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      Joel Embiid Is Carving a Path Into the Heart of Philadelphia

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      Embiid came into his own this season, positioning the Sixers for a run at a championship. Yet another injury may derail that goal, but he has earned respect.There was a time when it wasn’t certain that the Philadelphia 76ers should be placed on the broad shoulders of Joel Embiid.There were questions about his maturity, like when he danced shirtless onstage at a Meek Mill concert in 2017 while out with a knee injury. Bryan Colangelo, then the team’s head of basketball operations, called it “a little” disappointing. (This was silly.)The more concerning questions were about Embiid’s conditioning and weight after he was drafted, in 2014, and then about his durability, when he missed his first two seasons with foot injuries. That was when the Sixers were going through one of the worst periods in franchise history — also known as The Process.Fast forward to now: Embiid has convincingly put all those concerns to rest. Over the last two seasons, he has transformed into one of the best players in the N.B.A. and a contender for the Most Valuable Player Award.And he’s just not any superstar. He’s a Philadelphia Superstar — by and of the city — the proverbial man of the people. The kind who you might occasionally spot going for a jog through the streets of Philadelphia (sorry, Mr. Springsteen) or dropping by a local court to play pickup. Since the Sixers drafted him, Embiid has made being in Philadelphia a core part of his identity, all while a turnstile of other top players have left their teams. His Twitter biography reads “PROCESSING” — a nod to his assumption of The Process as a nickname. The term refers to a string of losing seasons in the mid-2010s as the Sixers stockpiled draft picks — picks that have, at least in part, led to Philadelphia’s success today.It seems appropriate that Embiid won the scoring title this year, making him the first Sixer to do so since the deeply beloved Allen Iverson in 2005. Embiid is on track to do what no other basketball player this century has approached: give Philadelphia basketball fans someone (not named Iverson) to truly believe in.Embiid has had to shoulder much of the load of leading Philadelphia by himself.Matt Slocum/Associated PressThis year, Embiid’s path to permanent enshrinement in Philadelphia lore hit a snag when he was diagnosed with a concussion and an orbital fracture after he was elbowed in the face during the final game of a first-round playoff series against the Toronto Raptors. The Sixers moved on to the second round to face the Miami Heat, the East’s No. 1 seed, and lost the first game in a blowout on Monday without Embiid. Game 2 was set for Wednesday.Entering the postseason, it had seemed that this would be one of the Sixers’ best opportunities to win a championship in decades — even better than when they were the No. 1 seed in 2021. They had a dominant Embiid and a strong partner to share the load in James Harden, who was named M.V.P. with Houston in 2017-18. They also have a cast of talented teammates, such as the second-year guard Tyrese Maxey. But it’s unclear when Embiid will be able to play again, and the Sixers are, at best, on even footing with Miami if Embiid is healthy.But even if the Sixers don’t advance, Embiid’s play has earned him a deep well of affection within his city. The Sixers were shrouded in drama this season as a result of the trade demand from Ben Simmons, who was supposed to help Embiid in the championship quest but never took the court before he was traded to the Nets for Harden in February. Instead of letting the season get derailed, Embiid mostly stayed quiet about Simmons and kept his focus on the court, where he averaged 30.6 points, 11.7 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game.Philadelphia has long been known as a difficult city in which to earn longstanding affection from fans. Only a few athletes have been able to attain that — and often not without significant bumps along the way: players like Julius Erving and Charles Barkley, and in other sports, the Eagles’ Brian Dawkins.Other stars (ahem: Simmons) are often run out of town.“A big part of my job is recruiting free agents directly or even indirectly in trade,” said Daryl Morey, the Sixers’ president of basketball operations. “And I think there’s a respect of the Philadelphia fan base that the players have that they’re like, ‘Will they accept me or not?’“Because if they don’t accept you, it gets ugly fast for everybody.”Marc Zumoff, who was the Sixers’ play-by-play broadcaster for almost three decades before retiring last year, said in an email that, “Philadelphia fans like to know they are part of the process.“Whether they’re cheering, booing, or chanting in unison, they want to elicit reactions from the players, coaches, officials or whoever is their target,” he said. “In Joel’s case, his expressions, gyrations or especially when he holds his arms out in exaltation, he feeds the frenzy.”He added, “Sometimes he reacts to the fans; other times, they react to him.”James Harden, left, was traded to the Sixers from the Nets in February.Matt Slocum/Associated PressEmbiid has come to be known for his playful behavior, on and off the court.Cole Burston/Getty ImagesThat’s not the case for every Philadelphia star, Zumoff said, citing a Phillies icon.“Mike Schmidt may have been the greatest third baseman in baseball history, but I think our fans wanted more outward emotion from him,” he said.If there’s a figure who understands being beloved as an athlete in Philadelphia, it’s Jimmy Rollins, who played for the Phillies from 2000 to 2014. He won the National League’s Most Valuable Player Award in 2007 and helped deliver a World Series in 2008.Winning over fans from Philadelphia “takes responsibility,” said Rollins, who is now an analyst for TBS.“When I say responsibility, I mean owning up to when you mess up,” he said. “Not making excuses, but showing up every day and playing with a certain style of grittiness.”Embiid has alluded to such sentiments, while also being willing to throw some of that same energy back at fans.“I haven’t forgotten but 2 years ago, I got booed, people in Philly wanted me to be traded,” Embiid said on Twitter before this season. “I even shushed them. Only the real ones didn’t but I just put the work in that off-season to be better cuz I knew I wasn’t playing up to my potential. Philly fans, y’all also gotta be better.”There are two ways to be an athlete who never has to buy a meal in Philadelphia ever again. You can help win a title, as the N.F.L. quarterback Nick Foles did in leading the Eagles to the Super Bowl in the 2017 season. Or you can be a larger-than-life star, like Iverson. Ideally, you’re both.Iverson wasn’t just a force in the city. He was a cultural beacon who affected the way players dressed, wore their hair and felt about themselves. He was also one of the most visible figures in all of sports. But the city’s fondness for Iverson went beyond his production and style. It was also about size. Iverson was barely six feet tall and constantly outplayed opponents much bigger than him. In the case of Embiid, he’s a dominant physical presence unto himself and is in part successful because he’s able to outmuscle defenders. Most players are smaller than him.Allen Iverson, who led the Sixers to the N.B.A. finals in 2001, is one of a kind, but Embiid is carving his own path into the hearts of Philadelphia fans.Tim Nwachukwu/Getty ImagesEmbiid has essentially carved out his own path. He’s a millennial superstar — meaning he’s aware of and makes use of the internet more than Iverson’s generation of players ever had to. It’s been one of the many ways Embiid has increased his reach in a way that’s been rare for professional athletes. A meme here. A trash talk Instagram caption there. The occasional joke to sate the masses.“It’s pretty rare to have someone as talented as him — the best player in the league, we would argue — and also be so aware of his impact on the daily lives,” Morey said.If Embiid comes back this series, he’ll be playing through, in addition to the orbital fracture, a torn ligament in his thumb. Just by taking the floor, he’ll burnish his image as a warrior willing to, as Rollins said, “find a way to make that impossible happen,” a willingness Rollins said is key to gaining the warm embrace of Philadelphia.Whatever Embiid is, he is Philadelphia’s.“I think he’ll always be a beloved figure no matter what,” Morey said. More

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      Why Brittney Griner Could Be the Last American Basketball Star in Russia

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      The atrocities of the war in Ukraine and Griner’s detention in Russia on drug charges could cut off a lucrative pipeline for women’s basketball players.Mike Cound had decided on a figure — a reasonable salary request, he said — for a client who wanted to play for UMMC Yekaterinburg, a professional women’s basketball team in Russia. As an experienced sports agent, that was what he was supposed to do.But when he doubled the request on a whim, the team accepted without hesitation. And when another client injured her knee and could not play, the team paid her anyway. For yet another client, UMMC Yekaterinburg offered more than triple the amount she could make in the W.N.B.A. in the United States — if she would agree to play only in Russia.None of that was normal. But UMMC Yekaterinburg was not like any other team.“There’s nothing like it in sports,” Cound said. “The Yankees, maybe, in the old days with George Steinbrenner, when they would pay four times as much as somebody else.”That type of spending and largess, fed by the Russian oligarchs who own teams for pride and political reasons, has drawn many W.N.B.A. players over the years to a country they barely know, thousands of miles from home, for a financial bounty generally unavailable in the United States.But those days may be over. Against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, Russia’s detention of the W.N.B.A. star Brittney Griner on drug charges and increasing pressure from the W.N.B.A. to limit overseas play have forced an overdue reconsideration of the ethical and financial implications of playing basketball in Russia.Griner, a center for the Phoenix Mercury who was in Russia to play for UMMC Yekaterinburg when she was detained in February, was reportedly earning at least $1 million from the team — far more than the W.N.B.A.’s maximum base salary of about $230,000. Similar paydays have lured other big-name stars, like Diana Taurasi and Breanna Stewart.UMMC Yekaterinburg celebrated winning the EuroLeague Women in 2021.Murad Sezer/ReutersBut Griner’s detention, the atrocities of the war and related economic sanctions have heightened the scrutiny of associating with Russian businesses — including its basketball teams. The State Department on Tuesday said that Griner had been “wrongfully detained” and that its officials were working to have her released. Griner could be the last American basketball star to play professionally in Russia, fracturing a lucrative pipeline that a list of renowned players has tapped for a generation.“If you’ve got your daughter you’re entrusting with me and listening to my counsel,” Cound said, “I do not see where I can look you in the face and say, ‘Yeah, this is a good idea,’ if Vladimir Putin is still in charge.”‘We can get the best’As the Mercury prepare for the 2022 W.N.B.A. season, which begins Friday, Griner remains in custody with other women in Russia, where she has gone to play basketball since 2015.In February, Russian customs officials accused Griner of carrying vape cartridges with hashish oil in her luggage at an airport near Moscow. If Griner is convicted, she can face up to 10 years in prison. American officials have long accused Russia of detaining people on trumped-up charges.In March, a Russian court extended Griner’s time in custody until at least May 19. That hearing did not deal with the merits of the case. The State Department has not explained why or how its officials determined that her detention was wrongful.In March, Lisa Leslie, the Hall of Fame player, said on the “I Am Athlete” podcast that she and others in the W.N.B.A. community were told not to make a “big fuss” over Griner’s detention for fear of inflaming tensions with Russia. The State Department’s statement on Tuesday was the most significant public acknowledgment of Griner’s situation by the U.S. government.Some W.N.B.A. players and fans have been vocal, using a #FreeBrittney hashtag on social media to plead for intervention. But most, like Taurasi, Griner’s Mercury teammate, have said little as part of a strategy of quiet diplomacy.A fan showed his support for Griner during a men’s basketball game between Iowa State and Baylor in March. (Griner won a national title with Baylor in 2012.)LM Otero/Associated Press“I spent 10 years there, so I know the way things work,” said Taurasi, who has played for Russian teams and is the leading scorer in W.N.B.A. history. “It’s delicate.”UMMC Yekaterinburg paid Taurasi a reported $1.5 million to skip the 2015 W.N.B.A. season and play only in Russia.“It was a very personal choice,” Taurasi told The New York Times at the time. “My agent said it would be financially irresponsible not to do it.”UMMC Yekaterinburg, based in the city of the same name and roughly a two-hour flight from Moscow, is controlled by the oligarch Iskander Makhmudov and his business partner, Andrei Kozitsyn. Makhmudov and Kozitsyn head Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company, which mines commodities like copper, zinc, coal, gold and silver, and is one of Russia’s top producers.They were part of a wave of oligarchs who amassed their wealth after the collapse of the Soviet Union by investing in industries like gas, oil and precious metals. Following Putin’s ascent, oligarchs like Roman Abramovich, Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Prokhorov bought into prominent sports franchises, like the soccer teams Chelsea and Arsenal F.C. and the N.B.A.’s Nets.While some owners had legitimate reasons for investing in sports, others who funded or purchased teams were doing so at least in part to seem more legitimate to American and British authorities, according to Karen Greenaway, a retired F.B.I. agent who investigated international corruption and spent a part of her career in the former Soviet Union. Makhmudov has been linked to criminal activity and has business associations with other oligarchs tied to organized crime in Russia, according to civil suits lodged in the United States and the United Kingdom by competitors and law enforcement officials.Makhmudov was accused of being involved in a scheme to take over the Russian aluminum industry, according to a civil case filed in New York in 2000. In it, Makhmudov and two other oligarchs, Oleg Deripaska and Michael Cherney, were accused of a racketeering scheme which involved fraud, bribery and attempted murder. They contested the allegations, and the case was dismissed in the United States because the judge consented to move it to Russia.“Organized crime was making the money, and Makhmudov and Deripaska were investing the money,” Greenaway said. Several attempts to reach Makhmudov and Kozitsyn for this article were unsuccessful.Proceeds from mining helped Makhmudov and Kozitsyn invest in women’s basketball and other sports in Russia, like martial arts and table tennis.Andrei Kozitsyn at a news conference in 2014.Maxim Shemetov/ReutersAnother former F.B.I. agent, who spoke on condition of anonymity because his current employer had barred him from speaking publicly, said oligarchs want to be associated with high-profile legitimate businesses like sports teams to make it more difficult for Putin to severely punish them without anyone noticing. Making too much money outside Russia could upset Putin, the agent said, as could seeming to interfere with his political agenda. “When oligarchs have stepped into the fray, then he comes after you full guns ablazing,” the agent said.Brendan Dwyer, an associate professor and a director at the Center for Sport Leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University, said interest in Russian women’s basketball is related to Putin’s desire that Russia be viewed as a worldwide sports powerhouse.“Really, it’s an opportunity for the oligarchs to draw the best international talent to the country and raise awareness for the sport,” Dwyer said, noting Putin’s background in judo. “But I think the ultimate goal is to showcase: ‘Listen, we have the best athletes in the world. We are the best country in the world. We can get the best to come here.’”‘More than the whole budget of the next team’Yekaterinburg sits on an eastern slope of the Ural Mountains, close to Russia’s border with Kazakhstan, and is a city where the profits of the country’s mining and metallurgical industries pool. The city gained infamy in 1918 when Czar Nicholas II, Russia’s last czar, was killed along with his family by Bolshevik revolutionaries during the Russian Revolution.The Russian Basketball Federation governs several men’s and women’s basketball leagues, including the women’s Premier League with about a dozen teams. UMMC Yekaterinburg has dominated the Premier League, where most of the teams are bankrolled by government municipalities. Makhmudov lists the team on his website among his charitable endeavors.“There’s this vision that this is happening all over Russia,” Cound said. “No, no. It’s this team. You probably have three players on Yekat that’s more than the whole budget of the next team down.”Right before UMMC Yekaterinburg’s run of sustained dominance began in 2008, Taurasi and Sue Bird, two of the world’s most famous women’s basketball players, won several EuroLeague championships for Spartak Moscow. In 2006, the average W.N.B.A. salary was only $47,000 a year, with the league maximum at $91,000 for veterans.In Russia, Bird and Taurasi were treated like celebrities. Shabtai Kalmanovich, Spartak Moscow’s owner, lavished players with high salaries, cash bonuses and gifts.Iskander Makhmudov, the president of Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company, in 2014.Dmitry Dukhanin/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesKalmanovich once told ESPN that he lost millions every season. The team paid to have its games broadcast in Russia and did not charge fans to attend, hoping to first get spectators invested in the sport before charging admission.He told Sports Illustrated in 2008 that “you need to have a big heart” and to “be something between a fanatic and a patriot” to invest in women’s basketball. But for the very rich, like Kalmanovich, that was often enough incentive.“If you understand that you can’t eat breakfast twice, and you can wear only one tie at a time, there might as well be something else,” he said.What to Know About Brittney Griner’s Detention in RussiaCard 1 of 5What happened? More

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      Against Grizzlies, Golden State Warriors Feel Range of Emotions

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      A tense playoff series against the Grizzlies has Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green reliving the emotional roller coaster of their championship runs.MEMPHIS — The Golden State Warriors expected a physical fight in Game 2 of their second-round N.B.A. playoff series with the Memphis Grizzlies. But to lose that game, 106-101, and to lose a beloved defender to a fractured elbow? Those events they did not expect.It created a mélange of emotions after the game — anger, disappointment, frustration.Still, point guard Stephen Curry, the emotional center of the team, offered several reasons Golden State did not plan to panic.“It’s going to be a long three days with that feeling, but we understand what we need to do,” he said.And also: “We’ve been in a lot of different series that’s taken a lot of twists and turns.”And later: “Lot of adversity, a lot of adrenaline and emotion. We’ve just got to win four games somehow some way.”The loss, on Tuesday night, showed the challenge of the emotional balance the Warriors pride themselves on having. As they attempt to win another championship, they are finally getting to play in high-stakes games after a two-year postseason drought. With that comes the potential for highs, like their emotional 1-point win in Game 1 against the Grizzlies, but also lows, like the way they felt after their loss Tuesday. The series, which is tied 1-1, will continue in San Francisco with Game 3 on Saturday.“Everybody’s bummed out,” Golden State Coach Steve Kerr said. “But it’s the playoffs, so everybody will shower up and we’ll get on the plane and head home. We’re in a good spot.”Golden State forward Draymond Green raised his middle fingers toward a booing Memphis crowd as he left the court after an inadvertent elbow to the face left him bloodied.Brandon Dill/Associated PressThe two years during which Golden State missed the playoffs made those players who had been through the championship years that much more wistful for the thrill of playoff stakes.“I think it’s almost like a drug in some ways,” said the assistant coach Ron Adams, who has been with the team since 2014.Only six players from the last N.B.A. finals run, in 2019, remain, but they have returned to the playoffs with a deeper understanding of their emotions.“I got excited after Game 1 because it was such a hard-fought game, but as soon as I went back to the hotel that adrenaline wore off and I realized it’s just one game and it’s a marathon,” guard Klay Thompson, 32, said. “For me, I think I’m a lot more centered than I was our first time doing this.”He also believes some things haven’t changed, and shouldn’t.“I’ve been through the biggest battles with Dray, and he embraces those moments, he embraces being the villain,” Thompson said of forward Draymond Green. “We need that. He really makes us go, and without him, we’re not the Warriors.”On Tuesday morning, Kerr had said Golden State expected Game 2 to be the most physical game the team had played all season.It roiled their emotions, with the hostile Grizzlies crowd lifting the home team. Memphis guard Ja Morant scored 47 points, including 18 in the fourth quarter, and the Grizzlies capitalized on Golden State’s mistakes late. But the opening minutes set a tense tone.Grizzlies forward Dillon Brooks was ejected less than three minutes into the game, having received a flagrant-2 foul after swiping Gary Payton II across the head as Payton was in the air to try to make a basket. Payton fractured his elbow when he landed awkwardly.“I don’t know if it was intentional, but it was dirty,” Kerr said, later accusing Brooks of jeopardizing Payton’s career.Green also left the game in the first quarter after Xavier Tillman inadvertently elbowed him in the face. Hearing boos from the crowd, Green raised his middle fingers toward the fans as he left the court to get stitches above his right eye.“It felt really good to flip them off,” said Green, who answered other questions about the night in clipped sentences. “You’re going to boo someone that got elbowed in the eye and had blood running down your face? I could’ve had a concussion or anything. So if they’re going to be that nasty, I can be nasty, too. I’m assuming the cheers was because they know I’ll get fined. Great. I make $25 million a year. I should be just fine.”Green and Grizzlies fans were already on bad terms coming into the game. He had been ejected from Game 1 after a hard foul on Memphis forward Brandon Clarke. On Tuesday, Green returned to the game at the start of the second quarter with his right eye nearly swollen shut.All the while, Golden State was figuring out how to recover from a hot Grizzlies start and Payton’s injury.“It was like 8-0 at the time, so I was trying to get settled in the game,” Curry said. “That play happens. It pisses you off, you have a reaction, understand there’s 45 minutes left in the game. You’ve got to kind of settle back in emotionally. We did a really good job until the fourth quarter.”It was a marked change from Golden State’s demeanor following the Game 1 win, but that shift is typical in playoff series, particularly the closer they are to the finals.Curry’s signature emotion is happiness. Lately, as Golden State has advanced in the playoffs, as the games have become more crucial and challenging, those around him have seen more of that.“Just the simple phrase, ‘You got to love it’; heard him say that a few times,” Bruce Fraser, an assistant coach who works closely with Curry, said Tuesday morning. “You can feel his energy. He walks around with an energy around him. I know him so well it’s hard for me to describe what that is because I just feel it.”Golden State guard Klay Thompson. left, was riding high after beating Memphis in Game 1.Joe Rondone/USA Today Sports, via ReutersBeing able to prevent an emotionally taxing loss from changing that has been a part of Golden State’s success in the past.On Tuesday morning, Thompson spoke not just about his efforts to stay calm in exciting moments, but also about his improved ability to not worry too much in more negative moments. He said he loved to play in any game he could, given his two-year absence from the sport as he recovered from two leg injuries.He also spoke about his confidence that Golden State could handle anything, because in his years playing with Curry and Green, they have, he said, “been through everything.”He recalled a playoff series against the Grizzlies in 2015 and how aggressively that Memphis team played. Golden State also lost Game 2 of that series before winning it on the way to Thompson, Curry and Green’s first championship. That’s not to say the situations are identical. In 2015, Golden State was the top seed in the Western Conference, while Memphis was fifth. This season, the Grizzlies had the second-best record in the N.B.A., while Golden State was third.Those types of experiences, though, help keep emotions stable.After Tuesday’s game, Curry spoke with reporters before he even changed out of his game uniform. Still, he already seemed to be moving past the emotion of the game. He exhibited the cerebral quality that leads the rest of his team.“It’s in our DNA,” Curry said when asked how Golden State would recover from this loss. “We know what to do.” More

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      Brittney Griner Was ‘Wrongfully Detained’, U.S. Government Says

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      More than two months after the W.N.B.A. star Brittney Griner was accused of having drugs in her luggage and taken into custody in Russia, the U.S. State Department on Tuesday said that it had determined she was “wrongfully detained.”“The U.S. government will continue to provide appropriate consular support to Ms. Griner and her family,” a State Department official said in a statement, adding that an interagency team would work to have her released.Griner, 31, has been held in Russia since February on drug charges that could carry a sentence of up to 10 years if she is convicted. Russian customs officials accused Griner of carrying vape cartridges with hashish oil in her luggage at an airport near Moscow as she returned to Russia to resume playing for UMMC Yekaterinburg, a professional women’s basketball team, after a two-week break.“Brittney has been detained for 75 days and our expectation is that the White House do whatever is necessary to bring her home,” Griner’s agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, said in a statement.The State Department did not explain why it was now designating Griner as wrongfully detained. ESPN first reported the change.A law passed by Congress in 2020 established 11 criteria for such a designation, any one of which can be a sufficient basis to secure the detainee’s release, including “credible information indicating innocence of the detained individual,” “credible reports that the detention is a pretext for an illegitimate purpose,” or a conclusion that U.S. “diplomatic engagement is likely necessary.”Under the law, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken must personally approve such a designation, and transfer responsibility for the case from the department’s consular affairs bureau to the office of the special envoy for hostage affairs.Some of Griner’s supporters and inner circle had been concerned about politicizing Griner’s case because of the frayed relationship between the United States and Russia and the tensions of the war in Ukraine. Most W.N.B.A. players and government officials have said little about the situation beyond expressing general support for Griner, as part of a strategy of quiet diplomacy.In other cases of wrongful detention, the United States had insisted that it would not link the fate of imprisoned individuals to larger policy issues. The State Department has repeatedly said, for instance, that Americans held in Iran are not part of the negotiations between Washington and Tehran to restore the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.In March, a Russian court extended Griner’s detention until at least May 19 and denied an appeal from Griner’s legal team in Russia, who had hoped to have her transferred to house arrest. That hearing did not deal with the merits of the case.Word of Griner’s new status comes less than a week after the United States conducted a prisoner swap with Moscow. Russia had for two years detained Trevor R. Reed, a former U.S. Marine, on what his family considered to be trumped-up charges of assault.Reed’s release renewed optimism that Griner would also be freed.“As I do everything in my power to get BG home, my heart is overflowing with joy for The Reed family,” Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner, wrote on Instagram. “I do not personally know them, but I do know the pain of having your loved one detained in a foreign country. That level of pain is constant and can only be remedied by a safe return home.”Among publicly-known cases of Americans wrongfully held abroad, the average case has lasted more than four years, said Cynthia Loertscher, director of research at the nonprofit James W. Foley Legacy Foundation. The foundation is named after an American journalist kidnapped in Syria and executed by the Islamic State in 2014.The United States has designated as wrongfully detained Americans citizens and U.S. nationals who are currently imprisoned in China, Venezuela, Iran, Afghanistan, Belarus, Myanmar and Cuba, among several other nations. In an interview with “60 Minutes” that aired in February, Roger D. Carstens, the diplomat who will be overseeing the interagency effort to free Griner, said that over 40 Americans were wrongfully detained abroad.Many W.N.B.A. players join international teams to earn additional income during the league’s off-season. The top-tier players can make more than $1 million by playing in Russia. Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and seven-time All-Star, is set to earn about $228,000 with the W.N.B.A.’s Phoenix Mercury in the 2022 season, according to the website Her Hoop Stats, just shy of the league’s maximum salary.The W.N.B.A.’s new season begins Friday. The league plans to “acknowledge the importance” of Griner by featuring her initials and jersey number, 42, on the sidelines of teams’ home courts.“There’s not a day that goes by where we’re not spending significant time on strategizing with, essentially, the administration experts,” W.N.B.A. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert told The New York Times in an interview last month.She added: “Everybody wants her to come home as quickly as possible. It’s a complex situation.” More

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      The W.N.B.A. Strikes an Uneasy Silence Over Brittney Griner

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      Advisers are taking a discreet approach to negotiating the Phoenix Mercury center’s release from Russian detention, putting her anguished teammates and the league in a discomfiting position.PHOENIX — When will Brittney Griner be set free?That painful question hangs over the Phoenix Mercury, just as it is likely to hang over the coming W.N.B.A. season.Last week, at a home preseason game pitting Phoenix against the Seattle Storm, hip-hop blared and gyrating dance squads revved up the crowd. When the teams took the court, the public-address system crackled with the names of some of the most well-known players in women’s basketball. Sue Bird. Breanna Stewart. Tina Charles. They were joined by the Mercury’s 39-year-old virtuoso, Diana Taurasi, who was in street clothes for the preseason game but who plans to be ready when the regular season begins Friday.Griner, the Mercury’s seven-time All-Star center, will not. Since February, she has been in Russian custody after customs officials at a Moscow area airport said they found vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage.Her glaring absence struck an awkward note. On the mammoth screen looming over the court in Phoenix, Griner’s image flashed alongside her teammates’ in promotional videos. Dozens of fans in the crowd wore Mercury jerseys emblazoned with her name and number, 42.This was the first time the Mercury had played since Griner was taken into Russian custody, yet there was no official acknowledgment of her absence by the players, no moment of silence to reckon with the collective anguish for one of the league’s most beloved performers, who is known to teammates and fans as B.G.Fans of Brittney Griner wore her national team and W.N.B.A. team jerseys.Rebecca Noble for The New York TimesThe silence is by design.The W.N.B.A. is perhaps the most progressive and outspoken American sports league. Its players have long taken public stands on issues such as race, gender equality, politics and reproductive rights. In the days after a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd, W.N.B.A. players boycotted games. During the early, cloistered days of the pandemic, they wore black shirts that said, “Say Her Name,” referring to Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman shot and killed by the police in Louisville, Ky.But with Griner detained in Russia, her whereabouts and specific details on how she is faring relayed only to an inner circle of friends, family and advisers, the league is taking a stealthier approach.Instead of raising a ruckus, the players are quiet.Instead of clamoring for change, they keep their mouths shut.They are following the lead of Griner’s advisers, who have determined it best to let behind-the-scenes diplomacy work. With Griner facing up to 10 years in prison, they have reasoned the wisest move is to keep a low profile right now. At the moment, it makes sense, the reasoning goes, not to give President Vladimir V. Putin leverage in using Griner as a bargaining chip in negotiations while his military wages war against Ukraine.“We are absolutely outspoken about everything that we can possibly be,” Mercury guard Kia Nurse, who is entering her fifth year in the W.N.B.A., said at the team’s training facility last week. “But we are also very good at admitting that we don’t know everything, and we are not the experts on every topic.”A Phoenix Mercury fan wore a T-shirt calling for Griner’s release last week.Rebecca Noble for The New York Times“We’re following the process,” Nurse said, before noting the week’s hopeful news. On Wednesday, the State Department announced that a former U.S. Marine, Trevor R. Reed, had gained his freedom in a prisoner swap after nearly three years of Russian detention.Among the Mercury players, Reed’s return delivered a fresh dose of optimism that Griner could be next.But the deal for Reed also sparked renewed calls from activists outside her camp who wonder aloud whether enough is being done to bring Griner home. Why, they ask, wasn’t she included in the swap? Why is everyone in the league remaining so circumspect? Wouldn’t loud and visible protests for Griner help pressure some action?In Phoenix, more than a few fans told me they didn’t feel Griner’s case was getting enough attention. Or that if an N.B.A. star were in Russian custody — waiting for a hearing, as Griner is, and facing a possible lengthy prison sentence, as Griner is — the calls for his release would be thunderous, insistent and nonstop.“Having her missing, it feels like we are missing a limb,” said Dacia Johnson, an ardent Mercury fan who wore a Griner jersey. “And the way the team and league remain so quiet makes it worse. There was not one word about her at the beginning of this game. I’m really upset about that.”Tina Charles, back, started at center, Griner’s position with the Mercury.Rebecca Noble for The New York TimesWhat if Devin Booker was in Russian custody, she wondered, referencing the high-scoring guard for the Phoenix Suns?“If this was Booker, and not a gay, 6-foot-9-inch Black female? If this was someone from men’s sports, I think they would have had something in his honor, even if it was a moment of silence.”Johnson seemed as emotional about Griner as the player’s teammates, who looked stricken with sadness every time I brought up Griner’s name. Still, the Mercury players stuck to the script. They spoke of how much they love B.G. How special she is. How she is like a member of their family, and constantly in their thoughts and prayers. Behind careful words was raw pain.“That’s my sister, so I love her,” said Skylar Diggins-Smith, who won gold alongside Griner at last summer’s Olympics in Tokyo. Diggins-Smith’s straightforward words were weighted as her voice quaked with frustration and anguish shone in her eyes. She continued: “I think about her every day, and I can’t wait till she gets back here with us.”We are in uncharted territory. As the season begins, the W.N.B.A. is still wrestling with ways to honor Griner that won’t hurt her cause. The league’s teams plan to expand Griner’s Heart and Sole charity, which gives shoes to those in need, beyond Phoenix. Other ideas are in consideration, too.But fans like Johnson and her girlfriend, Autumn Gardner, want boldness from the league that has come to be known for it. As the preseason game against the Storm wound toward its conclusion, a 4-point Mercury loss, Gardner did not just say Griner’s name. She yelled it. “B.G.!” she chanted, loud and insistent enough to reach down to the court. “B.G.! B.G.! B.G.!”A young fan touched a mural of Griner outside the Footprint Center in Phoenix.Rebecca Noble for The New York Times More

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      Draymond Green Leaves Early, but Golden State Shows Tenacity Late

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      Jordan Poole came off the bench to score 31 points as Golden State overcame Green’s first-half ejection.MEMPHIS — Moments before they learned Draymond Green had been ejected from the game, Golden State Warriors Coach Steve Kerr and guard Stephen Curry looked out at the crowd Green had enraged. Kerr and Curry laughed as fans chanted, “Throw him out.”But the longer the referees took to review Green’s hard foul on Memphis Grizzlies forward Brandon Clarke, the more concerned they looked. Green sat on the scorer’s table, expressionless, until the referees delivered his fate.Chaos ensued.Kerr and Curry started shouting at the officials about how outrageous they found the call. Green leaped from his seat and ran to the opposite sideline, returning to the Golden State bench to say goodbye to his teammates. Fans cheered, and Green motioned for them to get louder. They were happy to oblige and jeered at Green as he skipped backward toward the tunnel to the locker room, where he watched the rest of the game.Golden State has experience with all this — with Green being ejected, with a hostile crowd, with a young opponent that isn’t afraid. So, at halftime, the team wasn’t concerned. In this game, the Warriors drew on their experience, their determination and their delight at being back in the playoffs after a two-year drought to beat Memphis, 117-116, in Game 1 of their second-round playoff series.“I just missed everything about this atmosphere and opportunity to play meaningful games that require everything,” Curry said. “I missed everything about it.”The Grizzlies got to this point with the second-best record in the N.B.A. this season, and reached the second round with a taxing win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. It took them six games, and they often saw big deficits. They closed games with enough ferocity that the Timberwolves ran out of steam.Memphis finished that series on Friday night, then traveled home to welcome the Warriors two days later.Golden State, which had the third-best record in the league, needed only five games to beat the Denver Nuggets. They ended the season of Nikola Jokic, a top candidate to win the N.B.A.’s Most Valuable Player Award and had a three-day break before Sunday’s game.They had missed the playoffs in the past two seasons because Klay Thompson had been hurt for both seasons entirely, and Curry for parts of each. Healthy once the playoffs started, Golden State had the luxury of combining seasoned youngsters like Gary Payton II, who started the game and helped on a game-saving defensive stop, and Jordan Poole, who scored 31 points off the bench, with three men who won three championships together in Curry, Green and Thompson. It gave Golden State an edge, but not one that scared the Grizzlies.Famously confident, particularly in front of its boisterous home crowd, Memphis punched first in the game, with back-to-back 3s by Ja Morant. Memphis led the Warriors by 10 points in the first quarter and had a 6-point lead at halftime, behind Morant’s 18 and Jaren Jackson Jr.’s 14. Jackson, who had struggled against a bigger Timberwolves team, finished with a season-high 33 points.Poole started throughout the first round, but needing Payton’s defensive presence, Kerr switched his lineup for this game.“Tonight is the rule rather than the exception,” Kerr said. “The Jordan we’ve seen now the last few months, this is what he looks like.”Golden State guard Jordan Poole, driving on Memphis’s De’Anthony Melton, had 31 points, 9 assists and 8 rebounds on Sunday.Brandon Dill/Associated PressThroughout the first half, the Grizzlies looked capable of challenging the Warriors, even though this was their first time, as a group, to make it to the second round of the playoffs.When Green fouled Clarke, Memphis led by three.Green’s right and left hands struck Clarke, and a replay in the arena showed Green grabbing and pulling on Clarke’s jersey, then grabbing it to prevent him from hitting the ground too hard.“He’s been known for flagrant fouls in his career; I’ve watched him on TV my whole life it feels like,” said Clarke, who is seven years younger than Green. “So I wasn’t really shocked.”Green said on his podcast that he was trying to hold Clarke up, and hoped the league would reduce the foul from a flagrant-2 to the lesser offense of a flagrant-1. Each flagrant foul accumulates points, and during the 2016 N.B.A. finals, Green was suspended for a pivotal game because he accrued too many flagrant points. The Warriors lost the series.Golden State did not expect an ejection, but Green’s body language as he left the court during the replay indicated he knew he had erred. Kerr said the referees told him that Green’s ejection came because he hit Clarke in the face and threw him to the ground.“It’s unfortunate,” Thompson said. “We’re not the same team without him. But I’m incredibly proud of how we responded.”At halftime, Golden State steeled its resolve, but still needed late heroics to win the game. As young and inexperienced as they were, Memphis did not yield easily.With 39.7 seconds left, the Warriors secured a jump ball and Thompson hit a 3-pointer to give the Warriors a 117-116 lead.Curry stripped Morant on the Grizzlies’ next possession, leaving Golden State seconds from a victory. Asked about the play after the game, Curry said he barely remembered it. In that moment, rather than looking pleased, the Warriors looked angry and defiant, with Curry sauntering across the court.“I played angry,” Thompson admitted after the game.Thompson missed two free throws with 6.7 seconds remaining, giving Memphis one last chance.“I’ve learned from so much experience that you have to move forward,” Thompson said. “We still had the lead, still had time on the clock. We had to get a stop.”Said Curry, when told of Thompson’s quote: “That’s just championship DNA and being able to focus on what helps win games.”Morant backed away from the basket as his team set up a play.“They put him in the backcourt, and we knew they were going to try to get him to go downhill,” Poole said. He added: “Seen that play a couple times.”The game ended with a miss by Morant, who was guarded by Thompson and Payton.“I was actually beat on the play,” Payton said. “Thank God Klay Thompson had my back and sniffed it out.”Thompson ran to midcourt screaming “Come on!” as the fans filed out.“It feels really good to know that these guys have been in the fight and they have championship experience,” Poole said. “They know how important specific possessions are. It was huge. Just being able to follow in those guys’ footsteps and watch the way that they move was huge for us today.”Curry joined Thompson at midcourt after the game, shouting in celebration. Television cameras caught Green celebrating in the tunnel, waiting for them. More

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      Bucks’ Physical Play Makes Celtics Suddenly Look Average

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      Giannis Antetokounmpo overcame early struggles to post a triple double against Boston, which had looked impressive in its sweep of the Nets.The task of stopping a player like Giannis Antetokounmpo — has there ever been a player like Giannis Antetokounmpo? — represents something of a collaborative quagmire.You need a player at once big and strong and nimble enough to stay in front of him. You need others, preferably long-armed men, pestering him with their hands from the periphery. Then you need someone to stand tall and protect the rim from the inevitable onslaught.The Boston Celtics have all of those things. They showed as much last week, in spectacular fashion, when Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and the rest of the Nets were swallowed up in their quicksand defense. And, still, it may not be enough.On Sunday, Antetokounmpo led the Milwaukee Bucks to a comprehensive, 101-89 win at Boston in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinals matchup, quieting, for a night, the hype bubbling around the Celtics after their impressive four-game sweep of the Nets.In the process, in making one of the N.B.A.’s hottest teams look normal for a night, the Bucks were also making a point: The national basketball conversation — that nebulous thing that floats across television and social media and newspaper columns — may inexplicably overlook them at times, but they are the defending champions, and they employ one of the world’s most spectacular athletes.The league’s Most Valuable Player Award this year may be seen as a two-man contest between Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets and Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers. And soap operas and train wrecks may draw the focus of fans to other big-market teams. But all the while, Antetokounmpo and the Bucks are going about their business as one of the most formidable clubs in the league.For Antetokounmpo, then, this series represents an opportunity: How better to burnish your towering reputation than against the league’s most feared defense?“He keeps reading the game,” Bucks Coach Mike Budenholzer said of Antetokounmpo, who overcame some early struggles to register a triple double: 24 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists. “Sometimes it’s scoring it. Sometimes it’s sharing it. He knows he’s got to do both.”The Celtics made a loud entrance onto the playoff stage last month with a flock of long-limbed, athletic defenders working together in the switching, scrambling, disorientingly aggressive defensive system of their first-year coach, Ime Udoka.Durant seemed perplexed by it all. After the series, he willingly sang Boston’s praises.Durant and Antetokounmpo enjoy similar statures in the N.B.A. They are both virtuoso artists. But they work in different mediums. If Durant is a painter with a palette of fine watercolors, Antetokounmpo is a sculptor wielding a mallet and a chisel.If Sunday was any indication, the physicality of Antetokounmpo and the rest of the Bucks’ roster could represent a key difference between the first and second rounds for the Celtics.When the Celtics tried to funnel Antetokounmpo this way or that, he simply skipped around them, a sports car swerving through traffic. If Boston’s defenders — large men, all of them — tried more physical methods to throttle him, they bounced feebly off his body.Midway through the fourth quarter, the Celtics appeared, for once, to corral Antetokounmpo into a dead end. Looking around and realizing he was trapped — “I’m going to get stuck,” he said he told himself — he flipped the ball off the backboard and snatched it out of the air again for a two-handed dunk over Jayson Tatum’s head.“That’s pure talent, pure instinct,” Budenholzer said. “He’s a great player. He does things that are unique and special and timely. That’s one of those plays where you’re just happy he’s on our side.”More important than one superstar’s solo work, though — and another potentially crucial difference between the circumstances of Durant and Antetokounmpo — were the contributions of Milwaukee’s supporting cast.Antetokounmpo, driving for a basket, posted 24 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals in Boston.David Butler Ii/USA Today Sports, via ReutersThe spotlight on Antetokounmpo has sizzled brighter in the absence of Khris Middleton, the team’s second-best player, whose participation in this series remains in doubt after he injured his left knee in Game 2 of the first round last month. A three-time All-Star who averaged 20.1 points and 5.4 assists per game in the regular season, Middleton commands plenty of attention with his ability to create his own shot and score in isolation.With him watching the game from the bench in a navy blue jacket, so much more of the Celtics’ focus could flow toward Antetokounmpo, with the ball spending so much more time in his hands.But those bemoaning Middleton’s absence may be overlooking the Bucks’ remaining cast of trustworthy satellite contributors, players capable of sinking a shot after a defense has collapsed on Antetokounmpo.Jrue Holiday, celebrated often for his defense but a formidable scorer when called upon, chipped in 25 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists. Grayson Allen led the Bucks’ reserves with 11 points, making three of six 3-point attempts.“I try to be as simple as possible,” Antetokounmpo said. “My teammates were there, they were open and they were knocking down shots.”Still, all of these players, the entirety of the Bucks’ universe — their offense, their defense, their collective mood and personality — revolves around Antetokounmpo.How much fuel does he have to burn? He played all but a few seconds in the first quarter, took a short break at the start of the second and got some reluctant rest in the third after an ill-advised fourth foul. Otherwise, he huffed through 38 punishing minutes, earning respite at the end only because the game was clearly decided.Afterward, he let out a long groan as he folded himself into a chair to talk to reporters.“Maybe I’m weird,” Antetokounmpo said when asked whether he felt roughed up. “I thrive through physicality. I love feeling beat up after games. I don’t know why. My family thinks I’m a weirdo.”For a Celtics defense still smarting from a steamrollering, these may be ominous words. More

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      The Liberty Are Reinventing Themselves

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      The team enters the 2022 W.N.B.A. season with a new coach and center, returning players who were hampered by injuries last year, and the desire to become full-fledged title contenders.The Liberty are not sure what the full identity of their revamped team should be. But they are certain about one aspect of it.“I want teams to kind of be scared of us when they have to be on offense,” said forward Natasha Howard, who won the W.N.B.A.’s Defensive Player of the Year Award in 2019, when she was with the Seattle Storm.This will be Howard’s second season with the Liberty, but in many ways, and for many reasons, it seems unlikely to be much like her first. The team has a new head coach (Sandy Brondello), a new veteran center (Stefanie Dolson) and, players said, a new commitment to becoming a championship contender once the season begins May 6.“There’s a sense of urgency,” guard Sabrina Ionescu said during the Liberty’s media day on Thursday. She added that the team did not want to wait years to become better, and had a “Why not us?” mentality.The Liberty finished last season with a 12-20 record and slid into the playoffs as the eighth seed. They lost to the fifth-seeded Phoenix Mercury in a first-round single-elimination game. The team had injury woes all season: Jocelyn Willoughby tore an Achilles’ tendon in a preseason scrimmage; Howard missed 15 games because of a knee injury; Ionescu dealt with a lingering ankle injury.All three are back and said they are feeling good.“I’m way ahead of where I used to be,” Willoughby said.Another returner is guard Asia Durr, who goes by AD. Durr, the second overall draft pick in 2019, missed the past two seasons as they recovered from Covid-19. On Thursday, Durr said they were still dealing with confusion and brain fog but that Liberty teammates had been helpful.“It’s pretty challenging to stay patient every single day,” Durr said, punctuating the last three words.Like Howard and several others, Durr mentioned defense as the focus of this year’s team. Brondello, who coached the Mercury to the finals last season in her eighth year with the team, said she wanted the Liberty to have an “aggressive mentality.”More points in the paint. Fewer turnovers. Not settling for outside shots. Drawing more fouls.“We’re trying to develop a tough team,” Brondello said.At the core of the team are players like Ionescu; Howard; Betnijah Laney, who was named to her first All-Star team last season; and Michaela Onyenwere, the 2021 W.N.B.A. rookie of the year. “I’m always looking to grow,” Laney said, adding that she’s surrounded by great players.Joining them is Dolson, who won a championship with the Chicago Sky last year.Dolson, a 6-foot-5 center entering her ninth season, said she likes to post up — even though people don’t think she does — and that it will be difficult for teams to face off against her and the 6-foot-2 Howard.“It’s hard to scout when both post players can kind of do everything,” she said.Dolson averaged 7.5 points and 3.5 rebounds per game last season, and shot 40.4 percent from 3-point range. Howard averaged 16.2 points and 7.2 rebounds in 13 games last season.Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu had a double-double in the team’s playoff loss to Phoenix.Rebecca Noble for The New York TimesVeterans like Howard and Dolson will be key to the Liberty’s success, but so will the younger players, who spoke on Thursday about how they’ve grown and what they still need to improve.“I was so lost last year,” said DiDi Richards, a second-year guard-forward.Richards said she often was in her own head while on the court, instead of being vocal, but she is working on changing that as coaches ask her to take on a bigger leadership role. “I’m ready for it,” she said.Onyenwere spoke confidently about defense — “not really a skill; it’s all effort” — but also said she wanted to improve on offense after shooting just 32.7 percent from 3-point range last season.Guard Sami Whitcomb, who went 42.5 percent from 3-point range last year, is the team’s most prolific and best long-range shooter. She came to the Liberty last year after four seasons in Seattle, and she said she was excited about helping the team create a new identity. But, she said, it won’t happen “overnight.”Some things do happen quickly in sports, though — like going from W.N.B.A. prospect to Liberty rookie.The Liberty traded with the Storm to get the 18th pick in the draft on April 11 and used it to select Lorela Cubaj, a 6-foot-4 forward from Georgia Tech. Four days later, she signed a rookie contract with the team. Three days after that, training camp began.On Thursday, she said that she had developed as a facilitator while at Georgia Tech and hoped to use that skill with the Liberty. “I just want to put my teammates in the best position to score,” she said.One thing she wants to leave in Georgia: the food. Cubaj, who is from Italy, joked that she would not miss the pizza from Atlanta now that she is in New York. More