With Brittney Griner finally home, WiltonReports looks back on the year that was in women’s basketball and what should come next
Brittney Griner is finally home. For nearly 10 months, her name was linked to unhappiness and unsettled spirits within countless WNBA players, fans and other Americans. If her name did not already reverberate in your mind based on her sheer court wizardry for the Mercury, three words—#FreeBrittneyGriner—likely strengthened your perception of the eight-time All-Star., not everyone is jovial and radiating with smiles to see the eight-time All-Star reemerge in American society. Some are perplexed.
By contrast, in playing for Russian powerhouse UMMC Ekaterinburg the last eight seasons, she reportedly earned $1 million per year, according to. But when that opportunity was taken from Griner, women stood up and advocated for others to stand in the gaps for her during the darkest moments of her life.
Will the W grow in the way that the NBA did? The NBA had its kinks and phases of labor and bargaining issues. However, that league’s international strides played an influential part in the growth of the game. As such, like the NBA, the W plays a big part in soliciting the excitement and growth for the sport, especially for the increasing talent constantly brewing in the college ranks. It’s one thing for the coaches to want more; the players want more, too.
Griner’s absence was felt within both the W and the collegiate game. For Staley, who guided the Gamecocks to their second national title in a victory against UConn in April, she was exhausted from coaching her team—anchored by Aliyah Boston—and torn about Griner being away, describing last season as one that felt incomplete.
And players like Aces star A’ja Wilson, the former commander of Staley’s first national championship and a U.S. teammate of Griner’s, completed the journey to Las Vegas’s first WNBA title, under splashy new coach Becky Hammon, at that. But even then,the two-time MVP felt the absence of her sister BG. "Our league doesn't even feel the same without her,” WilsonFrom the WNBA All-Star game, in which both teams wore Griner’s name and No.
The players are the pulse of this league. It’s time that they get the respect they deserve. Treat them as world-class athletes that they are. “Talent is everything,” Staley says. “You cannot do it without the players. … You can’t.” Imagine if athletes like South Carolina’s Boston, Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, Stanford’s Haley Jones, Notre Dame’s Olivia Miles and Maryland’s Diamond Miller—or even players who will come after them—have to withstand what Griner suffered through.
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