The case of basketball player Brittney Griner continues to exist in legal limbo.

If you’ve missed this case, the WNBA player was found to have 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 charges.

Griner told the court Thursday she had not intended to commit a crime, state news agency RIA Novosti reported. Griner had not meant to carry drugs in her luggage, she said through an interpreter, and it was the result of her packing in a hurry, the report said.”

The decision to plead guilty was made by Griner alone, a source close to her said. But in recent weeks, Griner, her family, lawyers and experts had discussed this decision extensively. Given the 99% reported conviction rate in Russian criminal cases, Griner was urged to weigh all the factors, including a plea that could ultimately result in a shorter sentence.”

It’s clear that she is hoping to be part of a prisoner swap, the same way that Trevor Reed was able to be exchanged, even though the current Russian invasion of Ukraine makes all of the diplomatic dances quite a lot more fraught. Griner’s case has actually received quite a lot of media attention, unlike the case of Paul Whelan, who was sentenced to 16 years in a Russian prison for alleged “spying” in 2020. Griner’s family and team have been pushing the Biden administration to act on her behalf, and apparently they have been in communication with Brittney Griner through diplomatic channels.

At Thursday’s hearing, a senior US diplomat gave Griner a letter US President Joe Biden wrote her in reply to her July 4 letter in which she pleaded for Biden’s help. The US Embassy in Moscow shared Biden’s letter with Griner during her trial, Charge d’affaires Elizabeth Rood said Thursday.”

Griner appreciated Biden’s letter “like every citizen of every country would appreciate a personal letter from the President,” Boykov said.”

On Wednesday, the White House announced Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris had spoken by phone with Griner’s wife. Cherelle Griner was “grateful” for the call, she said in a statement Wednesday.”

Now enters LeBron James, certifiable social justice mouthpiece and Chinese stooge of the NBA. Apparently, James and his galaxy brain was on full display on his personal talk show “The Shop” – and it really is LeBron James’s show, which used to be on HBO and is now on YouTube – and wondered aloud if Brittney Griner would even want to come back to the United States, because HE maybe wouldn’t. AND THEN, because whoever helps James run this show thought this was such a STELLAR hot take, they put it in the promotional trailer for the episode.

LeBron made the comments during a recent taping of “The Shop” … when the conversation apparently turned to the incarcerated American hoops star.”

“Now, how can she feel like America has her back? I would be feeling like, ‘Do I even want to go back to America?'”

Um, yeah. If Brittney Griner didn’t want to come home, would her family be pushing the Biden administration to bring her back? Would she be writing letters pleading for help if she didn’t want to return?

“As I sit here in a Russian prison, alone with my thoughts and without the protection of my wife, family, friends, Olympic jersey or any accomplishments, I’m terrified I might be here forever,” Griner said in an excerpt from the letter shared by her representatives.”

She continued: “I realize you are dealing with so much, but please don’t forget about me and the other American detainees. Please do all you can to bring us home.”

John Sexton of Hot Air charitably opined that maybe LeBron James didn’t know about Griner’s pleading letter when he filmed this show. I feel no such charity; LeBron is an idiot who believes that his status, wealth, and celebrity means that his opinions never need to be grounded in fact. His sucking up to the Chinese Communist Party is proof of that. The backlash was hot enough that LeBron was forced to tweet out a correction – complete with hashtags!
https://twitter.com/KingJames/status/1547031203999469569
EVERYONE knows hashtags are the way to fix EVERYTHING. Just ask Jen Psaki.

Well, Enes Kanter Freedom has now entered the chat. He comes from a country currently ruled by a de facto dictator who arrested his father on trumped-up terror charges, and revoked Enes Kanter’s passport because he criticized the strongman of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Enes Kanter Freedom, the former NBA player – who can’t seem to get a spot on a team now, funny, that – has some very strong opinions about just how great America is. It’s why he became a naturalized citizen and legally changed his name to Enes Kanter Freedom. We here at Victory Girls are big fans of Enes and his courage to tell hard truths, even when it costs him.

So Enes Kanter Freedom was not shy in pointing out to LeBron James that America is not the Hotel California – you can actually LEAVE, you ungrateful moron.

You call it a step back, we call this a walk back.

You are free to leave buddy or you can even volunteer for an exchange for her.

Some people literally have NO idea what is it like to live in a dictatorship.

Keep taking your freedom for granted. https://t.co/RG28O6co1E pic.twitter.com/QqpPuLrB72

— Enes FREEDOM (@EnesFreedom) July 13, 2022

LeBron James, for all his posturing, has been one of the most privileged humans on the planet ever since his teen years simply because of his athletic ability. Brittney Griner, for all her athletic ability, has learned and is learning that all the social justice posturing in the world will not protect you if you run afoul of the laws of another country, especially a country who isn’t particularly friendly to the United States. Griner is learning the worth of her American citizenship, and while I doubt she will publicly recant her previous asinine positions on the national anthem, I do think that when she eventually returns, she won’t be so obnoxiously performative about social justice issues. And they can both take a lesson from Enes Kanter Freedom, who fully understands the blessings of his chosen country and nationality.

But LeBron James could definitely benefit from seeing what life is like without his wealth and celebrity status before opening his mouth again about America. He should definitely go check out China, since he loves their money. It’s not like they’ve ever intentionally locked up an athlete for “speaking her truth” or anything… right, LeBron?

Featured image: composite image of Enes Kanter Freedom (November 15, 2021 via Erik Drost on Flickr, cropped and modified, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)) and LeBron James (December 16, 2018 via Wikimedia Commons, cropped and modified, Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0))