{"id":102178,"date":"2022-10-19T23:16:06","date_gmt":"2022-10-19T23:16:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wnba-star-brittney-griner-sends-thanks-for-support-from-russian-detainment\/"},"modified":"2022-10-19T23:16:06","modified_gmt":"2022-10-19T23:16:06","slug":"wnba-star-brittney-griner-sends-thanks-for-support-from-russian-detainment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wnba-star-brittney-griner-sends-thanks-for-support-from-russian-detainment\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA star Brittney Griner sends thanks for support from Russian detainment"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>On her 243rd day in Russian detainment, Brittney Griner turned 32.<\/p>\n<p>On a day normally meant for celebration, Griner met with her lawyers to prepare for her appeal hearing on Oct.  25.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThank you everyone for fighting so hard to get me home.  All the support and love are definitely helping me, \u201dGriner said in a statement from her agent.<\/p>\n<p>Griner was reported to be at her \u201cabsolute weakest moment in life\u201d earlier this month, but \u201cdid smile\u201d on her birthday, her lawyers told the Associated Press.<\/p>\n<p>Contributing to Griner&#8217;s declining morale is, in part, a fear of being \u201cleft and forgotten in Russia,\u201d Griner&#8217;s wife Cherelle told CBS Mornings.<\/p>\n<p>On her birthday \u201cWe are BG\u201d and \u201cHappy Birthday BG\u201d trended on Twitter as teammates, friends and fans of Griner&#8217;s used social media to remember, uplift and celebrate the two-time Olympic gold medalist \u201ctoday and all days.\u201d  Here are some of those dedications:<\/p>\n<p>In a highlight from the NBA&#8217;s opening night, Finals MVP Stephen Curry interrupted his ring celebration speech before the Warriors&#8217; game to speak about Griner.<\/p>\n<div class=\"caas-pull-quote-wrapper caas-img caas-lazy\" data-src=\"\">\n<blockquote class=\"caas-blockquote\">\n<p>\u201cWe want to continue to let her name be known, and we pray \u2014 it&#8217;s been 243 days since she&#8217;s been wrongfully incarcerated in Russia \u2014 we hope that she comes home soon and that everybody&#8217;s doing their part to bring her home,\u201d Curry said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<h2><strong>The fight to bring BG home<\/strong><\/h2>\n<figure class=\"caas-figure\">\n<div class=\"caas-figure-with-pb\" style=\"max-height: 666px\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"caas-img-container caas-img-loader\" style=\"padding-bottom:69%;\"><noscript><img alt=\"US basketball player Brittney Griner, who was detained at Moscow&#39;s Sheremetyevo airport and later charged with illegal possession of cannabis, stands inside a defendants&#39;  cage during the reading of the court&#39;s verdict in Khimki outside Moscow, Russia August 4, 2022. REUTERS\/Evgenia Novozhenina\/Pool\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/_rf8CzaPVe3nCQwXPPfflA--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY2Ng--\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/os\/creatr-uploaded-images\/2022-10\/3f1049c0-4ff4-11ed-9fcf-9a0719463147\" class=\"caas-img\"\/><\/noscript><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><figcaption class=\"caption-collapse\">US basketball player Brittney Griner has been wrongfully detained in Russia since February (REUTERS\/Evgenia Novozhenina\/Pool).<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The effort to keep Griner&#8217;s name at the forefront of everyone&#8217;s mind is only part of the strategy to secure the six-time All WNBA player&#8217;s freedom.<\/p>\n<p>Griner&#8217;s lawyers have continued to work on her behalf since each Feb.  17 arrest where she was found to be carrying less than a gram of hash oil in her luggage through Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow.  Griner was traveling to play for Russia&#8217;s UMMC Ekaterinburg.  According to her lawyers, Griner was prescribed cannabis for pain, and inadvertently packed the oil with no criminal intent.<\/p>\n<p>Griner was convicted Aug.  4 in a notably fast ruling and received a nine-year sentence, longer than most Russians receive for similar offenses.  Though the appeal will likely not overturn the verdict, Griner&#8217;s lawyers are looking for a positive outcome.  \u201cWe hope the term of the sentence will be reduced,\u201d Maria Blagovolina, a partner at the law firm, told the Associated Press.<\/p>\n<p><button class=\"link caas-button collapse-button\" aria-label=\"\" title=\"\" data-ylk=\"elm:readmore;slk:Story continues\">Story continues<\/button><\/p>\n<p>The WNBA champion could be involved in a potential swap of prisoners between Russia and the United States.  In July, Secretary of State Antony Blinken revealed publicly that Washington had made a \u201csubstantial proposal\u201d for Griner&#8217;s freedom that also included efforts for the release of Paul Whelan, an American serving a 16-year sentence in Russia for espionage.<\/p>\n<p>According to many reports, Washington offered to exchange Griner and Whelan for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer also known as the \u201cMerchant of Death\u201d who is serving a 25-year sentence in America.<\/p>\n<p>The White House said they continue attempts to negotiate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On her 243rd day in Russian detainment, Brittney Griner turned 32. On a day normally meant for celebration, Griner met with her lawyers to prepare for her appeal hearing on Oct. 25. \u201cThank you everyone for fighting so hard to get me home. All the support and love are definitely helping me, \u201dGriner said in &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wnba-star-brittney-griner-sends-thanks-for-support-from-russian-detainment\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">WNBA star Brittney Griner sends thanks for support from Russian detainment<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":107352,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/russian-court-will-hear-wnba-star-brittney-griners-appeal-on-tuesday\/","url_meta":{"origin":102178,"position":0},"title":"Russian court will hear WNBA star Brittney Griner&#8217;s appeal on Tuesday","date":"October 25, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"US' Women's National Basketball Association (NBA) basketball player Brittney Griner, who was detained at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport and later charged with illegal possession of cannabis, stands inside a defendants' cage before a court hearing in Khimki outside Moscow, on August 4, 2022 . Evgenia Novozhenina | AFP | Getty ImagesWASHINGTON\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":104063,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/brittney-griner-reportedly-turned-down-the-opportunity-to-play-basketball-in-prison-because-its-too-painful-to-practice\/","url_meta":{"origin":102178,"position":1},"title":"Brittney Griner reportedly turned down the opportunity to play basketball in prison because it&#8217;s &#8216;too painful&#8217; to practice","date":"October 21, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner sits behind bars in Russia.Evgenia Novozhenina\/Pool Photo via APWNBA superstar Brittney Griner has been wrongfully detained in Russia since her February arrest.Every prison has a basketball hoop, but when her lawyers offered to bring her a ball, she refused.ESPN reports that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":107635,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/brittney-griners-nine-year-prison-sentence-in-russia-upheld\/","url_meta":{"origin":102178,"position":2},"title":"Brittney Griner&#8217;s nine-year prison sentence in Russia upheld","date":"October 25, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"A Russian court rejected Brittney Griner's appeal of her nine-year prison sentence for drug possession on Tuesday.The court ruled to uphold the sentence handed down to the WNBA superstar. However, in the ruling, the court stated that the time Griner will have to serve in prison will be recalculated with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":101636,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/brittney-griner-and-paul-whelan-biden-admin-has-been-in-touch-with-russia-in-recent-days-as-part-of-our-efforts-to-secure-griner-and-whelans-release\/","url_meta":{"origin":102178,"position":3},"title":"Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan: Biden admin has been in touch with Russia in recent days as part of our efforts to secure Griner and Whelan&#8217;s release","date":"October 19, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"CNN \u2014 The Biden administration has had communications with Russia to try and secure the release of Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan \u201cas recently as within past days\u201d said a senior administration official, speaking to CNN on Griner's 32nd birthday, which she will be spending in a Russian jail The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":106579,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/jailed-us-basketball-star-griner-not-expecting-miracles-at-russian-appeal\/","url_meta":{"origin":102178,"position":4},"title":"Jailed US basketball star Griner &#8220;not expecting miracles&#8221; at Russian appeal","date":"October 24, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"MOSCOW (Reuters) - US basketball star Brittney Griner \"does not expect miracles\" at her appeal hearing on Tuesday against a nine-year Russian jail term for having cannabis oil in her luggage, her lawyers said in a statement.The two-time Olympic gold medalist was arrested on Feb. 17 at a Moscow airport\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/w_A9Ch1FZTWG_S9LNYWM8Q--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTEyMDA7aD04MzM-\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/os\/creatr-uploaded-images\/2022-10\/3f1049c0-4ff4-11ed-9fcf-9a0719463147","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102178"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102178\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}