Griner, 31, is a championship-winning player with the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA, spending his off-seasons playing for Russian team UMMC Ekaterinburg.
Russian authorities have accused Griner of smuggling a large amount of a drug.
Here’s what we know (and didn’t) about what happened to the two-time Olympic champion:
Why was Griner detained?
The Russian Federal Customs Service said an American was detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport after being found with hash oil.
A statement from the Customs Service said, “When a US citizen was passing through the Green Channel at Sheremetyevo Airport on arrival from New York, a working dog from the Sheremetyevo Customs Canine Department reported the possible presence of narcotic substances in baggage. Figured out.”
“Customs inspection of hand luggage being carried out by a US citizen confirmed the presence of vapor with a particularly smelling liquid, and an expert determined that the liquid was hemp oil (hash oil), a narcotic. substance.”
The Russian statement did not identify Griner by name, but said detainee was an American professional basketball player and two-time US Olympian.
The customs agency said the US citizen was held in pre-trial custody. It said a criminal case was underway for drug trafficking in significant quantities – a crime that carries a potential sentence of five to 10 years in prison.
When was Griner arrested?
The Russian customs agency said in a statement that a US citizen was detained “in February 2022” after moving from New York to Moscow, but did not say on what day.
Where is Griner now?
As of March 14, Griner’s exact whereabouts were unclear.
Debbie Jackson, her high school basketball coach, said she worried Griner’s case would be used for political purposes.
“My biggest fear is that … she will become a political pawn,” Jackson told CNN.
Can Griner communicate with anyone in the US?
But Griner’s consular service has been blocked, which is “extremely worrying”, Allred said.
What was Griner doing in Russia?
“Like many athletes competing in the WNBA, Griner plays overseas during the WNBA offseason because his pay is increasingly higher in other countries,” Spruill wrote on the petition’s page.
“For WNBA players, this means playing abroad, while NBA rookies who have not yet played a professional game are paid salaries many times higher than the title-winning All-Star-designated WNBA veteran could ever expect. can,” said Spill.
“These realities are not the players’ fault. They just want to pay their price like their male counterparts, and they don’t deserve to be caught in geopolitical turmoil to do so.”
What are the chances of getting Griner out of Russia?
A member of the US House Armed Services Committee said it was “going to be very difficult” to get Griner out of Russia.
“Our diplomatic relations with Russia do not exist at the moment,” Democratic Representative John Garamendi of California told CNN on March 7.
“Maybe during the various negotiations, she may have been one of the solutions. I don’t know.”
But the Biden administration is working on trying to get Griner out of Russia, members of the Congressional Black Caucus said Monday after meeting with President Joe Biden.
“The best news we got today was that they know about it and that’s on the agenda,” Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, who represents Griner’s hometown of Houston, Texas, told reporters.
Noting a possible 10-year sentence for Griner, Jackson Lee said: “We know about Brittany Griner, and we know we have to move on to her position.”
Griner’s wife described the agony of waiting in an Instagram post.
“There are no words to express this pain. I am hurting, we are hurting.”
CNN’s Lucy Kafanov, Wayne Sterling, Rosa Flores, Eli Malloy, Ben Church, Don Lemon, Elizabeth Joseph, Valery Yegorov contributed to this report.