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Imprisoned Griner gets support from USA Basketball teammates

(AP) — A’ja Wilson wishes that she within their community. WNBA security executive Paul Whelan is
and her USA Basketball teammates players have been very cohesive in Griner is not the only American de- serving a 16-year sentence on espio-
could do more to help Brittney Gri- the past when rallying behind issues tained in Russia. Marine veteran nage charges that his family and the
ner right now. such as voter registration or the Black Trevor Reed was sentenced to nine U.S. government have said are false.
Lives Matters movement. years in prison in 2020 on charges al- U.S. officials have publicly called for
They’ve all been straddling the line of leging that he assaulted police officers Moscow to release them.
trying not to say anything that could For the first few weeks following Gri- in Moscow. And Michigan corporate
potentially hurt the WNBA star’s ner’s detention, it was decided that it
case as she’s still imprisoned in Rus- was clearly better for them to say less.
sia on drug allegations, but also want- That’s changed over the last few days
ing Griner and her family to know as players have been more available
that they care about her. and willing to talk.

“We’re not not talking BG the bas- “I can guarantee you this, this group
ketball player, we’re talking about here and women of the WNBA
BG the wife, the daughter, the sister , we’re not going to forget about
the human being,” Wilson, the 2020 Brittney Griner,” USA Basketball
WNBA MVP, said Friday at USA coach Cheryl Reeve said. “Brittney’s
Basketball training camp. not here, we’re going to do the things
she would have done. She’s very phil-
“That’s what I’m caring about. I get anthropic. Try to honor her in that
the silence and you don’t want to talk way until the highest level of govern-
about it. I can’t even imagine to put ment can work this out.”
myself in that situation. It’s tough,”
she said. Breanna Stewart has stepped up to
help The Phoenix Rescue Mission, a
Griner, one of many stars who play in charity that Griner has been involved
Russia during the WNBA offseason, with for a long time.
was detained after arriving at a Mos-
cow airport in mid-February. Rus- “While BG is away I wanted to sup-
sian authorities said a search of her port her and her charitable efforts and
luggage revealed vape cartridges that do what I can from an off-the-court
allegedly contained oil derived from standpoint to help her and her fam-
cannabis, which could carry a maxi- ily,” Stewart said.
mum penalty of 10 years in prison.
Griner’s legal team has been quietly
The 6-foot-9 Phoenix Mercury cen- seeking her release and has declined
ter was returning to the country after to speak out about the case since her
the Russian League took a break for arrest was made public.
the FIBA World Cup qualifying tour-
nament. The two-time Olympic gold Of the thousands of U.S. citizens ar-
medalist recently had her detention rested and jailed in prisons abroad,
extended to the middle of May. a small subset are designated by the
U.S. government as wrongfully de-
“Hopefully everyone’s doing what tained — a category that affords their
they need to do to make sure she get’s cases an extra level of government
home safe,” Wilson said. “That’s go- attention and places them under the
ing to be the top priority of all of us. I auspices of the Special Presidential
know it’s tough and hard.” Envoy for Hostage Affairs at the State
Department. The U.S. government
Players have been keeping discus- has not yet put Griner’s case in that
sions about how to best help Griner category.

MLB umpires to announce replay decisons for 1st time

(AP) — In addition to held!” for the first time duct in-park announcements lenged and which team initi-
“Play ball!” and “Yer this season. during the replay reviews this ated the challenge. After the Of 1,305 calls challenged by
Out!”, big league um- season. The decision was de- review, the crew chief will clubs last year, 655 calls were
pires will be heard saying Major League Baseball said layed two seasons because of announce the result. overturned (50.2%), 221
“Overturned!” and “Up- Friday that umpires will con- the coronavirus pandemic. were confirmed (16.9%) and
Audio will go over ballpark 429 were allowed to stand
“We discussed the possibility public-address systems and (32.9%) when there was in-
of doing this with the um- be made available to broad- sufficient evidence to over-
pires during their most re- casters. turn or confirm. There were
cent CBA negotiation,” MLB 159 additional crew chief re-
executive vice president MLB was the last major pro views initiated by an umpire.
Morgan Sword said, “and sport in North America to
then COVID got in the way institute replay when it be- NFL referees were given
our planning. We finally were gan late in the 2008 season wireless microphones in
able this year to give them the for home run calls. Video re- 1975 to explain penalty deci-
appropriate training and get views were vastly expanded sions. The NFL had an initial
everybody ready for opening for the 2014 season. replay system from 1986-
day.” 91, abandoned it, then rein-
Until now, umpires had re- stalled it for the 1999 season.
A crew chief will have a wire- vealed their decisions such as The NHL added a replay sys-
less microphone and first an- safe and out with hand sig- tem in 1991 and the NBA in
nounce the call being chal- nals. 2002.