Brittney Griner : Detained | Imprisonment | Net worth

Brittney Griner was detained by Russian authorities in February after being caught with cannabis oil cartridges at a Moscow airport.

Brittney Griner : Detained | Imprisonment | Net worth

Griner is an American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Mercury of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) currently imprisoned in Russia. She played college basketball for the Baylor Lady Bears in Waco, Texas.

She is the only NCAA basketball player to both score 2,000 points and block 500 shots.

In 2012, the three-time All-American was named the AP Player of the Year and the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four.

Griner is one of 11 women to receive an Olympic gold medal, an NCAA championship, a FIBA World Cup gold medal and a WNBA championship.

In 2009, Griner was named the nation’s No. 1 high school women’s basketball player by Rivals.com.

She was selected to the 2009 Phoenix Mercury All-American basketball team.

In 2012, she received the Best Female Athlete ESPY Award. In 2013, Griner signed an endorsement deal with Nike.

Standing 6 ft 9 in (206 cm) tall, Griner wears a men’s U.S. size 17 shoe and has an arm span of 87.5 in (222 cm).

Brittney Griner Detained 

The fight to bring a legend home. WNBA star Brittney Griner has been in Russian custody since February 2022, and plenty of her fellow athletes are leading the charge to get her back to the United States.

Griner was arrested at a Moscow airport in February 2022 while she was in the country playing for UMMC Ekaterinburg during the WNBA off-season.

Russian authorities claimed that the athlete was carrying hashish oil in her luggage. News of her arrest and subsequent detention, however, did not emerge for several weeks.

U.S. officials were initially hesitant to make any aggressive moves on behalf of Griner because of Russia’s ongoing war with Ukraine, but in May 2022, the State Department declared that the Phoenix Mercury player had been “wrongfully detained.”

This status change meant that officials could immediately begin negotiating for her release rather than waiting until her next Russian court hearing.

Imprisonment 

A Russian court sentenced WNBA star Brittney Griner to nine years in prison Thursday, an expected conclusion to her trial that should allow negotiations for a prisoner swap to accelerate.

Griner, who was arrested Feb. 17 for bringing cannabis into the country, had been prepared for a harsh sentence, sources close to the player said.

But she and her supporters have also been aware that Russia was not going to move forward with a trade that could bring her home until her trial was completed.

A guilty verdict was considered a foregone conclusion, and Griner pleaded guilty July 7, though the case continued under Russian law.

During sentencing, Judge Anna Sotnikova said she had found that Griner intentionally broke the law and also fined her 1 million rubles (about $16,700).

Sotnikova said the time Griner has served in custody since her arrest in February would count toward the sentence.

Griner reacted to the sentence with little emotion, listening to the verdict with a blank stare on her face.

As she was led out of court, Griner said: “I love my family.”

The nine-year sentence was close to the maximum of 10 years that Griner had faced under the charges, and prosecutors had asked for a 9½-year sentence.

Net worth 

Brittney Griner is an American professional basketball player who has a net worth of $5 million. Brittney Griner’s peak annual salary was  $227,000 which is the WNBA league max.

Like other top WNBA players, Britney has periodically played overseas for much larger paydays.

For example, in 2014 she made $600,000 to play for a Chinese team for three months. In recent years she has earned around $1.5 million playing in Russia.