The Phoenix Mercury performed their first post-season playoff Wednesday evening with out their star, Britney Grenier, who stays incarcerated in a Russian penal colony after being convicted on drug costs.
There is hope for Grenier to return to the United States in the close to future, after a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman confirmed final week that Russia is taking part with the United States in prisoner change negotiations. But what would life be like for Griner if the commerce was profitable, and she or he returns dwelling quickly? More particularly, what is going to her monetary scenario be like after being incarcerated since February?
The easy reply is that her checking account should be in fine condition. The WNBA introduced in May that Griner will obtain her full wage whereas she stays in Russia, and the cash won’t depend towards the utmost wage for Phoenix Mercury.
Griner has signed a three-year contract extension with Phoenix Mercury for $664,544 in 2020, which can give it $221,450 for the 2021-2022 season and $227,900 for the 2022-2023 season.
Photo by Alexander Zemlianchenko/Paul/AFP by way of Getty Images
Of course, her WNBA wage appears minuscule in comparison with the hundreds of thousands of {dollars} that male basketball stars make. For this very purpose, Griner has traveled to Russia to play throughout the low season WNBA for the previous seven years, with UMMC Ekaterinburg paying the athlete greater than $1 million per season.
But the basketball courtroom is not the one place Griner makes cash: she’s additionally elevating a good quantity from an endorsement take care of Nike. In 2013, she grew to become the primary overtly homosexual athlete to signal a contract with the shoe firm when she agreed to a $1 million deal. Currently, Nike sells Griner T-shirts for $100.
Greiner could possibly be poised to get extra endorsement offers each time she returns to the US, in addition to probably accumulating pay for private appearances. With lots of her supporters feeling her imprisonment is a political transfer by Russia, she doubtless has many alternatives forward of her from folks seeking to assist her after the ordeal.
If a US-proposed prisoner change plan — which might see Grenier and ex-US Marine Paul Whelan changed by Russian arms supplier Viktor Bout — fails, Grenier can nonetheless be repatriated by the authorized system. On Monday, her authorized protection crew in Russia appealed her conviction.
When a Russian courtroom convicted her in early August of drug smuggling, she was sentenced to 9 years in jail and a $16,400 positive. She was arrested in February whereas massing Russia to invade Ukraine for carrying e-cigarette cartridges containing a complete of 0.702 grams of hashish oil.
NEWSWEEK I contacted the Russian Foreign Ministry for remark.
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