Curtis Houck suggesting that WNBA star Brittney Griner’s detention in Russia is “unjustified” is an anomaly at the Media Research Center — his MRC colleagues continue to cheer that she’s rotting away in a Russian prison on trumped-up drug charges. The MRC’s lead Griner-hater, sports blogger Jay Maxson, devoted a June 23 screed to ranting that the WNBA was still supporting her:
Wonders never cease in the wide woke world of the Women’s National Basketball Association. While doing time in a Russian prison on drug charges, Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner just made the WNBA All-Star Game as an honorary starter. Her initials and uniform number are adorning center court in each of the league’s 12 arena, too.
The 2022 WNBA season began May 6, Griner hasn’t played a single game, allegedly broke Russian law and has been in jail there since Feb. 17. Russian officials recently extended her detainment to July 2. No matter, she is being hailed by her woke American comrades as a heroin [sic].
[…]Once again, merit means nothing to virtue signalers on the far Left. Symbolism trumps substance. A criminal record for a black lesbian athlete is now a badge of honor.
If law breaking is the standard, then it’s not a stretch to assume more honors will be directed Griner’s way. Will woke do-gooders who want to make themselves feel better start piling on the accolades for the 6-foot-9-inch basketball player?
One can’t help but imagine Griner making the woke TV tour: Good Morning America, ESPN, The View and other woke outposts.
Once freed and back in the U.S., will Griner be decorated with the Presidential Medal of Freedom?
Will she be selected grand marshal of the Rose Parade?
Which woke corporations will vie for her services as a product spokeswoman?
Why not just name Griner WNBA Player of the Year right now? She’s a perennial all-star, and everyone assumes she’d again be a dominant player in the league again this season. So why not just give her another honor she hasn’t earned by actually playing? Who cares about the grunts actually playing the game right now, spilling their sweat and giving their all? With her arrest record, Griner deserves all the accolades she can read about it in prison.
A July 7 post by Maxson cheered fellow right-wing sports guy Jason Whitlock denigrating Griner as greedy, with a weird detour to the Capitol riot:
Griner is getting what Whitlock describes as a taste of Russian oppression – in “Wokedown Palace.” It’s similar to 19th century America, he said, adding, “We can only hope that when she does return to America, she’ll muster the courage to sing this country’s praises.”
[…]Whitlock says he has more sympathy for the late Ashli Babbitt and the incarcerated January 6 protesters than he has for Brittney Griner. Making an American citizen a political prisoner is exactly what his schoolteachers told him Russia does.
The Capitol insurrectionists committed crimes, and Babbitt was a domestic terrorist in the midst of committing a felony inside the Capitol when a law enforcement officer determined she was a clear and present threat and shot her. Maxson seems as eager as Whitlock to justify the criminality of people who aren’t black lesbians.
Maxson also touted Whitlock whining that Griner worked too hard by playing in Russia: “‘She’ll go anywhere and say anything for the paycheck,’ Whitlock wrote. ‘Dissatisfied with her WNBA salary, Griner traveled to Russia to earn her millions. There’s a cost to the global agenda – a loss of American rights, customs, and freedom.'”Maxson and Whitlock didn’t explain why it’s a bad thing for Griner to work where she gets paid better, or why she should be forced to settle for an insufficient WNBA paycheck.
Later that day, when Griner pleaded guilty in a Russian courtroom, Maxson rushed to gloat:
The Biden Administration is eating crow after WNBA all-star and vape smuggler Brittney Griner pleaded guilty Thursday in a Russian court. In May, the Biden Administration declared the Phoenix Mercury center and U.S. Olympic basketball champion is being “wrongfully detained.”
The towering, 6-foot-9-inch Griner was arrested in February at a Moscow airport for attempting to board a plane while carrying drugs. “I’d like to plead guilty, your honor,” she said Thursday in court. “But there was no intent. I didn’t want to break the law.”
The U.S. government might want to walk back its “wrongfully detained” statement issued this spring. With her guilty plea Thursday, Griner certainly didn’t take that approach in her appearance before the judge.
[…]Griner is due back in court July 14, and if her lawyers are smart, they’ll drop the “wrongfully detained” and “role model” hooey.
Maxson clearly doesn’t believe a black non-heterosexual can or should be a “role model.” Maxson omitted the part from the Fox News article on the plea to which he linked where a Russia expert called the charges against Griner a “sham.”
Maxson continued to be obsessed with Griner’s race and sexual orientation in a July 20 post complaining that the Espy Awards gave her attention:
ESPN’s annual ESPY awards show tonight will maintain their woke tradition by honoring admitted law-breaker Brittney Griner, a black, lesbian pro basketball player. In case you haven’t paid attention to the barrage of headlines on this WNBA basketball player, she’s been in a Russian jail since February and recently pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis while attempting to board a plane in Moscow.
Woke media have gone to ridiculous lengths the past few months maintaining that – somehow – the lesbian Griner is a victim of American marginalization of female athletes and LGBT people and was forced to play basketball in Russia to make extra money during the WNBA’s offseason.
[…]Griner’s behavior was reckless and illegal. Yet she’s become a cause célèbre to the wide woke world of sports. The WNBA features “BG42” decals on all of its team’s courts this season. The woke league also named her an honorary all-star starter for this season. If this all sounds like over-the-top star treatment for a wrongdoer, it is.
The U.S. government is attempting to secure Griner’s release with a potential prisoner swap. Meanwhile, the left-stream media jostle with each other to see who can use her story to score the most pathetic virtue signaling points. ESPN will score hollow points in that regard tonight.
It’s as if Maxson is motivated by an irrational hatred of black lesbian women rather than any sense of justice.