Yes, I know - I still call my fellow 40 something gal pals "girls".

She is indeed a woman/frau/femme/signora

The sad truth is that she probably doesn't have that kind of team, WNBA players are paid peanuts.
For reference the highest paid mens player earns 200x more than the highest paid womens player. That's precisely why Griner was in Russia, to supplement her earnings.

Meanwhile, we're all in CH to "supplement the earnings"

I think the money earned from smuggling a few cannabis vape cartridges is sufficiently insignificant to branding this a honest mistake.

I feel we'll be hearing a lot more about the back-and-forth of negotiating a release in return for another person or two.

Sad, sad world.

Exactly... 1m vs 200k

https://www.foxbusiness.com/sports/b...ssian-earnings

I think this video clearly explains why there is a disparity

Yes you are right. I hadn’t realised she was less than half my age.

Long story short:
1. UK guy does the exact same in the UAE... gets 25 years (later reduced to 10) for not following the drug laws. (https://news.sky.com/story/billy-hoo...ation-12483424)

Made the news a day or two but largely: nobody cares. And the difference if any is that his vape oil didnt even contain THC...

2. If it is however Russia instead of Dubai... does the whole thing of course become a purely political move. And it is for sure Putin himself behind all of it...

If I'd try to smuggle drugs into the US would I also end up at a federal court and most likely in prison. Was it a genuine mistake? Most likely. But thats not how laws work... "I didnt know I couldnt do that" only works in a Chapelle sketch, not with Russian cops.

Or US cops, or Australian cops, or Japanese cops, or …

Well, there is a large chunk of the planet where an US ambassador apparently can fix those things with a phone call... its this undertone of "she is a US CITIZEN" in the US reporting... as if this should make her immune to foreign law enforcement or as if that made her some sort of target for the Russian cops. They in all honesty only did the job they are supposed to do. Is the sentencing harsh? Absolutely. Should weed be legal? Sure. But it isnt right now so breaking the law comes at a cost. More so in Russia. Not exactly a secret.

You call $200k peanuts? Seriously?
How much revenue does she generate for this pay, an amount that is many times the average employee pay? And that's not even including sponsorships from companies.

Maybe the women should work to increase viewership, a higher revenue stream would allow for higher pay. If things are the same as with football their league isn't even profitable and needs financing by the men's league.

Her pay in Russia is estimated in the 1-1.5 million ballpark, her wealth $17 millions. She's not a pauper. She doesn't starve, she doesn't even need to work. She took the risk for the nice mullah, got caught making a mistake and now pays the price.

Tough luck, that's how things work. Why should she be treated any different than the average John Doe? Did you equally support Trump's pardoning of ASAP Rocky, after he was sentenced for something like carrying a gun in New York?

While black in the US penal colony, no issues for them getting alive there
(you forget - there is no death penalty in Russia, at least not yet... unlike in the 'civilized' US...).

As if seeking employment by an oligarch is all of a sudden a worthy undertaking, just because you're an "underpaid" female.

Double standards galore.

I never said she is underpaid. I don't watch basketball, football, or anything similar. If people had similar habits to me there would be hardly any money to be made in these sports either for females or males. So is for many other professions, it is a relatively free market and I agree actually with you on what you wrote regarding the salaries.

You are making wrong conclusikns on what I meant.

What I do mean is that I understand why she would go to Russia to earn more as it is significantly more.

I also agree with Castro that she may not necessarily have all the supporting personel some male stars have as she does not earn that much in total. She may or may not but that amount of money after tax is not enough for a lavish lifestyle some other famous people have.

Ma'am, with all respect, if money matters that much, why are we in CH and not in Russia?

Personally and in no particular order…
Rule of law
Individual Freedom/Liberalism
Democracy
Stable economy/currency


Those are absolutes.
Subjectively:
My quality of life and standard of living are better here
Weather
Language
Proximity to other places I‘d like to visit

Not in the judicial meaning of the word, but I‘m pretty sure that that Litvinenko, the Skripal family, Navalny (but for the grace of German medicine) and the „defendants“ in the kangaroo courts organised by Russia and their puppets during their illegal invasion of Ukraine would disagree. To suggest that the Russian state isn‘t capable and willing to bring (extra-judicial) capital punishment on its opponents is risible.

Well, you're a rational guy. I'm a damned romantic. I'm still here because I can enjoy the haircut I want and still work as ____ engineer

PS, Switzerland has a volleyball league for tall athletic girls.

And this is coming out only now why?
(Or at least by BBC OP's article)

It came out in February.

The sentence came out yesterday.

Tom