A Russian judge denied WNBA star Brittney Griner's appeal of her drug trafficking conviction last week. Arriving in the country to play on a Russian women's basketball team, Griner was arrested at a Moscow area airport in January with a small amount of cannabis oil in her luggage, something she claimed to have had for medical purposes and had forgotten to leave at home.
Days after her arrest, Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine, incurring the condemnation of the Biden administration and the U.S.'s principal allies. Instead of expelling Griner from the country, Russia held her in jail for months until her trial, which ended with a guilty verdict and a sentence of nine years at a labor camp.
Since then, America has tried quiet diplomacy to get Griner free. We offered to trade a Russian arms merchant for her and another jailed American. We sent Bill Richardson. We even sent Dennis Rodman.
I mean, c'mon, man!
One thing we absolutely should not be sending any more are WNBA players to beef up Russian basketball teams.
It's difficult to imagine anyone desperate enough to go, anyway.
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