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      NBA Fines Anthony Edwards $40,000 for Anti-Gay Remarks

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      Edwards, a Minnesota Timberwolves guard, used homophobic language to refer to a group of people as they stood outdoors. A video of the remarks was posted to Instagram.The N.B.A. fined Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards $40,000 on Tuesday for anti-gay remarks that he made in an Instagram video that circulated online this month.In the video, which has since been deleted from his account, Edwards used homophobic language to describe a group of people he was filming as they stood on a sidewalk. Edwards has 1.2 million followers on Instagram.Edwards, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 N.B.A. draft, used his Twitter account to apologize on Sept. 11.“What I said was immature, hurtful and disrespectful, and I’m incredibly sorry,” he said in a post. “It’s unacceptable for me or anyone to use that language in such a hurtful way, there’s no excuse for it, at all. I was raised better than that!”The N.B.A. said in a statement that Edwards had been fined for using “offensive and derogatory language on social media.”Entering his third N.B.A. season, Edwards is one of the league’s rising stars. Last season, he averaged 21.3 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game while helping lead the Timberwolves to the playoffs for the first time since the 2017-18 season.On Sept. 12, Tim Connelly, the Timberwolves’ president of basketball operations, released a statement through the team, saying he was “disappointed” in Edwards’s actions.“The Timberwolves are committed to being an inclusive and welcoming organization for all and apologize for the offense this has caused to so many,” Connelly said.The league has typically fined players for using profane or homophobic language.In 2021, for example, Kevin Durant of the Nets was fined $50,000 for using homophobic and misogynistic language in a private social media exchange with the actor Michael Rapaport, who then publicly shared screenshots of some of the conversation.N.B.A. teams regularly have Pride nights to celebrate the L.G.B.T.Q. community. But Jason Collins, who came out in 2013, is still the only active N.B.A. player to have said that he is gay, feeding the perception that there remains a stigma about homosexuality in men’s professional sports.Bill Kennedy, an N.B.A. referee, said that he was gay in 2015, not long after guard Rajon Rondo, then with the Sacramento Kings, directed a gay slur at him during a game. Rondo was suspended one game for his conduct.Six months later, Kennedy represented the N.B.A. on its float at the New York City Pride March. The N.B.A. and the W.N.B.A. have since become staples of the parade, one of the largest in the world. Players, referees and officials from both leagues have taken part. More

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      Pretty in Any Color: Women in Basketball Make the Style Rules

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      Angel Reese considers herself “a pink kind of girl.”Pink nails, pink hair tie, pink shoes, sometimes even “a little bit of pink in my lashes,” Reese said of the eyelash extensions she applies before basketball games. “Everything’s pink.”It’s all part of the pregame routine for Reese, who in May transferred to Louisiana State after a breakout season on Maryland’s women’s basketball team. Before Reese hits the court, she swipes on lip gloss and gels down her edges — her hairline — to prevent flyaways.“Grandma would always emphasize, ‘Don’t let anybody make your makeup sweat,’” Reese said.Reese’s devotion to her appearance for games expresses who she is as much as her playing style. Players in women’s basketball freely mix a traditionally feminine beauty standard with finishing touches that are popular in Black and Latina culture, like gelled edges. It’s a freedom that some say is an advancement in a sport whose athletes have historically been pressured to fit a mass-market ideal that has long benefited straight, white women. Reese is Black.But the introduction of name, image and likeness deals in college sports and an influx of marketing money in professional women’s basketball have added dollars-and-cents stakes to female players’ decisions to glam up. In interviews with a dozen college and professional players, women talked about how the decision on how to express themselves through their appearance has been changing.“I’ve never really felt the pressure until the N.I.L. thing started,” said Reese, whose endorsement deals include Xfinity, Amazon, Wingstop and a Washington, D.C.-area supermarket chain.Camille Lenain for The New York Times‘There is a pressure for me to look a certain way.’Stanford forward Cameron Brink usually applies concealer, eyebrow gel, mascara and maybe a little blush before she heads out for a game, but she scoffed at the idea of in-game touch-ups. “I look like this when I was playing, I’m going to live with it,” she said.Her shot-blocking was a key piece of Stanford’s run to the 2022 Final Four, where the team lost to Connecticut in front of 3.23 million TV viewers, a 19 percent increase over the previous season and a 49 percent bump from 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic. But there’s also a swelling fan base that follows Brink on social media. She posts makeup tutorials, which she loves because she views makeup as art. “It’s really relaxing to me,” she said. Brink has had deals with ThirdLove, Visible Mobile, the energy drink Celsius and Portland Gear.She acknowledged that her following — 203,000 on Instagram and 62,800 on TikTok — had built up at least in part “because I do play into that role of being feminine and dressing femininely.”“There is a pressure for me to look a certain way,” said Brink, who is white. “Sometimes it’s refreshing to go out and play sports and not worry about it.”Stanford’s Cameron Brink said that she felt some pressure to conform to traditionally feminine beauty standards but that her beauty routine was also something she enjoyed.Rikkí D. Wright for The New York TimesRikkí D. Wright for The New York TimesLast year, the N.C.A.A. changed its rules to allow college athletes to profit from their names, images and likenesses in marketing deals. Women’s college basketball players quickly began out-earning athletes in every other sport besides football, according to the marketing company Opendorse. Connecticut’s Paige Bueckers, who is white, signed with Gatorade for an estimated $1 million.Blake Lawrence, a co-founder of Opendorse, said female college basketball players had outshined their male counterparts in the N.I.L. marketplace in part because of how they distinguish themselves through their appearance.“They’re willing to create content; they’re willing to create a character that you want to follow and cheer for while on the court, while on the track, while on the grass,” Lawrence said. “That may be through hairstyle changes; that may be through makeup changes; that may be through the accessories that you bring to the field.”But with that can come tremendous pressure to fit traditional notions of attractiveness, adding another layer of competition to college basketball.“Comparing yourself to other people — oh, this girl is really pretty; oh, she looks really pretty — it’s hard,” Oklahoma guard Kelbie Washington said.Washington enjoys spraying on perfume as part of her pregame routine (Jimmy Choo is her favorite), and she pays for eyelash extensions, which can cost more than $130 a set.“Everyone is human,” she said of the urge to compare herself with others. “Everyone has those emotions, whether they say it out loud or not.”‘Women have to be so much more marketable than men.’TV ratings for college and W.N.B.A. games are rising, and the profiles of the players — among the most vocal and visible social justice activists in sports — are exploding.Within that explosion, Victoria Jackson, a sports historian at Arizona State, sees the players driving a generational shift, a reframing of norms. “Athletes themselves are pushing back against historical ideas of what it means to be a female athlete and what’s acceptable to be performed as a female athlete,” Jackson said, adding that the W.N.B.A. is “a good example” of that.Nefertiti A. Walker, an associate professor in sports management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a former college basketball player, said players didn’t necessarily feel as if they had to fit the usual standards.“What you’re seeing is certainly athletes now who, because of the changes we’ve seen in college sport — they all have pride nights, there’s gay marriage now — all these changes that have happened in their lifetime that signal it might be OK to perform their gender in a different way,” she said.That may be true on the court, but a recent swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated suggested a narrower view of sex appeal, which can be an important factor in marketing. The magazine included five W.N.B.A. players in bikinis and one-piece swimsuits with cutouts.Courtney Williams, an All-Star guard on the Connecticut Sun, said on Twitter that the shoot would have been better if it had included a player in a sports bra and baggy shorts. “There’s more than one way to look sexy, and I hope in the future we can tap into that,” she said.Gabriella Angotti-Jones for The New York TimesCamille Lenain for The New York TimesRikkí D Wright for The New York TimesGabriella Angotti-Jones for The New York TimesJonquel Jones was the W.N.B.A.’s most valuable player in 2021. “If u don’t fit into the normal stereotype of what feminine is or what it ‘should be’ you lose opportunities,” Jones said in an August 2020 Twitter post. “Women have to be so much more marketable than men.”W.N.B.A. players, with a maximum base salary of about $230,000, earn far less than their millionaire counterparts in the N.B.A., making marketing dollars even more important. The W.N.B.A. has a pool of $1 million that it must spend on marketing deals for players, and each team has to spend between $50,000 and $100,000 per year on player marketing deals. Any unspent amount carries over to the next season on top of the minimum.The league said it selects players to participate in marketing efforts based on a variety of factors: on-court performance, an established personal brand with an active fan base, and the willingness to travel and participate in league events.“Ideas about bodies play out most explicitly on the bodies of athletes — harmful ideas and also positive ideas,” Jackson said. “That’s another way in which this can be a space of conflict and a space of harm, too, depending on the way those ideas are packaged and sold.”‘They have no idea about what a Black woman goes through, let alone an athlete.’Tiffany Mitchell likes to feel the swing of her ponytail as she runs the court.Mitchell, who is Black, has often worn her hair in long, braided styles past her waist since she starred at South Carolina from 2012 to 2016. This kind of protective hairstyling allows her to go longer between restyling and can prevent breakage during the grind of the season with the W.N.B.A.’s Indiana Fever.Those swinging braids became an issue during the W.N.B.A. off-season in December, when she was competing with the Melbourne Boomers, a professional women’s team in Australia. Basketball Australia, the sport’s governing body, said the league’s players had to tie their hair back or up, mistakenly attributing the policy to a FIBA rule that was no longer in effect. Mitchell, one of just three Black players on the Boomers’ roster, felt targeted, since she had never had to change her hair for other international competitions. Basketball Australia later apologized and rescinded what it called a “discriminatory” policy.“They have no idea about what a Black woman goes through, let alone an athlete,” Mitchell said. “So I think that me bringing it to their attention called out the ignorance because there have been players in this league that have had braids before me, and it was never an issue.”Tiffany Mitchell loves playing basketball while wearing long braids. But that became an issue when she was competing in Australia.Gabriella Angotti-Jones for The New York Times‘When I look good, I feel good, I play good.’As early as fifth grade, Deja Kelly’s mother encouraged her to create a signature hairstyle.“She would call it a ‘D-I do’: If you want to go D-I, you have to look like you play D-I,” Kelly said.She adopted a slicked-back ponytail or a bun as her preferred hairstyles. Her glam routine now — eyelash extensions, a tight bun and detailed edges — “has never affected my performance” as the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s leading scorer last season. Kelly has had endorsement deals with Dunkin’, Beats by Dre, Forever 21 and the sports drink Barcode, among others.“For me, when I look good, I feel good, I play good,” Kelly said. “That’s something I always prided myself in.”Walker, the sports management professor, said her studies on women’s sports pointed to a trend: Women in basketball are showcasing greater agency and self-determination by glamming.Video by Gabriella Angotti-JonesDiJonai Carrington of the W.N.B.A.’s Connecticut Sun said she felt that she played better after she had gone through her glam routine.Gabriella Angotti-Jones for The New York TimesGabriella Angotti-Jones for The New York Times“A lot of women’s basketball players feel free to express themselves, to perform in a way aesthetically that accomplishes whatever they want to accomplish,” Walker said. “Sometimes we underestimate how business savvy they are, particularly in this day and age.”Connecticut Sun guard DiJonai Carrington has had an endorsement deal with Savage X Fenty, Rihanna’s lingerie brand. She makes sure she has on her 20-millimeter mink eyelash extensions before every game. Her nails, typically coated with some sort of bright polish, are usually done with acrylic extensions. She’s grown so accustomed to applying gel to her hairline that it takes her only about 30 seconds.“I feel like I play better. I don’t know if I do or I don’t, but I just feel like I do,” Carrington said. “And I never have wanted to compromise one thing or another, whether that’s being a hooper and being a dog on the court and still being able to look a certain way.” More

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      Brittney Griner’s Supporters Have a New Strategy to Free Her: Make Noise

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      Those close to Griner pursued a strategy of silence after her detention in Russia in February, hoping to avoid politicizing her case. Now they are amping up public pressure, with some of it aimed at President Biden.Her face is on hoodies. Her name is in hashtags. Her “B.G.” and number are on fans’ jerseys and W.N.B.A. courts.As the Phoenix Mercury star Brittney Griner waits in Russia, detained since Feb. 17 on drug charges, symbols of support for her are all around. They come from people who don’t know her at all and people who know and love her — from teammates, sympathizers and former coaches.Dawn Staley, who coached Griner and her U.S. teammates to a gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics last year, said she thinks about her every day.“I know Brittney, I’ve been around her, know her heart. I know what she’s about,” Staley said. “And if she’s being wrongfully detained or not, I would be advocating for her release because nobody should be in a foreign country locked up abroad.”Staley has posted messages on Twitter about Griner every day since early May. “Can you please free our friend,” she wrote on Tuesday, tagging the official account for the White House. She added, “All of her loved ones would sleep a little easier.”It has been more than three months since Griner was detained, accused of having hashish oil in her luggage at an airport near Moscow. But only in the last few weeks has there been a coordinated public campaign by W.N.B.A. players and by Griner’s wife, family, friends and agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, to push for her release. That’s where the hoodies — worn by many different players — and the initials — displayed on W.N.B.A. courts — come in. The #WeAreBG hashtag seen on warm-up shirts and social media is also part of the campaign.On Saturday, the W.N.B.A. players’ union posted messaging on social media marking the 100th day of Griner’s detention.Decals with Griner’s No. 42 and initials are on each court in the W.N.B.A.Jennifer Buchanan/The Seattle Times, via Associated PressThe delay in starting the campaign was strategic: Griner’s camp was worried that publicity could make the situation worse because of tensions between Russia and the United States, including the war in Ukraine. But the delay has also been a source of frustration for women’s basketball players known for their social justice advocacy. Their approach has changed since the State Department said on May 3 that it had determined that Griner had been “wrongfully detained.”“Griner’s reclassification as wrongfully detained by the U.S. government cued our shift to the more public activist elements of our strategy,” Kagawa Colas said, adding that she could not elaborate out of respect for the sensitivity of the situation.Supporters have quickly joined in the new approach.“We’re more public,” said Terri Jackson, the executive director of the W.N.B.A. players’ union. One reason, she said, was the State Department’s determination, and another was the guidance of Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner.“She’s lead on this,” Jackson said. “She signaled through her team that she needed us, and that’s all we needed to hear.”Cherelle Griner appeared on “Good Morning America” on Wednesday and appealed to President Biden to intervene.“I just keep hearing that he has the power,” Cherelle Griner said. “She’s a political pawn. If they’re holding her because they want you to do something, then I want you to do it.”The State Department’s announcement this month said that Biden’s special envoy for hostage affairs would lead an interagency team to secure Griner’s release. But since then, Griner’s detention has been extended until June 18, and the Biden administration has said little about its maneuvering. Cherelle Griner said during the television interview that her only communication with her wife had been through occasional letters. She said she had been told that her wife’s release was a top priority, but she expressed skepticism.Representative Colin Allred, Democrat of Texas, has been speaking publicly about Brittney Griner’s detention and working with her representatives. He said Griner, who is from Houston, has had access to her attorney in Russia but has not been able to speak with her family. That violated international norms, he said.“The Russians need to be aware that we know what they’re doing, we know why they’re doing it and there will be consequences if anything should happen to her,” Allred said.Griner’s family and friends have sought to pressure Russia and Biden while also pleading for more support and news coverage in the United States.“There’s not enough conversations being had about Brittney and her release and just any talks of it,” said Staley, the women’s basketball coach at the University of South Carolina. “And I know there’s a process. I get that.”She added later: “There’s so many people that really know Brittney that aren’t doing anything, that aren’t sympathizing with the situation. I just want people to feel like it’s their loved one. And when you feel like it’s your loved one you would do anything to help. Everybody’s got to live their life, I get that, but come on. Empathize.”Fans have waged their own public campaign for Griner, even when those closest to her used a strategy of silence.Darryl Webb/Associated PressSeveral players in the W.N.B.A., and a few in the N.B.A., have begun publicly advocating Griner’s release; in the first two and a half months after Griner’s detention most had said only that they loved and missed her.Seattle Storm forward Breanna Stewart, who was named the league’s most valuable player in 2018, posts daily on Twitter about Griner. DeWanna Bonner, who plays for the Connecticut Sun and was Griner’s teammate in Phoenix from 2013 to 2019, brought up Griner during a recent news conference.“One more thing,” she said. “Free B.G. We are B.G. We love B.G. Free her.”In mid-May, the W.N.B.A. players’ union became an official partner on a Change.org petition addressed to the White House, which urged Biden to do “whatever is necessary” to bring Griner home safely. The petition was started in March by Tamryn Spruill, a freelance journalist who has written for several media outlets, including The New York Times, about the W.N.B.A. Griner’s representatives at Wasserman promoted the petition to news outlets.In an interview with ESPN on May 17, N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver was asked what role the league should play in Griner’s situation. The N.B.A. owns 42.1 percent of the W.N.B.A.What to Know About Brittney Griner’s Detention in RussiaCard 1 of 5What happened? More

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      P.S.G.’s Idrissa Gueye Refuses to Wear Rainbow Jersey, Missing Match

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      Idrissa Gueye faced criticism after he missed a game rather than wear a shirt designed to support an anti-homophobia initiative. He missed the same game last year.Idrissa Gueye traveled south to Montpellier with his Paris St. Germain teammates for the team’s league game on Saturday but wound up watching it from the stands. Gueye was not injured, his coach said after P.S.G.’s victory: He “had to leave the team for personal reasons.”Those personal reasons, a team source confirmed Monday, were that Gueye had refused to join his teammates in wearing a special jersey featuring rainbow-colored numbers created to highlight discrimination before Tuesday’s global events marking the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia. The jerseys were part of a coordinated leaguewide effort.📸 Messi 🌈#17mai 🏳️‍🌈⚽️ #JouonsLaCollectif pic.twitter.com/zrcrvDqf1b— Ligue 1 English (@Ligue1_ENG) May 14, 2022
      Gueye has not commented on his absence, but French news media reports, which were first to report the reason for Gueye’s missing the game on Saturday, quickly noted that he had also missed the same awareness-raising fixture last season. Last season’s absence was attributed to a stomach issue, but this year P.S.G.’s coach, Mauricio Pochettino, said Gueye did not have any health issues.Activist groups were quick to denounce Gueye’s decision to decline to wear the jersey. Rouge Direct, a group that fights homophobia in sports, called on the French league, P.S.G. and Gueye to “explain themselves” and suggested Gueye should be punished for his actions.For P.S.G. the issue of support for gay rights and ant-homophobia efforts is a particularly sensitive one. The team is owned by the Qatari state through its sovereign wealth fund, and Qatar itself has come under scrutiny amid concerns from the gay community about their safety when the World Cup takes place in the Gulf country later this year. Homosexuality is against the law in Qatar, as it is in other countries in the Gulf, but World Cup organizers have insisted that all fans would be welcome during the tournament.Same-sex acts are also illegal in Gueye’s native Senegal, where ultraconservative groups have burned rainbow flags during public protests against homosexuality.P.S.G. has not commented on Gueye beyond the comments made by Pochettino after Sunday’s game.The club’s senior officials are currently in Qatar, according to a team representative, and it is unclear what measures, if any, will be taken against Gueye, whose contract with P.S.G. expires at the end of next month.P.S.G. is by far the biggest team in France and attracts outsize interest, at home and abroad, because of its star-studded roster, which this year produced the club’s eighth French championship in the past 10 years. On Saturday at Montpellier, two of its star forwards — Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi — both scored goals, helping to highlight the specially commissioned jersey they wore on social media and beyond.According to the team source with knowledge of P.S.G.’s internal conversations over the weekend, club officials had told Gueye that the team was committed to the campaign and that he had no option but wear the same jersey as the rest of his teammates if he wanted to play. When Gueye decided he would not, he was sent to the stands for the game, according to a person with knowledge with the incident. More

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      Brittney Griner’s WNBA Impact Is Clear As Fans Await Word from Russia

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      Griner, one of the world’s best basketball players, was believed to have been detained in Russia on what customs officials described as drug charges. Fans are worried.When Brittney Griner is on the basketball court, everyone knows. At 6-foot-9, she towers over most other players. She snatches rebounds over her opponents’ outstretched arms, and her teammates know the surest way to score: Deliver the ball to her.Since the Phoenix Mercury drafted Griner No. 1 overall in 2013, she has become one of the most dominant players ever: a seven-time All-Star, a W.N.B.A. champion and a two-time Olympian with matching gold medals.But now Griner, 31, has become entangled in a geopolitical quandary. Instead of preparing for the W.N.B.A. season that’s less than two months away, she is believed to be detained in Russia on what customs officials described as drug charges, with little word on her case or her well-being during the war in Ukraine.“With all the problems with Russia and them attacking Ukraine, has Brittney become a political bargaining chip?” said Debbie Jackson, Griner’s high school basketball coach. “Is this part of politics? So much of it doesn’t make any sense to me that I find it hard to believe that this is really the true thing that happened.”Griner was in Russia playing for a professional basketball league, a common off-season practice for W.N.B.A. players, who can earn salaries in overseas leagues well beyond what their American teams pay. The date and circumstances of Griner’s potential detention were not known, and the W.N.B.A. said all of its players except for Griner were out of the country by Saturday.Griner is said to be facing up to 10 years in prison if convicted on the drug charges, based on accusations that she had vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage. The Russian authorities, who said Saturday that they had detained an American athlete on these drug charges, did not name Griner, but the Russian news agency Tass did.On Monday, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said she had seen reports about Griner but that federal privacy law prevented the U.S. government from discussing a person’s detention without their written consent. American officials have repeatedly accused Russia of detaining U.S. citizens on pretexts.Representatives for Griner have declined to comment on Griner’s status beyond a statement that they were working to get her back to the United States. The uncertainty has caused an outpouring among fans and supporters of Griner, a groundbreaking player known for her unmatched blitz of dunks and her standing as one of the most prominent gay athletes.A congresswoman in Houston, Griner’s hometown, has demanded her release. W.N.B.A. players have posted “Free Brittney” messages on Twitter.“There are no words to express this pain,” Brittney’s wife, Cherelle Griner, wrote on Monday in an Instagram post addressed to Brittney. “I’m hurting, we’re hurting. We await the day to love on you as a family.”‘Nobody can do what she can do’Griner (42) during the 2012 N.C.A.A. national championship game against Notre Dame. Griner played for Baylor for four seasons.Justin Edmonds/Getty ImagesGriner was a 5-foot-8 freshman on the volleyball team at Nimitz High School in Houston when Jackson approached her about playing basketball.Griner initially laughed at the thought of trying out for a sport she’d never played and knew little about. But she quickly fell in love with it, Jackson said. It helped that she grew nearly a foot, to 6 feet 7 inches tall, by her senior year.“She wasn’t like a clumsy tall person that had to grow into her body,” Jackson said. “She was really quite gifted as far as coordination.”Griner earned a basketball scholarship to Baylor University, where for four years she performed with a combination of size, skill, fluidity and speed unlike any other women’s basketball player in the country. She could score at will under the basket, and highlight-reel dunks made her mesmerizing.“Nobody can do what she can do,” Nancy Lieberman, the first woman to play on a professional men’s team, said during Griner’s freshman season at Baylor. “Not Cheryl Miller. Not Lisa Leslie. Not Candace Parker.”Griner led Baylor to an undefeated record during the 2011-12 season, which the Bears capped with a win over Notre Dame in the national championship game. She won the Big 12 Player of the Year Award three times and made 18 dunks at Baylor. Before her, few women had dunked in a college game at all.‘She was absolutely a force’Griner has been one of the W.N.B.A.’s best scorers throughout her career. She averaged 20.5 points per game in the 2021 season.Cooper Neill for The New York TimesThe Mercury drafted Griner in 2013, in the hope that she would rejuvenate their franchise. The turnaround was swift with Griner playing alongside Diana Taurasi, the W.N.B.A.’s career scoring leader. The Mercury made the playoffs during Griner’s rookie season and won a championship in her second. Last season, she was key to the Mercury’s run to the W.N.B.A. finals, where they lost to the Chicago Sky.“In terms of talent, she was absolutely a force and continues to be a force,” said Pamela Wheeler, a former head of the W.N.B.A. players’ union. “I think that everyone was looking for her to help guide the league, which she did, into a new era.”The year Griner was drafted, the league rebranded, changing its logo and focusing on promoting three rookies: Griner, Skylar Diggins-Smith and Elena Delle Donne.Griner seemed to be a good fit, with an engaging personality, a willingness to laugh at herself and a passion for calling out bullying. She was also open about being gay, which has become more common in sports, in part because of her.“I’m up for the challenge,” Griner said at the time about being part of the rebranding. “I changed stuff in college basketball, I guess you could say, so I’m up for it. I never shy from anything. Whatever’s thrown at me, I’m ready for it.”As she elevated her game domestically, Griner also made a name for herself in international basketball. She won two Olympic gold medals with the United States women’s national team, in 2016 and 2021, and started playing for teams in Russia and China during W.N.B.A. off-seasons.‘For the money’ and ‘For the love of the game’Griner has played for UMMC Ekaterinburg, a professional women’s basketball team in Russia, for several years during the W.N.B.A. off-season.Erdem Sahin/EPA, via ShutterstockNearly half of the W.N.B.A.’s 144 players were believed to be playing for international teams this off-season, including more than a dozen in Russia and Ukraine. Griner has played for the Russian team UMMC Ekaterinburg for several years.“While a number of players are doing it for the money as well,” said Wheeler, the former union leader, “they’re also doing it for the love of the game and continuing to be able to play and continue to keep themselves in playing shape.”The maximum base salary for W.N.B.A. players is about $228,000, but international teams have been known to pay several hundred thousand dollars, and even more than $1 million. Griner is set to earn just under the W.N.B.A. max in the 2022 season. With the W.N.B.A.’s minimum salary around $60,000, many players earn the bulk of their income by playing abroad.But playing overseas is not a “tourist opportunity” for most players, said Courtney Cox, an assistant professor at the University of Oregon, who said she traveled to Russia in 2018 to do research for a book about women’s professional basketball around the world.“There’s this whisper network of where is it safe to play, where players are sharing information: where you get paid on time, where they look out for you, the better trainers, all this information,” Cox said. “There’s kind of a trauma bond, I think, that happens, when you play in some of these spaces where you might be one of the only American players, depending on the policies of the league.”After Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, W.N.B.A. players in both countries fled.‘She pushes back on gender roles’Griner kissed her wife, Cherelle Griner, in the stands after the Mercury defeated the Las Vegas Aces in the semifinals of the 2021 W.N.B.A. playoffs.Ethan Miller/Getty ImagesPlaying in the United States can come with its own issues. In her memoir “In My Skin,” Griner wrote about her time at Baylor, a Baptist-­affiliated school that had an official policy against homosexuality at the time. In the book, Griner said that Kim Mulkey, her coach, had warned Griner to “keep your business behind closed doors” and told her to cover her tattoos and delete social media posts about her girlfriend and L.G.B.T. issues.What to Know About Brittney Griner’s Detention in RussiaCard 1 of 4What happened? More

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      Seimone Augustus Found Her Voice Long Before Coaching

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      The first time Seimone Augustus realized what she was capable of wasn’t when, as a 14-year-old, she landed on the cover of Sports Illustrated for Women next to the question, “Is She the Next Michael Jordan?”When Augustus, a W.N.B.A. legend who retired this year after 15 seasons, reflects on the moments that made her understand her potential, she thinks of the stands at Capitol High School in Baton Rouge, La. She led the team to back-to-back state titles, scoring 3,600 points and losing just seven games in four years.The school is at the center of the predominantly Black neighborhood where she grew up, a neighborhood she described as close-knit and full of “a bunch of people that you would never know who helped make my game the way it is.” With each win, though, the crowds that gathered to see Augustus play at the Capitol gymnasium started to look different.“The same white folks who, had we seen them driving down the street a year ago, would have been hitting the locks with their elbows and zooming through were suddenly embracing coming to the gym, wanting to experience whatever it is that they experienced while watching me play,” Augustus said.Only then did Augustus start to realize the kind of change her preternatural abilities on the court might enable her to push for off it. “I think it hit me then,” she said. “It was just a melting pot of people, the most beautiful scenery I’ve ever seen in my life.”Augustus ran practice drills with Sparks forward Nneka Ogwumike in July.Jenna Schoenefeld for The New York TimesAugustus’s legacy as a player — a women’s basketball pioneer, a three-time Olympic gold medalist and the cornerstone of the four-time champion Minnesota Lynx, one of basketball’s great dynasties — isn’t in question. But she is also one of sports’ most forward-thinking and undersung activists. Now, as an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Sparks, Augustus is working to help her players find the same solace and freedom that she did on the court and find ways to use their influence to advocate for themselves and their communities outside basketball.“How can I make this a safe space for you to just feel free and express yourself through basketball?” she asks them.Basketball has long served as that kind of refuge for Augustus.“Just being me was hard, to be honest,” she said, explaining that she was bullied in high school. “Every day walking down the hallway it was like: ‘She’s gay. She’s gay.’”Augustus’s parents and family supported her, but others were hostile. “You had parents coming up to my parents and saying, ‘Because your daughter is gay, she’s got my daughter feeling like she’s gay,’” Augustus said. “People I’ve never met in my life are blaming me for something that their child is now choosing to express.”At the same time, Augustus was racking up almost every accolade a high school basketball player could hope for — and trying to consider how the racist legacy of the Deep South community she grew up in would shape where she chose to play in college. Louisiana State University, her hometown school, did not employ a Black professor, Julian T. White, until 1971. “The whole recruiting process, I had so many people that were like, ‘Do not go there,’” she said.Ultimately, she decided to attend L.S.U. anyway: She wanted the chance both to stay close to home and to build a winning program instead of joining an established powerhouse like Tennessee or Connecticut. “I had a lot of elderly Black people that said, ‘Just to step on this campus was a lot for me, and I did that for you,’” Augustus said. “I think it helped give them a release. Like, at least we’re at peace enough to be able to enjoy this moment.”Those experiences laid the groundwork for Augustus’s transition to public-facing activism, which demanded self-assurance and sensitivity. Her first foray into advocacy was fittingly personal: She came out publicly in the L.G.B.T.Q. magazine The Advocate in May 2012, detailing her relationship with, and plans to marry, LaTaya Varner, who is now her wife.Augustus’s profile had never been higher, given that she had just led the Lynx to their first title, in 2011, and had been named the most valuable player of that year’s finals. But the decision was still risky. It would be years before the W.N.B.A. started a leaguewide L.G.B.T.Q. pride program, in 2014, and the timing was crucial since Minnesotans would vote on a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage that November.“That was like the first time I actually stepped out and used my voice,” Augustus said. “I felt like I was at a place in my life where I was ready to be open with people. I don’t think it was a big surprise, but for the people that needed it, it really helped them. I had so many people that came over, like, ‘I was able to tell my mom after 40 years.’”She continued to speak to the news media about the issue, telling her own story as a rebuke to the proposed Minnesota amendment. It was defeated, and same-sex marriage became legal in all 50 states soon after Augustus and Varner were married in 2015.“When she came out in 2012 and then started doing so much intentional work in Minnesota around marriage equality, we saw Seimone and then other players within the W.N.B.A. kick off conversations that became really reminiscent of the athlete activism of the ’60s,” said Anne Lieberman, director of policy and programs at Athlete Ally.Those conversations were never more influential than in 2016, when the stars of the Lynx — including Augustus — began to publicly support the Black Lives Matter movement. They spoke out against police brutality and wore shirts during warm-ups that bore the movement’s slogan in the wake of the police killings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling before Colin Kaepernick, for the same cause, made waves by taking a knee during the national anthem at N.F.L. games.For Augustus, both killings resonated deeply. She had spoken out about racial profiling by the police in suburban Minneapolis in 2012, where Castile was killed four years later; the corner store where Sterling was killed was the same one where she used to buy snacks when she was growing up in Baton Rouge.“Obviously, we’ve all been stopped by the police before,” Augustus said. “My dad has been in town in Minneapolis and gotten stopped by the police. That could have very well been my father or cousin or uncle or anybody.”The W.N.B.A. fined players for wearing the shirts, before rescinding the fines after player and public outcry. Four Lynx security guards, all off-duty police officers, walked out during a game in response to the players’ actions.“​​We had cops walk out on us and leave the Target Center wide open for people to just — if they wanted to come in and do something to us, we didn’t have anyone there to protect us,” Augustus said. “Because we wore T-shirts. Because people don’t want to be held accountable for their actions.”In the wake of George Floyd’s murder last year, the W.N.B.A. more proactively encouraged player activism as a part of its identity — four years after the Lynx first took a stand. “Now it’s like, ‘We’re celebrating you!’ And we’re like, ‘Uh huh, you’re celebrating now, but in years prior, it was kind of hard to get you to embrace it,’” Augustus said.Sparks Coach Derek Fisher said Augustus “played the game with a flair and a confidence.”Jenna Schoenefeld for The New York TimesShe still remembers meetings where the league, she said, tried to goad players into wearing more makeup and skimpier uniforms, and how in her first years of playing it was the players with husbands and children who seemed to get all the publicity. “They would say, ‘We don’t have a cool factor,’ and I’m like, ‘We cool, what are you talking about?’” Augustus said. “It’s insane the conversations we had to have.”In an emailed statement in response to Augustus’s comments, Commissioner Cathy Engelbert cited the emphasis on L.G.B.T.Q.+ rights by the league’s Social Justice Council, which was established last season.“The W.N.B.A. has long been one of the most inclusive and welcoming sports leagues in terms of its commitment to players and fans,” she said, adding, “Today, that commitment continues to grow with countless demonstrations of inclusivity and with an understanding that there will always be more work to do.”Augustus has always prioritized the game itself, and that’s no different now that she’s a coach. But the seemingly effortless way in which she has integrated fighting for herself and her community into her basketball career seems likely to rub off on her protégés.“She played the game with a flair and a confidence that would tell you that she wants to be the loudest person in the room, but she really doesn’t,” Sparks Coach Derek Fisher said. “She just wants to help people get better and serve others.” More

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      in Football

      Carl Nassib Made History, but Also a Big Play

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      Last week Nassib, 28, became the first openly gay player to compete in an N.F.L. game. Teammates, the news media and observers casually noted the feat, then cheered his game-changing play.One of the most significant cultural milestones in the recent history of North American sports occurred with about as much pomp and circumstance as a shrug of the shoulders.No openly gay player had ever competed in a regular-season game in the N.F.L.’s 102-year history until Sept. 13, when Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Carl Nassib strode onto the field just as he had done in every game of his six-year pro career.Amid the pageantry of a Monday Night Football game, Nassib’s barrier-breaking moment took a back seat to the Raiders’ ceremonial opening of their new jet-black, $2 billion stadium to fans. The biggest acknowledgment of Nassib’s feat came from some attendants wearing his No. 94 jersey, not from any other orchestrated gesture.On Sunday, he will do it again as the Raiders play the Steelers, with Nassib and the team making a concerted effort to take what he has achieved in stride and leaving it to others to discern and dissect whether a significant cultural shift has occurred in the league.Experts on diversity and inclusion in sports said that was how it should be.“I think the fact that it wasn’t a distraction is a very positive sign,” said Richard Lapchick, director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport. “This is a sign of how much this has been accepted and that there was not a big fuss being made.”On June 21, Nassib, came out as gay in a video posted to his Instagram account, saying he had internalized his sexuality as a secret for 15 years. The one-minute video, filmed outside of his home in West Chester, Pa., ignited a flurry of congratulatory messages on social media, including from his N.F.L. peers, celebrities and President Biden. Nassib’s jersey became the top-seller in the N.F.L. withing 24 hours, according to Fanatics, the league’s e-commerce partner.Before Nassib, 15 players in league history identified as gay or bisexual, according to Outsports, a news website that covers L.G.B.T.Q. athletes and issues in sports. But unlike Nassib, they either announced their sexuality after their playing days had ended or had never appeared in a regular-season game.Nassib’s hit on Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson in overtime gave the Raiders possession with less than five minutes remaining. David Becker/Associated PressAhead of the season’s start, Nassib said he would donate $100,000 to the Trevor Project, a crisis intervention organization for L.G.B.T.Q. youth. He contacted he organization about two months before his Instagram post to discuss a plan, said Amit Paley, the Trevor Project’s executive director. In their conversations, Paley said Nassib wanted to raise awareness of L.G.B.T.Q. issues rather than just focus the spotlight on himself.Forty percent of the more than 60,000 L.G.B.T.Q. youth respondents in a 2020 Trevor Project survey said they had contemplated suicide, and 68 percent of respondents in another survey conducted by the organization released this month said they had not participated in sports for their school or community club for fear of discrimination.As Nassib’s post spread, traffic to the Trevor Project’s website increased by over 350 percent, and the organization received at least $225,000 in pledged donations by the end of that week.“I think Carl really didn’t want this to be a big deal, and hopefully one day it isn’t a big deal when someone comes out,” Paley said in an interview. “But clearly it was a big deal to come out and be the first in this way.”Things quieted as training camp began a month later. Nassib’s jersey no longer tops league sales, but it remains in the top five among Raiders players, according to Fanatics.He declined multiple interview requests and spoke publicly only once before the first game. Against the Baltimore Ravens, Nassib played 44 percent of the defensive snaps in a rotational role, making three tackles. But in overtime, he collided with Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson for a sack and forced a fumble that the Raiders’ defense recovered. The offense scored a walk-off touchdown to win the game, 33-27, two plays later.Nassib, now on his third team since the Cleveland Browns drafted him in 2016, led the nation with 15.5 sacks at Penn State as a senior and won the Lombardi Award as the nation’s best lineman. He tries to remember things from every game, he said, but he especially savored the Monday night win.“It was really special,” Nassib said in a postgame news conference. “I’m really happy that we got the win on the day that kind of made a little bit of history.”“It was really special,” Nassib said in a postgame news conference. “I’m really happy that we got the win on the day that kind of made a little bit of history.”Rick Scuteri/Associated PressHis teammates did not mention Nassib’s historic role in the win. Coach Jon Gruden complimented only his performance on the field. Defensive end Maxx Crosby did, too, saying simply, “Carl’s a baller and I am proud of the guy.”ESPN, the network which broadcast the game, also treated Nassib’s achievement subtly. It aired a 28-second video in the third quarter with clips of his Instagram video and a few pictures. On an alternate broadcast on ESPN2 featuring retired N.F.L. quarterbacks Peyton Manning and Eli Manning, the former N.B.A. player Charles Barkley appeared as a guest and wore Nassib’s jersey.The nonchalant attitude of the coverage in some ways mimicked the reception of other male pro athletes who played their first games after coming out. The former N.B.A. player Jason Collins received modest applause from an opposing crowd when he entered a game for the Nets in 2014, 10 months after announcing that he was gay. But there was no other form of acknowledgment inside the arena, and Collins and his teammates downplayed the moment to the news media.Robbie Rogers, the first M.L.S. player to appear in a game while openly gay, said things felt “normal” amid a typical atmosphere for a Los Angeles Galaxy game in 2013.Nassib in August said his teammates had supported him since he came out. The Raiders did not make any players available for comment, but quarterback Derek Carr, who said his locker is only a few spots away from Nassib’s, said during training camp that he had not seen anything to dispute that.“When he came in, I just like to watch, and not one person from my point of view has treated him any different,” Carr said.Amy Trask, the former Raiders’ chief executive, said that fits tradition for a team that has historically embraced diversity. In 1997, she became the first woman chief executive in the N.F.L. Tom Flores, who is Mexican American, was the first Latino coach in the N.F.L. to win a Super Bowl, winning two with the Raiders, in the 1980 and 1983 seasons. The team also drafted Eldridge Dickey, the first Black quarterback taken in the first round, in 1968, when the Raiders played in the A.F.L.“He went out and did his job, the way anyone would want any player to do his job,” said Amy Trask, the former Raiders’ chief executive.David Becker/Associated PressTrask said she did not focus on the history she made during her first day or whether her colleagues would change the way they acted toward her. She is not surprised at how Nassib and the Raiders handled last week.“This is an organization that has a track record of hiring without regard to race, gender or any other individuality which has no bearing whatsoever on whether one can do a job,” Trask said in an interview. “It’s very, very special, from my perspective, that Carl is a Raider.“He went out and did his job, the way anyone would want any player to do his job,” she added.If he continues to do the job well, said Wayne Mabry, arguably the Raiders’ most recognizable fan, Nassib’s sexuality would not change how he views the player. For nearly 30 years, Mabry, nicknamed, “The Violator,” attended almost every Raiders home game dressed as a pirate with black-and-silver face paint, leather boots and spiked shoulder pads.It was a tribute he said was inspired partly by the team’s colloquial reputation as the “Bad Boys” of the league. It is irrelevant, he said, that a gay player is on a team with such a historically gritty perception.“Warriors come in all shapes and sizes,” Mabry, 64, said. “It’s about what you bring to the table. As long as he can help us win, he’s a warrior to me.” More

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      in Soccer

      At Euro 2020, a Riot of Color After a Protest Is Barred

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      The colors of the rainbow spread, leaping from building to building and city to city, first across Germany and then out into the rest of Europe. On Wednesday evening, what might have been a lone statement — a single message of love and defiance — turned into a bright and silent chorus.That night, Germany was scheduled to host Hungary in Munich for a crucial game in this summer’s European soccer championship. City officials had asked UEFA, the competition’s organizer, for permission to light the stadium — the Fussball-Arena Munich, more commonly known as Allianz Arena, in the rainbow colors of the Pride flag.On Tuesday, the request was denied.Allianz Arena, MunichMatthias Hangst/Getty ImagesLukas Barth-Tuttas/EPA, via ShutterstockUEFA decreed that the gesture breached the organization’s rules on introducing a “political context” to soccer. Illuminating the stadium in anything other than the organization’s official turquoise and green, it ruled, was a “message aiming at a decision taken by the Hungarian national parliament” — namely, a law passed this month designed to restrict content that includes depictions of gay and transgender characters.Rather than dull the protest, though, UEFA’s rejection served to illuminate it.Alexander Hassenstein/ReutersGermany’s goalkeeper and captain, Manuel Neuer, took to the field in a rainbow armband, and fans arrived for the game carrying rainbow flags and wearing rainbow wigs. One even ran onto the field during the playing of Hungary’s national anthem, triumphantly displaying a Pride flag directly in front of the Hungarian players. Matthias Hangst/ReutersThe protest, though, was not limited to Munich. Teams and cities across Germany, and beyond, took it upon themselves to show their solidarity not only with Munich, but with the cause.RheinEnergie Stadium, Cologne Sascha Schuermann/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesMerkur Spiel-Arena, Düsseldorf Marcel Kusch/DPA, via Associated PressThe colors of the rainbow bathed stadiums in Frankfurt and Düsseldorf, in the pretty Bavarian city of Augsburg and, farther north, in the company town of Wolfsburg.In the capital, Berlin, the vast bowl of the Olympic Stadium was wreathed in colored light.WWK Arena, AugsburgLennart Preiss/DPA, via Associated PressThe Grand Place, BrusselsAris Oikonomou/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesIn Hamburg, the city’s opera house followed suit. So, too, did the elegant Gothic town hall that dominates the Grand Place in Brussels. Fans gathered to watch the game decked out not only in Germany jerseys and national flags, but the Pride colors, too. Clubs across Europe showed their support digitally, the rainbow touching the social media avatars of Barcelona and Juventus.The Hungarian lawmakers who had warned of the dangers of “mixing politics and sport” got their wish. The Fussball-Arena Munich glowed in the garish official turquoise and green of UEFA. Everywhere else, the rainbow lit up the night, bright and proud, an unspoken, unyielding indictment of what had happened in Munich, where sports and politics had been allowed to mix.Waldstadion, FrankfurtThomas Lohnes/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesRheinEnergie Stadium, CologneSascha Schuermann/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

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