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Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

MCDONALD | The WNBA Must Acknowledge Its Responsibility for Griner’s Arrest

I could decry how, if Steph Curry had been arrested while in Russia to play basketball, stories would have littered both the sports and news front pages every day until his release. But unlike the Phoenix Mercury’s Brittney Griner and other WNBA stars, Steph Curry is paid handsomely and would never dream of having to play in Russia to subsidize his salary. 

Russian authorities indefinitely detained Griner — who moonlights for the Russian team UMMC Ekaterinburg in the offseason — for drug possession Feb. 17 at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport after the alleged discovery of hashish oil in her luggage, a crime that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in Russian prison.

The WNBA’s first priority must be to dedicate all of its resources to bringing Griner home. Its second priority must be taking the necessary steps to start paying WNBA athletes what they are worth and reconciling the historic lack of financial support for women’s sports. Until then, the league’s claim that it is the best women’s basketball league in the world will be nothing more than a thinly veiled lie. 

Some U.S. officials suspect Russia invented these allegations to turn Griner into a high-profile political pawn as they prepared to invade Ukraine, and I agree. As an outspoken queer Black woman, Griner embodies Russian president Vladimir Putin’s greatest fears, magnifying the target on her back.

The sports world should be alarmed. This injustice should be the preeminent story in sports coverage, but silence has surrounded Griner’s plight. Headlines detailing the situation have all but disappeared from American news feeds. This begs the question: Why is no one talking about this?

Organizations including USA Basketball and the WNBA have done little more than express their support for Griner and wish for her swift return through flimsy statements. While these organizations may be staying silent to prevent the situation from escalating, it’s more plausible that they have opted for silence to shrug any responsibility from their shoulders. 

We cannot ignore the ugly truth that if Griner were a man, she likely would have never been detained in Russia. She would have been paid what she deserves in the NBA, and therefore she would not be relying on an offseason contract elsewhere. 

Griner has played for UMMC Ekaterinburg during every WNBA offseason since 2014. This year Griner was one of about 70 WNBA players to seek out professional opportunities abroad during the offseason, where the salaries dwarf those of the WNBA. Abroad, players can expect to earn four to five times the average WNBA salary of around $120,000 with prospects of making over $1 million, an unthinkable amount in the States. 

Some pundits point to added exposure as an explanation for the mass exodus from the United States each offseason. However, I struggle to believe that extra playing time and experience can explain why Griner, one of the league’s most dominant and experienced players, would elect to play in a country whose government is notoriously hostile to her very identity as a gay Black woman.

Griner is the Curry of the WNBA: She is the most talented player on the court. A 6-foot-9 presence with a pair of Olympic gold medals, a WNBA Championship, an NCAA championship and seven all-star appearances to her name, she has won all there is to win. 

Yet the discrepancy between her and Curry’s salaries is insulting.

For the 2021-22 season, Curry made over $45 million from the NBA, while Griner earned a mere $221,000 with the Phoenix Mercury the same year. What’s more, the minimum salary for an NBA player — including a rookie who never leaves the bench — is over four times higher: $925,258. 

The situation is even bleaker for WNBA players who lack Griner’s stardom and skill. Despite a Collective Bargaining Agreement, which was condescendingly described as a groundbreaking agreement for gender equality by the WNBA commissioner, the minimum salary for WNBA players is just $57,000. 

This lamentable sum leaves players with no other option but to subsidize their salaries overseas, leaving their families behind, and, in Griner’s case, competing in a repressive country.

The WNBA’s prime concern must be bringing Griner home, but it can’t stop there. Without a major transformation of the league’s benefits and salaries to better reflect its European counterparts, we cannot pretend to be shocked or outraged when the next player is subjected to the same fate because the league’s inaction would have allowed it to happen. 

Carrie McDonald is a sophomore in the College. The Equalizer appears online and in print every other week.

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    Douglas StoneJul 5, 2022 at 11:49 am

    When does it become one’s responsibility to know what you pack in your luggage before entering an airport, especially in a foreign country.
    As for women’s pro basketball they just do not get the attendance nor viewing that men’s pro basketball generates.
    The only pro sports that women are paid fairly is tennis because people are willing to pay to view it.

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    ChrisApr 9, 2022 at 2:34 am

    Oh, and the biggest reason that nobody is making a big deal about Griner’s detainment is actually because if we go to Russia and demand her release, that puts Russia in exactly the position they want to be in, which is having a political prisoner to use as a pawn. Especially with the current situation with Ukraine. It would be counter-productive.

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      ChrisApr 9, 2022 at 2:39 am

      And lastly, you’re explicitly saying that the WNBA pays the players so little that they are forced to look for contracts out-of-country. Well that is totally wrong. An easily livable wage in the states is $40,000 annually, if a player can’t responsibly handle $120,000 annually, then that’s completely on them. $120,000 is a lot of money to make, there’s no way someone would be “forced,” as you say, to source out work elsewhere.

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    ChrisApr 9, 2022 at 2:30 am

    Wow so much of this information is completely fabricated, especially the minimum NBA salary, it’s in reality under $100,000 annually, and of course Curry is going to make more than Griner. That’s a no brainer. Players make more money when they generate more revenue for their contractors. Curry has a MUCH larger following than Griner, and that has absolutely nothing to do with how WNBA operates, and everything to do with how the US Population thinks and acts. So stop blaming the wrong people.

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    Illuminated AlumMar 19, 2022 at 6:29 pm

    Sooooo…the NBA already subsidizes the WNBA. Your op-ed is pretty ill informed.

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