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    Union Work Runs in the Family for the N.B.A.’s Jaren Jackson Jr.

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    Jaren Jackson Jr. is active in the N.B.A. players’ union. His mother, Terri, works for the W.N.B.A. players’ union. When he was elected vice president, she did her best not to embarrass him.The National Basketball Players Association is the union for N.B.A. players, a group of adult millionaires, most of whose mothers don’t attend unit meetings.But Terri Jackson is no ordinary N.B.A. mom. She is also the executive director for the W.N.B.A. players’ union, and, in February, she was invited to the N.B.A. players’ union’s winter meeting. As she put finishing touches on the presentation she was about to deliver, her son, Jaren Jackson Jr. of the Memphis Grizzlies, was nominated to be one of the union’s vice presidents.He gave a short, impromptu speech, telling his colleagues he wanted to bridge the gap between established players and younger ones like him. He said he felt it was time for him to take on that responsibility.When he finished, Terri Jackson said, she wanted to get up and cheer; she was so happy to see the maturity he showed. Instead, she squeezed her fists tightly and kept them hidden behind her laptop screen, so as not to embarrass her 23-year-old son. When he was elected, she raised her arms in celebration.In becoming a union vice president, Jackson Jr. extended a family tradition of being involved in player unions and the future of the game. His father, Jaren Jackson Sr., a journeyman N.B.A. player from 1989-2002, was also a players’ union member.Jackson Jr., right, and his father, the former N.B.A. player Jaren Jackson Sr., traded jerseys after the younger Jackson played in a game in March.Darren Abate/Associated PressFive years into his career, Jackson Jr. has already exceeded what his father accomplished on the court. Last season, he was named the N.B.A.’s defensive player of the year, and he helped lead the Grizzlies to one of the best records in the Western Conference.“If you love the game, that’s what you’re really doing it for,” Jackson Jr. said of his union activity. “I want kids growing up, whether it’s my kids or other people’s kids, when they grow up and they want to play in the league, they’re going to have a good foundation.”Practically since birth, Jaren Jr. was destined to care about labor issues. He was born while his father, who had most recently played for the San Antonio Spurs, was going through a work stoppage during the N.B.A. lockout in 1999.Jaren Sr., whose father was also a union member as a longshoreman in New Orleans, was a free agent during the lockout, waiting for the Spurs to re-sign him.He would sometimes fly to New York to attend bargaining meetings, joining elite players like Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning and Mitch Richmond.“This was a tough time for me,” Jaren Sr. said. “I wasn’t sure about my future and I sat there and listened to these guys, you know, drop F-bombs all over the place and talk about these players getting paid and owners making this money.”Terri Jackson also has a family history of support for unions. She remembers a story about her father, who was a lawyer, speaking for better pay for teachers at a school board meeting.“When I think about getting to be the executive director for the W players, I just, you know, I think a little bit: ‘Wow. You know, my dad would be so proud of this’ — or he is so proud,” Terri Jackson said. “And that his grandson is a union rep? That’s amazing.”Terri Jackson spoke in support of the W.N.B.A. player Brittney Griner when Griner was imprisoned in Russia last year.Max Herman/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesShe and Jaren Sr. both went to college at Georgetown University, where she also attended law school. She has taught classes about women in sports and worked at the University of the District of Columbia as a legal counsel and later assistant general counsel.The family moved to Indiana in 2012 when Terri began working for the N.C.A.A; she eventually became the organization’s director of law, policy and governance. In 2016, when Jaren Jr. was in high school, she became the executive director of the W.N.B.P.A., where she has led initiatives for improved maternity benefits and better pay for players.His parents’ careers meant Jaren Jr. moved often, and that he had to learn to adapt to new people quickly.The Jacksons said they raised him to participate, to be comfortable in front of people he didn’t know.He was always bigger than the other children, and he learned early how to make his peers feel comfortable. At age 4, that meant sharing toys in a sandbox, and, as he got older, it meant speaking up for them in class or running for student council.“Given all that your life has been blessed with, all the opportunities that you have, there’s an expectation that you participate in the lives of others,” Terri said.His classmates elected him to student government, which taught him how to relate to his peers and to help them feel heard.He also learned how to perform in front of groups, a skill that transferred to his professional basketball career. At summer camps growing up, he would perform dances with friends. A hip-hop performance when Jaren Jr. was about 14 or 15 years old remains etched in Jaren Sr.’s memory.“I’m not allowed to share the video with anyone,” said Jaren Sr. “But he did a magnificent job.”Jaren Sr. reached the N.B.A. as an undrafted player and cobbled together a long career in pieces, making stops in lesser leagues and finding smaller roles with N.B.A. teams, including one championship season with the Spurs.Jaren Jr. was a highly regarded recruit coming out of high school, already nearly seven feet tall.This year, Jackson Jr. was an N.B.A. All-Star and the defensive player of the year.Petre Thomas/USA Today Sports, via ReutersHe played one season at Michigan State before the Grizzlies selected him fourth overall in the 2018 draft.Injuries have interrupted his first few years, but Jackson’s talent has been undeniable. On an exceptionally young Grizzlies team, Jackson has quickly become one of the leaders.He missed the first 14 games of the 2022-23 season while recovering from surgery, but he was still voted the league’s defensive player of the year.He learned the news when the TNT analyst Ernie Johnson announced it during a broadcast. Jackson sat back on a couch at home with a basketball between his knees. As soon as Johnson said his name, Terri, who was standing near him, started shouting in celebration.“WOOOOOOO! Yes! Yes! Yes!” she said, as Jaren Jr. smiled and put his hands over his eyes.“I just like to chill be quiet and relax,” Jaren Jr. said, “but she’s — you let your mom enjoy those moments.”This time, she didn’t have to hide her joy behind a laptop.When his peers elected him as an N.B.P.A. vice president, Jaren Jr. made sure they knew that he understood he had a lot to learn. He tries to keep his teammates abreast of how to take advantage of collectively bargained benefits, he said.He has worked with his teammate Ja Morant as Morant navigates the league’s punishment for a series of social media videos that resulted in a 25-game suspension. Jaren Jr. declined to give specifics, saying “that’s his business.”He had tried to be involved in the union even before joining the executive committee, he said, but having an official role means longer meetings and more responsibility.“It’s a lot,” Jaren Jr. said. “You have to look after the league — you’re like a big brother.”Jackson Jr. and his mother at the FedEx Forum in Memphis.Whitten Sabbatini for The New York TimesThe veteran players in the union’s leadership roles are helping him as he learns the league’s business machinations, he said.In his parents, he also has two more veterans of sports league union work to rely on if he needs them. But these days, Jaren Jr. doesn’t often do that. Their time together tends to be more family focused, the lessons of the past having been imprinted long ago. More

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      With End of Griner’s Detention, a New Wave of WNBA Activism Begins

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      With their campaign to free Brittney Griner from prison in Russia over, W.N.B.A. players say they will help free others and focus on women’s health and pay equity.The W.N.B.A. is a trendsetter, a league of mostly Black women who have taken up major progressive causes: voting rights, stricter gun laws, equality for the L.G.B.T.Q. community. But this year’s push to free Brittney Griner, one of their own, from a geopolitical standoff in Russia — that was their toughest test yet.“This is what Black women do,” Natasha Cloud of the Washington Mystics said. “We carry the weight in our family, this country, and we always have, whether we get the acknowledgment or not from it.”Griner was released from a Russian penal colony on Thursday in a prisoner exchange after, the U.S. State Department said, she had been “wrongfully detained” on drug charges for nearly 10 months. Griner is home. Other imprisoned Americans who also may be in danger are not. The W.N.B.A.’s mission continues.“We also want those other prisoners over there to come home as well,” Isabelle Harrison of the Dallas Wings said. “We don’t want them to just be like, ‘Oh, we just got B.G. home, and we’re done.’ No, that’s not what the W does.”In recent years, W.N.B.A. members helped flip a Senate seat in Georgia by supporting the Rev. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, when Senator Kelly Loeffler, a Republican who owned the Atlanta Dream, spoke against the Black Lives Matter movement. They walked out of games to protest the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man in Wisconsin, and dedicated a season to Breonna Taylor, a Black woman who was killed by Kentucky police. Their latest collective bargaining agreement set new benchmarks in pay and benefits for women in sports.Natasha Cloud of the Washington Mystics, center, marched to the M.L.K. Memorial in Washington to support the Black Lives Matter movement in June 2020.Michael A. McCoy/Getty Images“But, at the same time, they are mere mortals,” said Terri Jackson, the executive director of the W.N.B.A. players’ union. “Emotionally, this does take a toll. All of their advocacy and their work in the communities around so many issues — pick an issue, reproductive rights, voting rights, gun control — it wears on them.”More on Women and Girls in Sports‘We Have Fun All the Time’: Women’s college running programs can be rife with toxicity. At North Carolina State, Coach Laurie Henes is winning with a different approach.Pressure to Cut Body Fat: Collegiate athletic departments across the country require student-athletes to measure their body composition. Many female athletes have found the tests to be invasive and triggering for those who had eating disorders or were predisposed to them.New Endorsements Bring Up Old Debate: Female college athletes are making millions thanks to their large social media followings. But some who have fought for equity worry that their brand building is regressive.Pretty in Any Color: Women’s basketball players are styling themselves how they want, because they can. Their choices also can be lucrative.The plane returning Griner from Russia had not even touched down in the United States before Griner’s agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, pledged that the campaign to free Griner would transition into securing the release of wrongfully detained Americans around the world. W.N.B.A. players have been at the heart of that campaign and many others.“While I was fighting for B.G. this year, I was still fighting for sensible gun laws,” Cloud said. “While we were still fighting for B.G., we were still fighting for a woman’s right to her body and to the choice to her body and the choice to her life. We were still fighting and trying to get people out to vote, understanding how important these elections were in the trajectory of where our country was headed.”W.N.B.A. players went about their season while knowing their teammate and friend was imprisoned in Russia. “Honestly, I don’t think the W.N.B.A. ever takes a break from advocacy,” Harrison said. “I think we’re always at a point where we’re fighting and trying to get some type of justice, all whilst trying to build up our league and play basketball.”On Aug. 4, the day a Russian court sentenced Griner to nine years in a penal colony, her Phoenix Mercury teammates played a game.“Nobody even wanted to play today,” Mercury guard Skylar Diggins-Smith said afterward. “How are we even supposed to approach the game and approach the court with a clear mind when the whole group is crying before the game?”Napheesa Collier, of the Minnesota Lynx, said she didn’t go more than a day or two without talking about Griner, and her group chats with other W.N.B.A. players constantly included discussions of the situation in Russia.“They’ve advocated every single day, keeping her in the media, keep talking about her, making sure that no one’s forgetting, making sure that we’re doing everything that we can to bring her home,” Collier said.Isabelle Harrison of the Dallas Wings said Griner had been fun to play with and kind to her when she was a rookie.Tony Gutierrez/Associated PressW.N.B.A. players often proudly refer to themselves as “The 144,” referring to the total number of players in the league. Some, like the Seattle Storm’s Breanna Stewart, a former most valuable player, sent social media messages daily in support of Griner.“I was using my platform in all ways possible and really making sure that throughout this time, everybody was still keeping B.G. in their thoughts during her wrongful detention,” Stewart said. “To finally be at a moment where I don’t have to send that tweet is amazing.”She added: “Ever since I came into the W.N.B.A., we’ve always been at the forefront in speaking out against social injustices, and that’s what we’re going to continue to do. As a league full of women and majority Black women, there’s a lot that needs to be fought for, and we’re used to it and we’re used to speaking up on our own account and now for others.”Many players wore Griner-themed clothing designed by Isabella Escribano, a 14-year-old known as Jiggy Izzy, who is popular on social media for her basketball skills. The front of the design, seen on hoodies and T-shirts, features a smiling Griner in her Mercury jersey with a basketball that reads “WEAREBG” — the phrase that became the rallying cry for her release.Griner’s jersey number, 42, is wrapped around the left side, and on the back, her first and last name are printed in capital letters. With the help of her brothers, Escribano worked with Griner’s agent and the W.N.B.A. players’ union to get the clothing to players across the W.N.B.A. and the N.B.A. Escribano said it was “very empowering and rewarding” to see Griner freed.“Because just, like, for all we’ve done, and for her to be home now, it was for a purpose,” Escribano said, adding: “I hope one day I can meet her and tell her how I felt and how I wanted to help her in any situation possible.”Isabella Escribano, a 14-year-old hooper known as Jiggy Izzy, designed T-shirts and hoodies that helped raise awareness of Brittney Griner’s detention in Russia.Meg Oliphant for The New York TimesAmira Rose Davis, an assistant professor at Penn State University specializing in race, sports and gender, said that the W.N.B.A. had proved itself as a force for social justice, though she “would love for them to have the opportunity to develop advocacy on their terms.”“They meet the challenge every time, but wouldn’t it be great to not have to?” she said.Jackson, the union’s executive director, said Griner’s ordeal shoved to the forefront important issues like pay equity and W.N.B.A. investment. Griner had been in Russia during the W.N.B.A. off-season to play for a professional team there that reportedly paid her at least $1 million, more than four times what she made in the United States. Dozens of W.N.B.A. players compete internationally in the off-season to boost their incomes. But Griner’s detention led many players, fans and opinion columnists to wonder aloud whether more should be done to raise pay here so players do not feel the need to go abroad.“We are not honoring the players, we are not honoring B.G., if we don’t have those conversations,” Jackson said.This weekend, the W.N.B.A. players’ union plans to certify a new executive committee, whose members will set the agenda for the next wave of activism. Jackson and others expect the players to focus on women’s health and continue pushing for the freedom of those like the American Paul Whelan, who is also detained in Russia. Many people were disappointed that Whelan, a former U.S. Marine, had not been included in the prisoner exchange that freed Griner.“Instead of people hating and complaining for one American coming home who has won and has represented her country in the most respectful ways, we should harness that into fighting for Paul,” Cloud said.The league, for years now, has shown that it knows no other path. One issue is solved. Others remain.“They really understand the power of the collective voice, and so they can lean on each other — literally, sometimes — to continue to draw that strength and propel them forward,” Jackson said.Shauntel Lowe More

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      Brittney Griner’s Guilty Verdict Strengthens Supporters’ Resolve

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      The W.N.B.A. star was sentenced to nine years in a Russian penal colony, but her supporters insist they will do “whatever we can to get her home.”Nothing about Thursday’s proceedings in a Russian courthouse, where the W.N.B.A. star Brittney Griner was being tried on drug smuggling charges, surprised experts familiar with Russia’s legal process. Griner was convicted and sentenced to a penal colony for nine years — just one year shy of the maximum sentence.Her conviction was thought to be a formality and a prerequisite for a prisoner swap that could lead to her return to the United States.“I think the negotiations will accelerate now that there’s finality to the alleged court process,” said Jonathan Franks, who has worked with the family of Trevor R. Reed, a former U.S. Marine who was returned to the United States in a prisoner swap with Russia in April. Reed was also sentenced to nine years of imprisonment after he was convicted of assault, a charge his family considered to be spurious and politically motivated.“One thing Americans need to realize is, we’re dealing with thugs,” Franks said. “The people who take our folks hostage or wrongfully detain them, it’s just state-sponsored kidnapping. They’re thugs. Sometimes, in order to get thugs’ attention, they only understand strength.”Last week, the U.S. State Department said it had made a “substantial offer” to the Russian government for Griner and Paul N. Whelan, an American who has been detained in Russia since 2018. Whelan was convicted of espionage and sentenced to 16 years in prison. But now that Griner’s trial is over, experts said even more patience would be required from those who support her. After U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken publicly said that the United States had offered Russia a deal, Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, told reporters that prisoner swaps were negotiated quietly.William Pomeranz, the acting director of the Kennan Institute and an expert on Russian law, said: “There’s no incentive for Russia to do any favors for the United States.”“I am not optimistic that the diplomatic deal will take place any time soon,” he said, pointing to Peskov’s statement and the poor relations between the two countries because of the war in Ukraine.Griner has been detained in Russia since Feb. 17 when Russian customs officials at an airport near Moscow said they had found hashish oil, a cannabis derivative, in a vape pen in her luggage. The U.S. State Department announced in May that it considered Griner to be “wrongfully detained,” which meant her case would be handled by the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs. The State Department said it would work to secure her release, no matter how her trial ended.In both the United States and Russia, Griner’s teammates and coaches have offered their support. Members of her Russian team, UMMC Yekaterinburg, testified on Griner’s behalf during her trial.Seattle Storm forward Breanna Stewart, left, said she was “feeling sad and feeling sick” after Griner was convicted on Thursday. Stewart had played in Russia with Griner for UMMC Yekaterinburg.Richard Ellis/UPI/ShutterstockIn the United States, several W.N.B.A. players who had also played in Russia coordinated a social media campaign on Wednesday, the day before her trial ended.Nneka Ogwumike, the president of the W.N.B.A. players’ union, posted a photograph on Instagram of herself playing for her Russian team, Dynamo Kursk.“Like me, she has great memories from her time playing and returned year after year to compete in Russia,” Ogwumike wrote. She added: “I am asking that in honor of all our great experiences competing in Russia and around the world, out of love and humanity, that you show her mercy and understanding. Please be kind to Brittney Griner.”Although the players’ appeals did not appear to affect the proceedings, they had value in showing solidarity with Griner and her UMMC Yekaterinburg teammates who spoke on her behalf, said Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon, a Russian historian who has consulted with the players’ union during Griner’s detention.“Brittney’s Russian teammates and her coach, those who testified on her behalf in Russia really put themselves at risk because Russia just recently passed even more stringent laws about cooperating with foreigners,” St. Julian-Varnon said. She said the W.N.B.A. players’ public statements were “giving them a nod and saying they appreciated what they did.”St. Julian-Varnon started advising the union shortly after Griner was detained. She said early on she told the players to expect a long process, that they should not expect Griner to be released before her trial and that even if her sentence were light, that would mean at least five years.Now that Griner has been convicted, St. Julian-Varnon is still urging caution.“This does not mean she’s going to be involved in a prisoner swap any time soon,” she said. “Just keep that in mind because this is still a process, but it’s the next step in the process. It could be weeks. It could be months. A lot of it depends on Russia.”The Plight of Brittney Griner in RussiaThe American basketball star has endured months in a Russian prison on charges of smuggling hashish oil into the country.The Ordeal, in Her Own Words: During her trial, Ms. Griner said she had been tossed into a bewildering legal system with little explanation of what she might do to try to defend herself. Who Is Viktor Bout?: The man who could be part of a prisoner swap to release Ms. Griner has been accused of supplying arms to Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and rebels in Rwanda.Hostage Diplomacy: In recent years, several Americans have been swept up by hostile governments looking to use them as bargaining chips. Brittney Griner might be one of them.The N.B.A.’s Low Profile: The league has been mostly quiet in the public campaign to free Ms. Griner, even though it founded and still partly owns the W.N.B.A. Here’s why.Terri Jackson, the executive director of the W.N.B.A. players’ union, said Griner’s conviction would not change how the players support her. For months, they spoke out publicly and made other demonstrations of support, such as wearing T-shirts with Griner’s initials and jersey number, 42.The Phoenix Mercury, Griner’s team since she was drafted No. 1 overall in 2013, held a rally for Griner on July 6. Fans held up signs and wore T-shirts and jerseys to show their support.Phoenix Mercury/Via Reuters“Just really feeling sad and feeling sick for Brittney and hoping that she gets home as soon as possible,” said Seattle Storm forward Breanna Stewart, a four-time All-Star who played with Griner in Russia. “Now that the trial is done and the sentencing happened, I know she’s got to be in a very emotional state and just want her to know that we’re still continuing to do whatever we can to get her home.”When asked if the N.B.A. and W.N.B.A. would change anything about their tactics, Mike Bass, an N.B.A. spokesman, said both leagues would continue to support the State Department, White House “and other allies in and outside government in the effort to get Brittney home as soon as possible.”The tense relationship between the United States and Russia has not eased in the months since Griner’s detention. She was jailed shortly before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the United States has sent military equipment to Ukraine in its fight against Russia. On Monday, the White House said it would send $550 million in additional arms to Ukraine for the war.St. Julian-Varnon said that could hamper negotiations for Griner’s release, which was not a problem for Russia. “It only hurts the credibility of the Biden administration,” she said. “There’s no impetus for Russia to do anything immediately.”That stance most likely will not sit well with Griner’s supporters. Paris Hatcher is the executive director of Black Feminist Future, a social justice organization that created the #BringBrittneyHome hashtag campaign. She said her initial excitement over a possible prisoner swap for Griner dissipated after Thursday’s verdict.Hatcher said the organization would consider options to keep Griner’s case on the forefront of the minds of politicians.“Will that mean that we’ll be reaching back out to elected officials that we had been in conversation with about the critical nature of this case?” Hatcher said. “Oftentimes, you just don’t have enough information. Now, you have the information. Whatever was making you hesitate, it’s been six months.”Hatcher added: “Whatever swap that needs to happen, let it happen. Make it happen.” More

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      Brittney Griner’s Supporters Hold Steady After Guilty Plea

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      Griner, the W.N.B.A. star, pleaded guilty to drug charges in Russia on Thursday. But her supporters are still determined to fight to bring her home.For the first time in a while, Terri Jackson, the executive director of the W.N.B.A. players’ union, felt hopeful about Brittney Griner.Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner, had spoken on the phone with President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday morning. That evening, Jackson attended a rally to support Brittney Griner at the Footprint Center arena in Phoenix. It had been hosted by the Phoenix Mercury and Representative Greg Stanton, Democrat of Arizona, with hundreds of Griner’s supporters on hand.“It was emotional, it was a celebration, it was a renewed hope and renewed spirit,” Jackson said. “And yet, we are very mindful that we are not near the end.”If the American basketball star is convicted, she could face up to 10 years in a Russian penal colony.Alexander Zemlianichenko/Associated PressJackson spoke Thursday afternoon, hours after Brittney Griner pleaded guilty to drug charges in a court near Moscow. Griner, the star Mercury center, has been detained in Russia since Feb. 17, accused of having hashish oil in her luggage at a Russian airport. Her trial on the drug charges began on July 1. But despite her guilty plea on Thursday, the support she has received from her representatives, friends, family, teammates and others has not waned.“I think it made us more resolved to demonstrate our support for her and to recognize that Russia’s process is its own,” Jackson said. “It’s nothing like ours. And yet try to stay hopeful that there’s some forward progress to getting her home.”Griner’s agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, called Griner a “model of courage” in a statement on Twitter on Thursday.“BG’s service as an Olympian and global sport ambassador, caring for those most in need, has always distinguished her; but BG is also a human being whose family misses her,” Kagawa Colas said. “She deserves our compassion, understanding, love and support.”Representative Colin Allred, Democrat of Texas, who has been working to secure Griner’s release, urged caution in reacting to her guilty plea, calling her prosecution a “sham trial” on Twitter.“Remember that we should not draw any serious conclusions from this and that she was wrongfully detained in the first place,” Allred said.The rally for Brittney Griner on Wednesday. Many fans have been vocal in their support since Griner was detained in February.Christian Petersen/Getty ImagesW.N.B.A. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert released a statement Thursday afternoon.“Brittney Griner remains wrongfully detained in Russia, and nothing that happened today changes that 140 days later,” Engelbert said. She added: “She has the wholehearted and unconditional support of the entire W.N.B.A. and N.B.A. family, who eagerly await her safe return.”The U.S. State Department first announced that Griner had been classified as “wrongfully detained” in May and said it would look to negotiate her release regardless of the result of her trial.On Thursday, a Russian diplomat suggested to reporters in Moscow that the public clamor about Griner’s release — which he attributed to the Biden administration — was detrimental to getting a deal done.Griner’s supporters, though, have long believed that calling public attention to her situation was necessary to get the attention of the Biden administration. After the State Department classified Griner as wrongfully detained, her closest supporters began to feel comfortable drawing attention to her detention. Many fans have been vocal since February.Starting in early May, Kagawa Colas joined with Griner’s family, the W.N.B.A. and its players’ union and the Mercury to start an advocacy campaign with the hashtag #WeAreBG. Several W.N.B.A. and N.B.A. players began speaking out about Griner’s situation. The N.B.A.’s Boston Celtics wore T-shirts that said #WeAreBG during one N.B.A. finals practice.In June, Kagawa Colas coordinated with dozens of organizations that represent people of color, women and members of the L.G.B.T.Q. community to send a letter to Biden and Harris urging them to make a deal to bring Griner home.On Thursday, the W.N.B.A. players’ union released a statement that positioned the organization alongside those groups.“The administration needs to know that this powerful collective is behind them and supports whatever needs to be done to get B.G., Paul Whelan and other detained U.S. nationals home right away,” the statement read.Whelan is a former U.S. Marine who has been detained in Russia since 2018. He was convicted of espionage in a Russian court in 2020.A mural showing Brittney Griner (42) at the Footprint Center arena in Phoenix. W.N.B.A. teams have worn T-shirts with the No. 42 during the season to show their support.Christian Petersen/Getty ImagesThis weekend, the W.N.B.A. will host its All-Star Game and other competitions in Chicago. They are an annual celebration of the league’s best players, and Griner has been selected as an All-Star seven times. The league named her as an honorary starter for the All-Star Game on Sunday.“Sends a very, very strong message from the league recognizing that we are missing not just one of the game’s biggest, brightest stars but an individual who is just very important to us outside of this game,” Jackson said.Before the game, the Rev. Al Sharpton announced he would hold a news conference on Friday in Chicago with Cherelle Griner, Jackson and Los Angeles Sparks forward Nneka Ogwumike, who is the president of the players’ union.“Brittney has admitted to making a mistake, and I hope the Russian authorities recognize that humbling act and respond with compassion,” Sharpton said in a statement. “She is in the fight of her life right now, which is why we’ll be in Chicago to show our support for Brittney and for the administration and their efforts to bring her home as soon as possible. We must all continue to pray she finds strength through this challenging time.”The W.N.B.A. players’ union sometimes calls its membership The 144 — a reference to the 12 players on each of the 12 teams in the league. Jackson noted that the All-Star Game would take place on the 143rd day of Griner’s detention.“It reminds us all — at least those of us who have engaged in this frustrating process of counting the days — it reminds us that we are not The 144 without Brittney Griner,” Jackson said. She added: “The symbolism of that is not lost on any one of us.” 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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      The WNBA’s $20 Million Debate Over Charter Flights

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      Secret charter flights cost the Liberty a big fine, but players say they deserve them — and need them to be healthy. The league says they’re too expensive for now.The W.N.B.A. said charter flights were too expensive. The players said they did not have to be. The W.N.B.A. commissioner said she wanted them more than anyone. The players said that when they asked for them just two years ago, it felt like the answer was “a hard no.”Now, charter flights for players seem to be closer to a maybe. But that movement has come at a cost — a $500,000 fine for the Liberty, and a bruising of the league’s public image as fans, players and those attuned to drama question whether the W.N.B.A. is doing right by its players.And the cost for the flights? W.N.B.A. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said the league had estimated that it would cost more than $20 million for all 12 teams to fly by charter instead of commercial airlines for a full season, not accounting for the recent surge in fuel costs and variables such as routes. She has maintained that the league does not have enough revenue to cover the costs. Teams typically play more than 30 games, with half on the road.The players’ union said that it did not have a cost estimate, but that a change in travel accommodations was long overdue.“The league is young, but it’s old enough,” said Terri Jackson, the union’s executive director. “We can figure this out.”An article in Sports Illustrated on Tuesday revealed that the W.N.B.A. had fined the Liberty $500,000 in the fall for secretly using charter flights to travel to some games during the 2021 season. The collective bargaining agreement with the players’ union allows for premium economy seats, such as Comfort Plus from Delta, but charter flights are not allowed and their provision is considered an unfair competitive advantage. The league confirmed to The New York Times that the Liberty had been fined $500,000 for “multiple violations of league rules,” including taking eight charter flights toward the end of the regular season, sending players on a trip to Napa, Calif., and making unspecified “public comments about items that are collectively bargained.”The Liberty declined to comment. In October, Joe Tsai, who owns the Liberty with his wife, Clara Wu Tsai, tweeted about charter flights as an issue of “equity for women athletes.”The Liberty, owned by Joe Tsai, were fined $500,000 for eight charter flights and a trip to Napa, Calif., during the 2021 season.Corey Sipkin/Associated PressEngelbert said that she wanted players to have charter flights, but that until that was possible, the collective bargaining agreement had to be enforced and the fine “had to be big enough” to serve as a deterrent. She said Sports Illustrated’s report that the league had suggested a $1 million fine was “inaccurate,” but a spokesman for the magazine said it stood behind its reporting.The sentiment on social media this week has been largely against the league, including from players who are not on the Liberty.“We deserve nice things,” guard Lexie Brown, who won a championship with the Chicago Sky last season, posted on Twitter on Wednesday. A week earlier, Brown tweeted “the wnba” in response to a question about what was holding the league back.“What a joke,” Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu posted on Twitter with three crying-laughing emojis, in response to a tweet about the Sports Illustrated article.Josh Hart, who plays for the Portland Trail Blazers of the N.B.A., tweeted “This is trash and @WNBA yall got to get better.”Part of the blowback came in response to the assertion by Sports Illustrated that in September, team owners did not support an “unofficial proposal” from the Liberty to make charter flights the default. According to the article, “the Liberty said they’d found a way to get it comped for everyone in the league for three years,” but some owners were worried the players would get used to the flights and want them permanently.But the league was quoted in the article as saying that the Liberty did not make a proposal for the owners to consider, and, in an interview with The Times, Engelbert said a formal proposal “never happened.” She added that if such a proposal were to come, “it would be supported.”“This is a good thing that we have ownership groups that really care, that are investing and are having really good debates,” she said.Whether or not the team owners want charters, the players do. And, in a twist from even five or 10 years ago, they appear to have broad public support as female athletes speak up for themselves and women’s sports get more media attention. For some, the push for charters is about offering accommodations befitting professional athletes — “nice things,” as Brown said. But Jackson said it was mainly about players’ health and safety.“Their bodies are their craft,” Jackson said. They need time to rest, leg room because they are tall and access to nutritious meals to perform at a high level, she said. All of that is compromised by spending hours in airports traveling commercially, sitting in cramped seats and not having proper snacks, she said.It was worse just a few years ago, before the 2020 collective bargaining agreement went into effect with an allotment for upgraded seats. Liz Cambage, a four-time All-Star who is listed at 6-foot-8, tweeted last month that she had paid “out of my own pocket” to upgrade her seats. And yet, even now, players can find themselves stuck in coach.Jackson said teams and the league had blamed overwhelmed staff members struggling to arrange travel and airlines that won’t allow large groups to book upgraded or exit row seats. Bringing the complaints to the league has helped — “Some teams got it together,” Jackson said — but she said the next step would be to file a grievance. The union did not do so last season, but upgraded travel will be a “point of emphasis” this coming season, she said. The league said it was “made aware” of complaints last season and will be auditing teams this season “to assure full compliance.”How soon players can upgrade to charter flights — without teams incurring fines — is unclear because of the players’ and league’s conflicting views on how to pay for them, and when. Engelbert said the $20 million-plus price tag for full-season charters makes it unlikely that a sponsor will pick up the tab, though the league is open to that and the Liberty and other teams are exploring options.“I don’t want to do things that jeopardize the financial health of the league,” she said, adding, “We are trying to build revenue and financial models that support better things for the players in the long term, but this is not something that we can afford today.”Engelbert would not disclose the W.N.B.A.’s revenue or if any teams were profitable, but she said the league was valued at $475 million and at more than $1 billion with the 12 teams included. Last month, the league announced that it had raised $75 million from a group of investors, including Condoleezza Rice and Joe and Clara Wu Tsai. The league had been owned in a 50-50 split with the N.B.A., which founded the W.N.B.A. in 1996. Now the ownership split is 42.1 percent each for the W.N.B.A. and N.B.A. and 15.8 percent for the new investors, who do not have voting rights, as first reported by Sports Illustrated and confirmed by The Times.W.N.B.A. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said she hoped the league would be able to have full-season charters eventually, but that was “not something that we can afford today.”Ethan Miller/Getty ImagesIn an interview with The Times last month, Engelbert said that the new money would not be used for charter flights but for marketing and upgrading the league’s digital products, such as its website and streaming service. The marketing efforts could generate additional revenue that might then enable the league to pay for flights in the future, she said.Jackson said even small changes to the flight rules now could have a big impact. When the union was negotiating travel accommodations for its contract, it didn’t start by asking for full-season charters, she said.“We didn’t go into negotiations to break the bank,” she said. “We care too much about this league. But we want to be supported. The players want to be supported and valued, not taken advantage of.”In addition to having sponsors cover some, if not all, of the cost of charters, Jackson said the union was open to discussing using charters for back-to-back games and the postseason — which Engelbert has permitted under special circumstances — and setting a maximum number of flights that teams could use per season and letting them decide when and whether to use them.“There are ways to do this,” Jackson said. “This is not an all-or-nothing.” More