MIAMI — A heart-warming, feel-good story dressed up in a “she’ll be home for the holidays” narrative. Brittney Griner’s release from Russian detention on Thursday in a prisoner exchange was all of that. Wife Cherelle could not stop smiling, calling herself “overwhelmed with emotion” and saying, ”My family is whole again.”
It was a happy ending, but the nightmare that preceded it goes on for others. Just as the reason one of the WNBA’s biggest stars was in Russia in the first place goes on.
The exchange engineered by the White House was 1 for 1. We got Griner. Russia gets back notorious international arms dealer Viktor Bout, nicknamed the Merchant of Death. To say their crimes were on a similar scale would be a million miles from accurate. The exchange took place in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.
