On December 8, grainy footage showed WNBA star Brittney Griner landing in San Antonio after being released fromĀ 294 days in Russian detention. Griner wore a beanie over herĀ hair that had been chopped off to avoid freezing conditions at the remote Russian penal colony in which she was, until recently, expected to ride out a nine-year sentence.
The Phoenix Mercury center and two-time gold Olympian, Griner was detained on February 17 at a Moscow airport just one week before Russia invaded Ukraine. The player, known as āBGā among friends and fans, was arrested for having cannabis vape cartridges in her luggage that she had been prescribed for pain management. Griner was en route to play her 10th season for the Russian womenās basketball premier league, UMMC Ekaterinburg. She is one of 73 playersāfully half of the WNBA leagueāwho played abroad in the 2022 off-season, some for four to five timesĀ their WNBA salary.
The geopolitical debate throughout the past 10 months over the best way to advocate for Grinerās release has been controversial. SomeĀ argued that Grinerās life depended on vociferouslyĀ fighting her arrest, others campaigned for collective silence,Ā saying that raising her profile would only encourage Russia toĀ view her as a political pawn. But a recurrent theme in nearly every tweet, news story, or bar conversation was about pay equity. The topic that began as background in Grinerās storyĀ soon became a central themeāand stayed there.
In April, nearly three months after Grinerās arrest, and a week after a US consular officialĀ visited her in custodyĀ for the first time, Seattle Stormās Breanna Stewart broke the leagueās silence. āThe big thing is the fact that we have to go over there. It was BG, but it could have been anybody, ā StewartĀ toldĀ The Root. āWNBA players need to be valued in their country and they wonāt have to play overseas.ā
Those who werenāt aware that the WNBA season started in May, or even knew about the WNBA season at all, were now versed in the grim realities of these elite athletesā lives. Griner was in the midst of a war zone becauseĀ her league salary was $221,450, orĀ 190 times lessĀ than some of her NBAĀ counterpartsālike Los Angeles Lakers Lebron James who earned $41 million during the 2021-2022 season (not including an additional $75 million fromĀ sponsors, memorabilia, royalties, and media.)
When asked for comment, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert disputed that players went overseas for strictly financial reasons. āThey want to play as much as they can while their bodies can still do that, so weāll support it,ā Engelbert said in an interviewĀ withĀ People. ābut weāre working on models that will keep more of our players in the US for longer periods of time in the offseason.ā
Just a week before Griner returned,Ā one of the leagueās top players, Las Vegas Aceās Kelsey Blum, went on theĀ Residency PodcastĀ toĀ discuss wage disparities and clarify assumptions that players in the WNBA are looking for stratospheric NBA salariesāthat averageĀ $7 million. āWe are not asking to get paid what the men get paid,ā Blum told the hosts Jeff Tomastik, Low Raven, and Drew Belcher.Ā āWeāre asking to get paid the same percentage of revenue shared,ā which, as the 2020Ā collective bargaining agreementĀ (CBA) details, is 50% of revenue from sponsorships, broadcast agreements, and partnerships. According to the womenās CBA, the WNBA will only meet 50% of shared revenue if they reach undisclosed projected revenue growth targets. But there is no way to hit those targets withoutĀ increased investment. To Grinerās teammate, Skylar Diggins-Smith, itās a classic chicken-and-egg scenario.
āPeople always talk about, āWell, you gotta have more people in the seats.ā But nobody puts us on TV!ā DigginsĀ toldĀ Wealthsimple MagazineĀ in 2018. āYes, LeBron is one of the best athletes in the world, but [ESPN] will go into everything that he ate before they show a highlight of a WNBA game.ā
TheĀ US womenās soccer team had been ringing the same alarm for six years, and finally won equal pay agreementsĀ this past May. One agreement guaranteed an equal split of World Cup prize money between the US menās and womenās teamsāthe first federation to do so. That meant that earlier this month when the US menās team lost in the World Cup knockout round, the women took home $6 million in prize money. As my colleague Jackie MogensenĀ noted, thatās $1 million more than the total prize money they won by finishingĀ firstĀ during the womenās World Cup in 2019 and $5 million more than when they did the same in 2015.
AnotherĀ point about unequal treatment that was made during Grinerās detention was that, barring salary, if she were a male athlete, she never would have been left to suffer as long as she had been.
On July 4, in a letter that Grinerās representatives passed to the White House, Griner wrote about her new understanding of freedom; one that wasnāt predicated on her jersey or accomplishments. She asked PresidentĀ Biden to remember her āand the other American detaineesā while she sat in prison āalone with [her] thoughts,ā terrified that she āmight be [in Russia] forever.ā A week later Lebron James responded to her in an episode of his talk showĀ The Shop. When artist and guest Rashid Johnson described Griner as the āLebron James of the WNBA,ā James said he found it difficult to put himself in her shoes.Ā
āHow can she feel like America has her back?āĀ James asked.Ā āI would be feeling like āDo I even want to go back to America if Iāve been gone over 130 days and I feel like thereās been zero effort?āā (James said he āwasnāt knocking our beautiful countryā in a tweet a few hours later.)
And then finally, she wasĀ home, the result of a prisoner swapĀ with Russia.Ā (OnĀ The ShopĀ JamesĀ applaudedĀ her return.) But the fight for WNBA players continues. In an NPRĀ segmentĀ the day after Griner landed, Alicia Jessop, the founder of the sports industry siteĀ Ruling Sports,Ā noted that even though Griner may be back in the States, the question of pay hasnāt been resolved. If anything, she said, āa lot of people are really digging their heels in on these women being paid enough.ā While not working in Russia, 67 players are still overseas earning most of their annual income at up to fivefold their US salary. The disparity in compensation remains so large that some call the regular WNBA season the playerās āoff-season.ā
But maybe there will be some progress this year after Grinerās ordeal. AtĀ 26 years old, the league is the Gen-Z of basketballāand like the generation it reflects, organizing is in its DNA.