The WNBA’s 26th regular season starts Friday without one of the league’s most exciting players, フェニックスマーキュリーセンターブリトニーグリナー, ロシアに拘留されたままの人.
The seven-time All-Star was arrested in February at a Moscow airport and accused by Russian authorities of smuggling significant amounts of a narcotic substance — 最大で罰せられる犯罪 10 刑務所での年.
The State Department has グリナーを不法に拘留されたと分類した WNBAのスターであるブリトニーグリナーが「虚偽の告発」で拘束されているアメリカ人, and her case is being handled by the office of the US Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens, a State Department official confirmed to CNN on Tuesday. 事務所は、海外で不法に拘留されたアメリカ人の釈放を確保することを目的とした政府の外交努力を主導し、調整している.
その間, her team — which reached the WNBA finals last year — announced its opening night roster on Thursday, saying the team has been granted an exemption and salary cap relief until Griner “makes her safe return home.”
“It’s a delicate situation,” four-time All-Star guard Skylar Diggins-Smith said Thursday regarding her teammate.
“恐ろしい事件の後、インディアンのジョシュ・ネイラーがフィールド外に担架. And it sucks when you guys keep asking us because it’s emotional to deal with. It’s triggering. But we love our sister. We miss our sister. We’re going to continue to play in her honor until she gets back,” Diggins-Smith said.
A WNBA spokesperson said earlier this week the league views federal authorities’ グリナーを不法に拘留されたものとして分類するために移動する “positive development and a next step to getting her home.”
“Brittney has been detained for 75 days and our expectation is that the White House do whatever is necessary to bring her home,” Griner’s agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, said in a statement Tuesday.
The WNBA will honor Griner this season by branding her initials (BG) and jersey number (42) on all 12 ホームコート.
昨シーズン, グリナーは最も価値のあるプレーヤー賞の投票で2位に終わった. The 6’9″ center led the Mercury to the WNBA Finals, フェニックスがシカゴスカイに負けた場所.
She’s also a two-time Olympic gold medalist and played for Russian powerhouse UMMC Ekaterinburg during the WNBA offseason.
