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Pampered U.S. athlete and WNBA player Brittney Griner has been held in Russia for nearly a month. She plays in the off-season for a women’s basketball team in Russia. Griner was stopped in an airport near Moscow when vaping equipment and hashish oil was detected by a drug sniffing dog. Brittney Griner forgot the most important rule when traveling to a foreign country. Because Miss Brittney has been an elite athlete for most of her life, she has never had to learn any rules.
Now maybe y’all are ginormous sports fans. I am not…at all. The only athletes I give a fig about are dancers and horses. Did I ever mention that I once met Secretariat in person? Big Red was beautiful and knew he was important. It’s one thing in a horse. However, our elite athletes are identified at a young age and coddled and pampered. Miss Griner was no exception.
According to everything I have read, Griner was a stand out high school player. She was a stand out player at Baylor and was drafted by the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA. She is 6 feet, 9 inches tall and, near as I can tell, she has the wingspan of a 747. Miss Brittney has two Olympic gold medals. If you care about stats, you can read hers here. She has been coddled her entire life.
Quite a few Twitter commenters agreed with Charlotte Clymer. Brittney Griner has to take a second job in Russia because her WNBA salary is inadequate.
Brittney Griner is among the biggest names in women’s sports and she still has to compete in China and Russia in the off-season because the WNBA pays her just $227k annually, around the league max. She makes many times her WNBA salary playing overseas.
Min. NBA salary is $925k.
— Charlotte Clymer 🏳️⚧️🇺🇦 (@cmclymer) March 5, 2022
Cry me a river. The WNBA doesn’t make any money, so they are all lucky to get paid.
Miss Griner also believes, with Colin Kaepernick, that one shouldn’t stand for the National Anthem. Here are a few quotes from Miss Griner regarding the National Anthem:
“I honestly feel we should not play the national anthem during our season,” Griner said, per The Arizona Republic. “I think we should take that much of a stand.”
“I’m going to protest regardless,” she said. “I’m not going to be out there for the national anthem. If the league continues to want to play it, that’s fine. It will be all season long, I’ll not be out there. I feel like more are going to probably do the same thing. I can only speak for myself.”
I don’t mean that in any disrespect to our country,” Griner continued. “My dad was in Vietnam and a law officer for 30 years. I wanted to be a cop before basketball. I do have pride for my country.
I personally don’t think it belongs in sports. … Black people didn’t have rights at that point,” Griner said of the creation of the Star-Spangled Banner. “It’s hard disrespecting a song that didn’t even represent all Americans when it was first made.”
“It’s not played at Walmart. It’s not played when you go to Six Flags. Why is it played before sporting events?”
If Miss Brittney had used a search engine, she could have found plenty of examples of the National Anthem at Walmart and Six Flags. We are not now or have we ever been a perfect nation. We have striven towards a “more perfect union” since our founding. Maybe if Griner had ever The Constitution she might have a more favorable view of the Rights guaranteed by that amazing document.
Miss Griner is not a political prisoner. She was caught at the airport, nearly a month ago, with vaping equipment and hashish oil. Marijuana, cannabis, hashish and all of the byproducts are illegal in Russia. But, Miss Griner thought the rules didn’t apply to her. Or worse, she didn’t bother reading the rules for Russia. Miss Brittney walked into the airport on her own two legs and put her bags on the conveyor belt on her own:
Russian media has reported that an American female was arrested at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow last month for drug smuggling. The Phoenix Suns confirms the woman is WNBA lesbian star player Brittney Griner. (Arrest photo from a prior assault & domestic violence case.) pic.twitter.com/wJNAJJzdNC
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) March 5, 2022
Clearly, Andy meant the Phoenix Mercury. Normally, the “lesbian” comment and the prior arrest picture would be extraneous, but it does show a pattern of pushing the boundaries.
Useless Representative Sheila Jackson Lee is going to demand that Vladimir Putin release Brittney Griner:
First, our State Department under Antony Blinken is impotent. Second, Vladimir Putin will have two reactions to Sheila Jackson Lee: (1) Who? and (2) laughing hysterically.
Britney Griner is a spoiled athlete who violated the drug laws of a sovereign country. Forgive me if I don’t give a fat rat’s backside.
Featured Image: Lorie Shaull/Flickr.com/cropped/Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
Remember when Sheila Jackson Lee protested the retention and death of Otto Warmbier? Me neither.
Lee is one of the most self-parodizing elected officials ever. She loves the camera, even showing up at funerals to campaign.
Griner was foolish. Hope she gets released soon. No surprise about her rap sheet. Violence with lesbians is more than double that of heterosexuals.
And boo-hoo about her salary. She’s lucky the NBA funds the WNBA as a charity. Very, very few people care about that league. I laugh at the ESPN site, where they have articles and scores for women’s basketball. I’d love to see them post stats on the amount of hits they get relative to sports people care about.
Lloyd says: I say Leave her there! Let her work this out on her own…if she can. She, like so many other elite athletes, contributes little to society. A merely mediocre elementary school teacher is far more valuable to society than she is. I’d fight to bring a teacher home, but….an elite professional athlete….leave her there!
Dietrich says: Love the line
“…she still has to compete in China and Russia in the off-season because the WNBA pays her just $227k annually…”
Can’t make it on just $227k?
DBrooks says: I agree with most of this post. The WNBA is a struggling enterprise propped up by the NBA, with very limited interest from the public. For myself, I am no fan of the league or Miss Griner. BUT, she is a fellow American, and I wish her no ill will, even if she has said and done things with which I do not agree. The Left has proven itself to be the enemy of much that I believe and hold dear. We on the Right are finally waking up that this is an actual war for our national principles and values. However, as much as I personally despise most of the elected Democrats, the media, and the propagandists who proselytize with lies and obfuscations every damn day, I don’t think it serves any purpose for any of us to wish these circumstances on a fellow citizen. Personally, I hope she manages to get back to the United States, perhaps wiser and more aware of the benefits our freedom bestows on all of us.
GWB says: I don’t wish ill on her. But I have zero sympathy. But I insist on intellectual consistency. She thinks America is awful, and was ignorant enough to carry illicit drugs into a foreign country. I think she should suffer the consequences of her stupidity,
SCOTTtheBADGER says: Well, well, she fought the law, and the law won!
nuthinmuffin says: can’t do the time? don’t do the crime…
Peter Grynch says: Don’t worry, Russian prison guards are trained to always use your preferred gender pronouns so she should be okay.
Maybe Nike will pick her as their new endorsement pick:
1. unpatriotic
2. drug user
3. ignorant SJW
Clearly she checks all their boxes!
GWB says: The WNBA doesn’t make any money, so they are all lucky to get paid.
Ding! Of course, that’s because all us men are such patriarchal misogynists we make sure no one watches a bunch of women failing at basketball. It’s all the patriarchy, don’t you see.
I honestly feel we should not play the national anthem during our season
So, you’re not expecting the State Dept to come get you out of that nasty foreign jail or anything, then, right?
I don’t mean that in any disrespect to our country
Bullcarp, sweetheart. You absolutely mean it in disrespect to our country. It’s the only possible meaning.
Black people didn’t have rights at that point
So you’re ignorant, too.
It’s not played when you go to Six Flags.
Actually, it was always played at Six Flags Over Texas (the true original Six Flags, in Arlington). If I recall correctly, it was at opening and during the lunch hour. It might have stopped once “Six Flags” became a less Texan thing and more corporate.
Or worse, she didn’t bother reading the rules for Russia.
Most likely. She seems to be a willfully ignorant human being.
Forgive me if I don’t give a fat rat’s backside.
Concur. Now let’s do all the other Americans geld by oppressive regimes, where these people gladly travelled there (often on a non-American passport), promptly did things against the law there, and got jailed for it, then cried for America to save them. Pfft, no.
(Not aimed at you, Toni, but at a lot of other people.)
Cameron says: So…
Black
Gay
Arrested for drugs
In Russia
I’d like to say that she’s about to learn some valuable life lessons on how good she has it in the US but I’m not holding my breath.
Stuck In The Middle says: Several hours after reading this article, I listened to a report in which an expert on Russia was interviewed. The expert said Russia has a history of arresting foreigners on trumped up and false charges. I’d heard of Paul Whelan,for example, who is serving a 16 year sentence on an espionage charge he vehemently denies. The person who was interviewed said she wouldn’t be at all surprised if the charges against Griner are false or trumped up given Russia’s history of doing this. I was aware of Paul Whelan, but I hadn’t heard of Paul Reed. Reed is serving a sentence of 9 years in Russia for supposedly endangering the lives of police officers. That’s the official Russian story of his situation. The true story is that he was probably arrested for intoxication and when it was found he was a member of the U.S. military, false charges of endangering police officers were concocted.
Is it also possible that material was planted on Griner? Considering the Putin regime has poisoned people, I would think this is a possibility. It’s also possible that Griner simply got sloppy although she has been playing in Russia in the off season for a number of years with apparently no problems.
I don’t see any hard facts proving the the writer’s assertion that Griner “has been coddled her entire life.” It seems the writer simply doesn’t like Griner’s views on certain issues and attacked her. Maybe Griner is spoiled. I have no idea, but the information in this piece didn’t do a thing to prove the writer’s assertion that she is coddled.
There’s nothing wrong with playing in another country to make money in the off season. Griner certainly isn’t the only WNBA player to do so. I see little difference between the money she earns doing this and the money that male basketball stars earn through their endorsements. They all have a product to offer. It sounds to me like this is capitalism at work. Does the writer begrudge Michael Jordan, for example, of all the money he earned with his endorsements? This angle about Griner seemed like a cheap shot. The comment about the WNBA’s financial situation also seemed like a cheap shot. Is Griner responsible for the financial well-being of the NBA? Would the writer hold a well-known male basketball player to the same standard? I suppose she might if he held views on issues and she disagreed with him…
Overall, this was a poorly written piece chock full of an emotional response. I’d never heard of Griner before this incident. Thanks, though,for letting me know that she “has the wingspan of a 747” and that you met Secretariat. Those were vital pieces of information for making your case.
If you’d like to read or hear somebody speak about Russia and Putin who is very well versed on the subjects, I’d suggest that you check out Russian-American journalist Masha Gessen. Her knowledge, writings, and talks on Putin and Russia put this little pathetic rant of a piece to shame.
Raymond Hargrove says: I agree totally with the writer of this story. Just another pampered athlete that thinks the rules dont apply. She makes a hell of alot of money for someone that doesn’t really make an impact on keeping this country running. Real people, waitresses, cooks, truck drivers, factory workers, electricians, ironworkers, pipe fitters, carpenters, laborers, teachers, from the top to the very bottom professionals of they’re jobs. For some one to publicly trash this country with they’re comments than expect to be saved is ignorant. Her woke following is a joke. The video shows it all. She was caught. She calmly signed the Russian paperwork because she thought she’d get out of it because she’s an important athlete. Anyone that was truly set up would have acted differently. They would have taken me out kicking & screaming. She didnt sign her release form because she knows she’s guilty & she’s hoping the woke community saves her & if they succeed she will come back worse than ever without learning any kind of lesson in life. She’ll come back as the pampered self entitled person that she is still hating the country. I understand that she’s an American but not all Americans are always right & any time you travel to another country especially Russia you better follow they’re laws. When you visit other countries as an American you represent the greatest country in the world & brittany griner let us all down. It’s my opinion & being a citizen of the greatest country in the world it’s my right to have it whether you agree or not.
[…] cannabis oil and vape cartridges while at the airport in Moscow back in February of this year, and was arrested on drug smuggling charges. One week ago, Griner pled guilty to the […]
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