Griner sentenced to 9 yrs and a 16000 dollar fine

[Clipper]

www.msn.com/en-us/sports/more-sports/brittney-griner-sentence-brings-outraged-cries-of-free-bg-in-the-wnba/ar-AA10jpPp?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=b3e57315d1714a77ad5f76334c2824f0

I find it hard to believe that having the vape cartridges in her bag was a mistake or that she didn't know that they were there. As an athlete she shouldn't be partaking in cannabis with THC to begin with. Sad that she will pay so dearly in Russian prison but she made her own bed and now she has to lay in it.

If there is to be any prisoner swap to be made it should be the journalist that has been in prison for quite a while already, accused of spying. I certainly wouldn't trade a dangerous terrorist for a basketball player.

With everything going on between the US and Russia what the heck is a US team going there to play anyway.

I hope the prison exercise area has a hoop so she can keep up on her 3 pointers and slam dunks.

[BHU]

I see Trump got his big mouth into it ranting something about her being spoiled. Yea, Trump got into it from his golf course in Jersey hosting the golf tournament for his pals the Saudi's as 9/11 victims families protested the fact that he was kissing the asz of the same people who were involved with that attack. Anything for a buck proving once again what a heinous viscious s.o.b. Trump is. That was really nice of Trump to take the side of Russia over one of our own citizens, but not surprising because he's a traitor to begin with.

Gee, I wonder if Roger Stone, Paul Manafort & Steve Bannon, 3 criminal thugs who Trump pardoned are now "spoiled" after he got them off the hook.

[Clipper]

I won't bother to engage on the usual Trump rant thing, but I guess you must think I am also a traitor for a failure to defend Griner. I simply don't have any sympathy for an athlete who was obviously carrying an illegal drug in her luggage. I think CBD oil contains all the therapeutic components necessary for any medical use without the THC. I am of the opinion that the idea that she simply didn't know the cartridges were in her luggage is BS. I am left to wonder how it would play out if a Russian athlete were found to be carrying an illegal drug sniffed out by one of OUR drug detection dogs or a custom search. However biased it may seem. I have a very low opinion of ANY star athlete caught doping or taking drugs, and I see no reason for THC cartridges other than to get high, period. Trading a gun runner for an entitled pothead athlete? I am forever baffled as to why athletes are so high paid for the ability to dribble a basketball or toss a football. It certainly doesn't place them above the law and every time you pick up a newspaper or turn on the news some athlete has been arrested for abusing their wife or girlfriend, are arrested for injuring someone in a drunk driving accident, or are caught with illicit drugs as this girl was.

However overblown the charge and the sentence may be, she certainly had to have been aware of the fact that the political climate any american arrested in Russia was going to be prosecuted to the max and a pawn in an effort to gain freedom for a Russian held here.

I will never understand why we send sports teams to play in a country that is obviously in a conflict with the US. She is damned lucky it wasn't Iran or some unfriendly nation in the middle east or she would have been executed by now.

[BHU]

Russia has a long history of trumping up charges against people & I wouldn't trust Putin or one of his thugs as far as I could throw one. The fact that she's an athelete has nothing to do with it, in fact I'll bet money that the majority of citizens never even heard of Griner before this. She's not exactly a household name. As far as Trump is concerned if that was a Tom Brady or a Cal Ripken Jr. who got busted over there, he'd be calling his buddy Putin & asking him to go easy on the guy instead of shooting his mouth off about Griner being "entitled". I never said you were a traitor but Trump is & this isn't the first time he's taken Russia's side over U.S. citizens including our intel apparatus. But that's the type pf person Trump is & the fact that Putin has murdered thousands of civilians in Ukraine committing war crimes means nothing to him. There are other U.S. citizens being held over there but I don't hear Trump running his mouth about them, but then again they're not gay, a minority or possibly a Hillary supporter. That will be Trump's next rant.

[Clipper]

Well as I said in my last post, I won't engage when the usual Trump trash is part of the discussion. I have long since stopped listening to anything pro Trump OR anti-Trump. I voted for him twice but I hope that he is NOT the Republican candidate in 24. Nuff said.

Yeah, I knew you didn't consider me a traitor ( or at least I HOPED that you didn't). I referred only to Trump's opinion concerning her captivity and sentence. Sorry but I don't have much sympathy for her regardless of the term of her sentence, whether it be long OR short. Sometimes you just can't fix stupid and what she did is damned stupid. If you are traveling overseas you need to inspect your OWN luggage carefully before packing for the trip. When I used to fly to Germany I used to empty my suitcases completely when I got home and when I packed for the next trip I was very careful not to pack anything that would arouse the attention of German customs and send them tearing through my luggage and holding me up.

[clarencebunsen]

One point, it was not a US team playing in Russia. She went over there as an individual contracted to play for a Russian team during the WNBA off-season. Women playing in the WNBA make a lot less than men playing in the NBA. It is common for women to play in Europe during the American off season.

Trump isn't President now so it will be Biden's problem to negotiate any deal. From what I have heard Putin's offer is to trade 2 Americans for 2 Russians. One of the Russians was convicted of spying in the US. The other was convicted of murder in Germany. I don't know what we can offer the Germans to make that happen. Winter is coming and the Germans need Russian natural gas. We really don't have surplus natural gas to give to Germany so that can afford to send one of their biggest bargaining chips to Russia.