Coach Hammon, as soon as a star in Russia, urges Putin to free Brittney Griner By Reuters

By Simon Lewis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A prime coach for U.S. girls’s professional basketball who as soon as represented Russia on the Olympics has made a plea for Russian President Vladimir Putin to “do the correct factor” and rapidly launch American star participant Brittney Griner.

Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon, who as a participant spent years in Russia and gained Olympic bronze for her adopted nation, stated it was upsetting to see a fellow member of the tight-knit girls’s basketball neighborhood locked up for practically six months. Washington says Griner is wrongfully detained in Russia.

“It’s one thing that clearly hits tremendous near residence for me and so I simply ask the Russian authorities to do the correct factor. It’s by no means too late to do the correct factor,” Hammon advised Reuters in an interview on Tuesday. “We’re asking for leniency. We’re asking for grace. And we’re asking to deliver residence BG.”

Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and middle for WNBA workforce Phoenix Mercury, is anticipated to return to a Russian courtroom on Thursday for closing arguments in her trial. She faces as much as 10 years in jail on medication prices after she was detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on Feb. 17 with vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her baggage.

Her arrest as she headed to hitch her Russian workforce within the American low season got here days earlier than Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, plunging relations between Moscow and Washington to their lowest level in many years and thrusting Griner into the middle of a geopolitical tussle.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated final week the US has made a “substantial provide” to Russia to launch Griner and former Marine Paul Whelan, who the US additionally considers to be wrongfully detained in Russia. A supply stated that Washington was keen to trade convicted arms trafficker Viktor Bout, referred to as the “Service provider of Demise.”

Moscow has stated no deal has but been accomplished. A swap is unlikely to happen earlier than a verdict in Griner’s trial, however that might happen within the coming days.

‘ONE OF THE GREATEST’

Hammon, a six-time WNBA all-star participant, performed throughout the low season for a number of Russian groups, a standard transfer for WNBA gamers searching for to complement incomes which can be decrease than their male counterparts’. She turned a naturalized citizen and gained a bronze Olympic medal for Russia in 2008 and competed once more in 2012, however stated her Russian citizenship had since expired.

Hammon – reportedly the primary WNBA coach to be paid greater than $1 million – described Griner as “one of many biggest gamers to ever play,” and stated it was potential the detention of a male athlete on the identical degree would have drawn a larger response.

“It is laborious to think about, although, that if this was, you understand, LeBron James, that he’d nonetheless be sitting over there in jail,” stated Hammon. “It’s laborious to not let your thoughts go there.”

Hammon stated she had all the time supported the marketing campaign to free Griner, however was talking out as Griner’s trial attracts to a detailed and Russia has a possibility to ship her residence.

Hammon stated as an athlete she was not political, however appealed to Putin and Russian authorities to point out “mercy” and let Griner return to her spouse in the US.

“If that was your daughter or your sister or your spouse or whoever, you possibly can think about the agony that you just’d been going via ready,” she stated. “Sufficient is sufficient.”

She additionally warned that Russian athletes would endure repercussions from the detention of a prime athlete touring to compete.

“I feel Mr. Putin is a fairly large sports activities fan – to jeopardize all these athletes, I imply would simply be actually unlucky,” stated Hammon.

Russian sports activities groups and athletes have been excluded from some worldwide occasions over the invasion of Ukraine, and Olympic officers have stated Russia may very well be banned from the 2024 video games in Paris. Russia has not confronted sporting sanctions for Griner’s detention.

“If (Griner) have been to must serve a (jail) sentence, I feel there must be dangerous implications internationally on the sports activities world,” Hammon stated. “There’s sure methods to place strain on Russia. Hopefully it would not come to that.”