The WNBA postseason is currently in effect, and the Phoenix Mercury were quickly eliminated, losing both its first-round games in a best-of-three series against the Las Vegas Aces, who’ve now advanced to the semifinal round.
It seems easy to imagine the Mercury would have greatly benefitted from the services of their 6’9” center and arguably the greatest shot blocker in WNBA history, Brittney Griner. Griner is a two-time WNBA defensive player of the year and holds single-game and single-season WNBA records for blocked shots. Instead of Griner being able to block shots on behalf of the Mercury this postseason, she is blocked from being in the United States with her family, friends and teammates as she was recently sentenced to upwards of nine years in a Russian prison for possessing less than a gram of cannabis oil at an airport near Moscow.
Oregon’s Senior U.S. Senator, as well as the chair of the Senate Finance committee, Ron Wyden (D-OR), co-led a bipartisan senate resolution along with Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) in July calling for Russian authorities to immediately release Griner from what they consider to be wrongful detention.
“The Russian government’s cruel treatment of Brittney Griner demands a full-court press spotlighting her wrongful detention since February and the unjust imprisonment of all U.S. citizens in Russia,” Wyden said in the Senate Resolution.
Wyden, who is a former college basketball player himself, spoke in depth with DeVon Pouncey of Street Roots about the Griner situation. In the interview, Wyden also advocates for WNBA expansion to Portland as part of an ongoing conversation regarding the league's expansion.
Here is an excerpt from Wyden’s conversation with Pouncey on his personal podcast “Wake Up and Win.” This Q&A was edited for length and clarity.
DeVon Pouncey: Why was it significant to you to take the lead in this bipartisan residence resolution in regards to Brittney Griner and her being wrongfully detained in Russia?
Sen. Ron Wyden: Well, obviously, I'm very interested in sports. I'm very interested in women's sports. But I think this is just a basic human rights violation. I mean, Ms. Griner is not a politician. Mr. Putin is obviously mad over the Russia-Ukraine war. I mean, it was something he started, but let's set aside the politics of it. Ms. Griner, to her credit, has apologized and, I think, been very straightforward, and I just wanted to help out her family.
She's got folks that she's close to in Oregon and connections here, and they reached out and said, ‘Ron, would you lead it? You were a basketball player, you care about human rights, you care about Ms. Griner.’ I said I would be thrilled to lead it. We reached out to Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, as she, of course, played at Baylor. We reached out to the Arizona senators, they were thrilled to help out, and of course, she's on the team in Arizona. So, the Senate is on record, senators of widely differing philosophies, saying this is a human rights situation, and she's being used in effect as a political weapon which is not right. And she ought to be returned home to her loved ones.
Pouncey: Speak more to the bipartisan support and its significance.
Wyden: Well, it certainly shows the respect that Ms. Griner engenders in the Senate. I'll tell you, DeVon, sometimes, the U.S. Senate, you can't get people to agree to order 7-UP, for Pete's sakes. Yet here they are, Sen. Cornyn, Sen. Cruz didn't bat an eye they said ‘we're on.’ The Arizona senators, as I said, were on and, you know, the whole point really is Ms. Griner apologizing was certainly very straightforward, acknowledging that it was a mistake. This is just so disproportionate. The suffering that she's going through is just not right. And we just want her back with her loved ones. And we want her to be in a position to be healthy and be in a position to enjoy her career and her life, wherever it leads.
Pouncey: When you hear the sentencing she got, upwards of nine years, and the maximum sentence she could have gotten was 10 years ... If you combine the sentence that she got with time served, she essentially got the book thrown at her. What was your initial reaction when you heard that Brittney Griner got basically the maximum sentence in this ordeal?
Wyden: Well, it was just like a punch in terms of so out of proportion with what she had done in the fact that she had apologized. She wasn't waffling through it. … I think this was sent as a political message. Now, some people are going back and forth, ‘well, if you plead guilty, you get the sentence, and that means that it accelerates in negotiations and all the rest.’ I'm just telling you, it's time for her to no longer be used as a kind of political pawn in this fight.
Pouncey: You speak to this being sort of a political message from Russia, which I tend to agree with. On our end here being in the United States, you obviously being in the United States Senate, what is it that we can do now that we're in this situation and that she's gotten a sentence? I know that there's been prisoner trade offers that have been made from the Biden administration, but is there any kind of a next step now that we know what position we're in, being that she's been sentenced?
Wyden: What I've been trying to do at every step of the way is comply with the family's desires. Certainly, the exposure that the NBA/WNBA players have done, I mean, we have people in the NBA showing how supportive they are, and I think anyone who can speak up for her and I see a lot of people wearing her jersey and the like, I think it's all being in solidarity with the cause.
Pouncey: I know you're also a champion for the cannabis industry here in the United States. So when you consider the fact that Brittney Griner was detained and has been sentenced to about 10 years in Russia for less than a gram of cannabis oil, what does that mean to you in regards to the American citizens in particular, and feeling like there does need to be more of a push in regards to the legalization of cannabis nationwide? Because there's obviously been people here in the United States that have been what I would consider wrongfully detained as well, for similar, kind of petty crimes, if you will.
Wyden: Well, I think we're on our way to getting reform in the United States. Sen. Schumer, Sen. Booker and myself have all introduced the bill. The bill will go to the Senate Finance Committee that I chair. I’m very supportive of Mr. Booker leading the effort in terms of equity and injustice. So much of this past has just been unfair to communities of color, and there's been such unnecessary undue suffering and the fact is, this is long overdue. Time to end reefer madness. And Sen. Booker and I, Sen. Schumer, are all united in terms of expungement of records and ensuring that people who were wrongfully detained and convicted get a chance to move on with their lives. If you're a young person, and you face this and face it in a discriminatory way, you ought to be in a position to get your records expunged and in a position to get back on with your life.
Pouncey: I feel like the city of Portland and, at large, the state of Oregon has really held women's sports in high regard. And every time the WNBA playoffs come around, there's always conversations about WNBA expansion. For you, what would it be like to have a WNBA team here in the city of Portland?
Wyden: I was over at the Sports Bra yesterday over on Broadway in Northeast. Jenny, the owner runs professional sports almost 24/7, and it's all women's sports. And I'm sitting there, and folks are saying hello and saying ‘Ron, glad you passed the bill. You wrote the medicine and the climate and those reforms.’ And we had a nice conversation, and they all start talking about WNBA. And I said, folks, can you imagine what it would be like, our sitting here on a sunny afternoon in summer in Portland, what it would be like here on Broadway, at Jenny's bar, if everybody was getting ready for a WNBA playoff game in Portland at Moda (Center) in a few hours? You know, it would have been a decent walk, we'd get a little exercise. And I talked about thinking how excited our city would have been. Think about the fact that it would have brought in a lot of money to Portland. That's a plus. As well, think about the fact that if you have a WNBA team, you get 18 dates at Moda, which helps the Trail Blazers. I've been on the phone with (NBA Commissioner) Adam Silver several times recently, making the case for why we got to keep the Trail Blazers in Portland and why we got to have a WNBA team.
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