With Griner in jail, WNBA players skip Russia in offseason
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-sports-middle-east-13cf8e874e82930218b7cbc0898c9b5b
With Griner in jail, WNBA players skip Russia in offseason
By DOUG FEINBERG
yesterday
SYDNEY (AP) Brittney Griners highly publicized legal woes in Russia and the countrys invasion of Ukraine has the top WNBA players opting to take their talents elsewhere this offseason.
For the past few decades, Russia has been the preferred offseason destination for WNBA players to compete because of the high salaries that can exceed $1 million nearly quadruple the base salary of top WNBA players -- and the resources and amenities teams offered them.
That all has come to an abrupt end.
Honestly my time in Russia has been wonderful, but especially with BG still wrongfully detained there, nobodys going to go there until shes home, said Breanna Stewart, a Griner teammate on the Russian team that paid the duo millions. I think that, you know, now, people want to go overseas and if the money is not much different, they want to be in a better place.
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