcoming season.
One hoops anniversary of note for yesterday, and it’s a biggy:
1949—The National Basketball Association is formed by the merger of the National Basketball League and the Basketball Association of America.