U.S. citizen Brittney Griner, one of the best women’s basketball players in the world, is being held unfairly in Russian custody. This is tragic, and she should be set free.
But she is in Russia, where she allegedly entered with illegal (in Russia) vape cartridges containing cannabis oil, and there is a life lesson here. Several, in fact.
To start with, we in the United States don’t control what happens in Russia or a lot of other countries, for that matter. We don’t get to determine what laws make sense elsewhere or how a dictator such as Vladimir Putin might use them for his own purposes.
People say sports and politics don’t mix. They couldn’t be more wrong.
Indeed, one could ask the previously apolitical Griner if she now thinks they mix, were it possible to get that question to her in her jail cell or the penal colony where she likely will spend the rest of her nine-year sentence.
In truth, her main hope for freedom is a political one: a possible prisoner swap between the United States and Russia. But the Putin regime likely is reveling in having such a high-profile captive ‘‘enemy’’ and might not want a prisoner exchange at all.
Griner was arrested Feb. 17, a week before Putin ordered Russian troops to invade Ukraine. For days previous, the United States had warned the invasion was going to happen. It did. And now the world is a much more dangerous place.
Shortly before Griner’s arrest, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists set the hands of the infamous Doomsday Clock at 100 seconds to midnight — the closest it has been to apocalypse. You think Griner could have been a little more aware of what country she was entering with her casually packed vape tubes?
Lesson No. 2: Athletes can’t afford to be clueless. They can be — and are — used as heroes, villains, scapegoats, martyrs, victims, pawns.
The symbols in athletic competition, conquest and loss are so huge that they can motivate or bring despair to entire countries. Ask Argentinians if Diego Maradona’s ‘‘Hand of God’’ goal in the 1986 World Cup made any difference to them. Ask Filipinos if Manny Pacquiao’s boxing victories mattered. Ask Ukrainians why they elected former heavyweight champ Vitali Klitschko mayor of Kyiv. Ask the former Soviet Union if losing the ‘‘Miracle on Ice’’ hockey game to the United States in the 1980 Winter Olympics hurt.
It’s also true that what elite athletes say and do matters almost as much as whether they win or lose.
Star Nets guard and conspiracy theorist Kyrie Irving recently was condemned by team owner Joe Tsai for tweeting out a link to antisemitic propaganda. This stuff matters. People pick it up and pass it along. Antisemitism is a bigger issue now in the United States than I ever can recall.
Which brings us to the former Kanye West — or the mighty Ye, to his believers. The rapper’s antisemitism and lunacy-tinged blabberings also have a foot in sports. Not only has he been dropped by Adidas and other businesses for his evil words, but his Donda Academy was closed, too.
Donda Academy? That’s the California quasi-school that is little more than an incubator for high school basketball wannabe-pros. Named for Ye’s mother, the place had several top-50 recruits and a coach, Dorell Wright, who said players used Donda for ‘‘getting more offers.’’
I’ll say it again, this stuff matters.
People might recall that Putin invaded the nation of Georgia during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. And he invaded the Crimea region of Ukraine during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. And this past winter he invaded all of Ukraine just hours after the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing ended.
Sports as a smokescreen, a sleight of hand? Believe it.
And unsuspecting — or clueless — athletes can be used in ways they never dreamed of. If they aren’t savvy, aware, politically literate human beings, they can be turned into propaganda billboards.
The Saudis have used their mighty oil wealth to fund a startup pro golf league to help cleanse their muddy human-rights image. The word ‘‘sportswashing’’ has become common since the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Series began this year.
It’s terrible what Griner is going through. She is nothing but a political prisoner. This is a lesson she now understands.
Her heartfelt, handwritten letter to President Biden this past summer showed as much.
‘‘I’m terrified I might be here forever,’’ she wrote. ‘‘Freedom means something completely different to me this year.’’
Indeed.
