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Brittney Griner’s Nine Year Sentence Upheld by Russian Court

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Brittney Griner, an American basketball player currently serving a nine-year sentence in Russia for drug charges, has had her appeal against the sentence dismissed by a Russian court.

The two-time Olympic gold medalist was arrested on Feb. 17 at a Moscow airport when cannabis oil vape cartridges carrying less than a gram of hashish oil were discovered in her luggage. She was convicted in August for “drug smuggling” and was sentenced to nine years in prison.

Officials believe that the lengthy sentence was politically motivated by the collapse of U.S. and Russian relations after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The White House called the legal proceedings a “sham.” Elizabeth Rood, a high-ranking U.S. diplomat who was present at the hearing, also called the penalty “excessive and disproportionate.”

Her case has been referred to the State Department’s office under the label of hostage affairs.

Griner was legally prescribed the oil for pain management by her doctor in the U.S. She apologized for possessing it in her appeal, admitting she had packed the cartridges by accident while rushing to pack her luggage. During the U.S. basketball offseason, she had wanted to travel to Russia to play club basketball.

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In July, shortly before pleading guilty, Griner had written to President Joe Biden expressing her distress and calling for help from the government.

“I sit here in a Russian prison, alone with my thoughts and without the protection of my wife, family, friends, Olympic jersey, or any accomplishments. I’m terrified I might be here forever. I realize you are dealing with so much, but please don’t forget about me and the other American detainees. Please do all you can to bring us home.”

The state prosecutor arguing against her case called the continuing sentence “fair.” Alexander Boykov, the athlete’s lawyer, stated that “no judge, hand on heart, will honestly say that Griner’s nine-year sentence is in line with Russian criminal law.”

“Brittney is [a] very strong person and has a champion’s character. However, she of course has her highs and lows as she is severely stressed being separated from her loved ones for over eight months.”

Russia and the U.S. have discussed the possibility of a prisoner exchange between the two countries. There is speculation that the White House may offer up Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, also known as the “merchant of death.”

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan issued a statement saying Griner was being “wrongfully detained under intolerable circumstances” and reaffirmed that President Biden had demanded her immediate release.

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“President Biden has been very clear that Brittney should be released immediately. In recent weeks, the Biden-Harris Administration has continued to engage with Russia through every available channel and make every effort to bring home Brittney as well as to support and advocate for other Americans detained in Russia, including fellow wrongful detainee Paul Whelan. The President has demonstrated that he is willing to go to extraordinary lengths and make tough decisions to bring Americans home, as his Administration has done successfully from countries around the world. The Administration remains in regular touch with representatives of the families, and we continue to admire their courage in the face of these unimaginable circumstances.”

The sports star spoke to the appeals court remotely from a detention center located in a town near Moscow.

“I really hope that the court will adjust this sentence because it has been very very stressful and very traumatic…I’ve been here almost eight months and people with more severe crimes have been given less than what I was given.”

Though she is still imprisoned, she is grateful for the people working toward her release.

“Thank you everyone for fighting so hard to get me home. All the support and love are definitely helping me.”

warriors

Warriors’ Draymond Green Fined, Not Suspended, for Punching Jordan Poole

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After punching teammate Jordan Poole during practice last week, all-star forward Draymond Green has been fined but will not be suspended by the Golden State Warriors.

Warriors’ coach, Steve Kerr, relayed the information after the team’s preseason win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday. Kerr said he expects Green to return to practice on Thursday. He will also participate in the Golden State’s preseason finale game against the Denver Nuggets on Friday and open the regular season in a game against the Lakers Oct. 18.

The decision came after Kerr met with the team and general manager Bob Myers.  Green and Poole have since met to talk about the incident. Two-time MVP Stephen Curry also stepped in to mediate some of those conversations, saying that there is “nothing that warranted the situation.” Curry believes it was “also something we feel like won’t derail our season, what we’re trying to build, and that’s with Draymond a part of that.” Kerr has decided not to reveal how much Green was fined.

“We have spent the last week in deep discussions with all of our key figures in the organization, including Jordan and Draymond, of course, Steph, all of our players, Bob, myself, and I can tell you there have been a lot of conversations, individual, one-on-one discussions, players-only discussions, everything that you can think of, all the different combinations that are possible to have in a conversation, we’ve had them. It’s been an exhaustive process.”

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Green has publicly apologized for punching Poole, saying he “failed as a leader.” Green also shared that he was in “a very, very, very bad space mentally” when he punched Poole. He decided to distance himself from the Warriors for a few days to give his teammates some time to “heal.” Green had since been completing his workouts alone until the team decided how to move forward.

“Hurt people hurt people. I hurt someone because I was in a place of hurt.”

During the Warriors’ run of four championship titles in eight seasons, Green has been instrumental to the team’s success, playing a pivotal role as a veteran presence and defensive leader. However, the time he has spent on the team has been tainted by a few incidents.

“Draymond sort of lives on the edge as far as his spot on our basketball team. He’s always right in the thick of things, and a couple times in his career, he’s crossed the line. He crossed the line with Kevin (Durant), and he crossed the line the other night in a much worse fashion.”

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On Friday, TMZ released a leaked video of the punch. The video shows the two players in a verbal altercation. Green then approaches Poole near the baseline until he bumps him in the chest. Poole pushed Green away, and then Green punched Poole in the face, sending him into the wall behind the baseline. The other teammates eventually broke up the fight.

Kerr said an investigation into the leak of the video is ongoing.

“We feel like this is the best way after assessing everything for us to move forward. It’s never easy, no matter what decision you make in a situation like this. It’s not going to be perfect. This is the biggest crisis that we’ve ever had since I’ve been coach here. It’s really serious stuff…We’re not perfect. Our team isn’t perfect. Bob and I have definitely made our share of mistakes over the years, but we’re going to lean on the experience we’ve had together over the last nine years and trust this is the best decision for our team.”

Kerr said that while Green broke “our trust with this incident,” he is “giving him the benefit of the doubt because he’s earned that, and I think our team feels the same way.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci Gives Timeline On When Sports Stadiums Will See Fans Again

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Recently, Fauci spoke with the press to discuss when all of the cultural institutions that we know and love will be able to welcome back its fans, and one of the biggest questions was regarding professional sports.

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Football Player

Colin Kaepernick Calls Out NFL’s Black Lives Matter ‘Propaganda’ On Opening Weekend

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Athletes across the US have been protesting against racial inequality for the past month, but many are starting to wonder how genuine these organizations are in their message.

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Baseball Glove

New MLB Proposal To Players Association Calls For 76-Game Season

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Major League Baseball has made a new proposal to the Major League Baseball Players Association that is offering players 75% of their prorated salaries over the course of a shortened 76-game season. 

ESPN’s own, Karl Ravech, took to Twitter this past weekend to report on the proposal, in which he further explained that the season would aim to finish by September 27th with a postseason ending in October. The proposal also apparently makes “significant moves towards players demands” according to Ravech. 

Later in the day ESPN’s Jeff Passan took to Twitter to further explain the proposal that Ravech touched on, claiming that it would in fact be a 76-game season with a 75% prorated salary per player; this would equate to a total of $1,431,716,000 in additional compensations. That would equate to $1,909,436 per player for the 76 games, according to Passan. 

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Additionally, the proposal calls for up to 8 playoff teams per league. Teams that lose any of their free agents will receive a draft pick for other players that sign a multiyear deal of $35 million or more, or players with one-year deals offering $17.8 million in salary. Spring training will last for 21 days and the season will begin around July 10th. If a postseason occurs, each player will receive an additional $393,000 to their salaries.

It’s predicted, however, that the Major League Baseball Players Association will be rejecting this proposal, according to Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich; two established sports journalists who write for The Athletic. The two journalists do agree that Major League Baseball will make an appearance in 2020, just not under these specific circumstances. 

The reasoning behind their lack of confidence in the players association approving this proposal is because it’s the third one to be presented to the group. The first proposal called for an 82-season game with a sliding-scale payment structure based on participation in the season, while the second proposed a 50-game season with a 33% prorated salary throughout. 

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“The MLBPA regards today’s offer from MLB to be worse than the league’s last because it shifts greater emphasis on risk sharing in the postseason. Players would receive 50 percent of pro rata if there is no postseason, 75 if there is. To put it another way, MLB’s offer can be said to represent a 50 percent per-game pay cut with a potential upside of a 25 percent cut,” tweeted Evan Drellich.

Bob Nightengale, a sports journalist for USA Today, agreed with Drellich’s above tweet, claiming that MLB views the latest offer as a major “step backwards.” The difficulty lies in the fact that the players made their own prorated agreement with the team owners back in March, however, as the pandemic continued to worsen, plans have obviously changed. 

The other difficulty lies in the fact that MLB is trying to prepare for the enormous lack of money they’d be making this season with no fans able to attend the games, purchase memorabilia, food, etc. due to Covid-19 concerns. The players have responded to this concern by stating that owners should “keep any surplus revenue in good years so they could absorb the hit in one year,” according to Nightingale. 

Players also are tired of the constant salary negotiations, as they already agreed to major pay cuts/ prorated salaries in March and don’t want to keep renegotiating for a season they don’t even know the full structure of yet. It’s predicted that the players association will come to some sort of conclusion in the coming week, as all members of MLB are still projecting to start the season in July, so for now, only time will tell when that’ll be.

Basketball

NBA Board Of Governors To Discuss Future Of 2020 Playoff Season

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The NBA’s board of governors will have a meeting this Thursday in which they will vote to possibly approve a plan that would restart the basketball season with 22 teams stationed in Orlando, Florida. While no formal plan has been proposed, and it’s unlikely that one will even pass given the current state of the country in regards to Covid-19, some title favorites are internally figuring out ways to make a season in Florida work; considering they’d be giving up the “home-court advantage” every game. 

All major sports leagues (and non-sports related industries as well) in America have learned throughout this pandemic that creativity and innovation are key in changing the way we run our lives and careers. However, for the NBA specifically, there is still a great chance that the playoffs will get cancelled, which would mean for the first time in the NBA’s 74-year history a champion team will not be crowned. 

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Some teams are trying to strategize ways of advancing their teams edge if they’ll be forced to play in just one stadium. 

“Executives from the teams that would host a first-round series in the playoffs told ESPN that they had internal discussions within their own front offices about reviving their home-court advantage in some fashion, and that some have already shared ideas with other teams in the same situation, with the hopes of having an ally when making an appeal to the league,” (ESPN).

Sources also told ESPN about what some of these options for “reviving their home-court advantage” would be, including giving the team with the higher-seed first possession during the second, third, and fourth quarters of the game. The higher-seeded team can also receive an extra coach’s challenge, and transport their actual hardwood home courts from their arenas to Orlando. 

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The NBA competition committee is made up of team owners, general managers, players, and coaches. The committee held a meeting this week and none of the above options were discussed, in fact, they didn’t even discuss the possibility of restarting the season. The purpose of this committee, however, is to act as the middleman between the players and the board of governors. They discuss new ideas and changes the league could make, compile a professional presentation and then present to the board; like any office job. 

“[I’m] more concerned about play resuming than getting a playoff benefit. I’ve been just so hoping that we actually play the games, I don’t care if they even give us the home-court advantage. I’m like, just be sure we play. We’ve got to get to Orlando. We’ve got to have a chance to play for a championship in the playoffs. I don’t care what they do. We have such a hungry team and mindset, that yeah, sure, great, give us an extra timeout, give us an extra possession. Whatever the ideas are, I’m all for it,” Milwaukee Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said.

So far, many executives and board members have emphasized the importance of health and safety during this pandemic, hence why the specifics of restarting the season haven’t fully been discussed yet. Like every other industry in this country, only time will tell how this virus will continue to impact the way in which they run. However, NBA fans can expect a little more clarity on the future of the playoff season by the end of this week.

MLB

MLB Owners Move To Pass Proposal That Would Start Baseball Season In July

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Major League Baseball (MLB) owners have created a proposal that they will be submitting to the players union that could potentially lead to a delayed baseball season that would begin around the Fourth of July, instead of June. The proposal comes as an obvious response to the coronavirus pandemic and indefinite cancellations of all major sporting events in the United States until this pandemic is over.

Spring training would likely start in early to mid-June if the proposal comes into fruition. However, MLB officials will need the stamp of approval from the players union before any decisions are made, and it’s expected that the union is gonna put up quite the fight to keep players home.

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“If you do anything that resembles a cap, that smells like a cap, you’ve given too much. A salary cap has been a non-starter for the players as long as I’ve been in baseball. I think when MLB is proposing a revenue split, it is with the full knowledge that the players’ union will automatically reject that,” said David Samson, former president of the Expos and Marlins.

The proposal claims that each player would play about 82 regular-season games against opponents within their own division. Postseason games would expand out from 10 clubs to 14 by “doubling wild cards in each league to four.” Teams are likely going to want to play at their regular-season ballparks, however, if MLB can’t get proper government approval to have home games, teams will have to switch to either spring training stadiums or any other neutral meeting sites.

“We’ll see where we will be in July, California is the home of five MLB clubs and [they’ve all] talked with baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred. We certainly look forward to Major League Baseball and all sports resuming. But again, the question is when and that will be determined on the basis of public health and public safety and the spread of this virus,” said California Governor Gavin Newsom.

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Players, however, aren’t so convinced that we’ll be returning to a life of normalcy anytime soon, and based off what we’ve heard before in terms of professional athlete protections, most MLB players want what everyone wants; health protections for all players, families, staff, and employees involved. The logistics of ensuring everyone is consistently healthy while also having access to proper testing hasn’t even been mastered in America in general yet.

Teams will likely propose to have access to part of their 2020 salaries based on a split between what they would be making during regular and postseason. The proposal will also cover the concept of fans being able to return to ballparks at some point, which could involve inviting a few spectators at first and slowly increasing the number of bodies in the stands.

Most teams have already been given the chance to begin spring-training on their own, which many players have done, as opposed to travelling to be with their team. In March, the MLB called for each player to receive only a portion of their salary amid the pandemic. Players believe this specific agreement should still be followed as the basis for all future economic decisions involving MLB employees and players.

Again, the biggest concern is following proper health and safety guidelines and keeping everyone healthy while enduring a potential new baseball season. For now, only time will tell how all professional sports, along with the rest of the world, will be able to return to a life of normalcy.