Of course, we’re happy that Brittney Griner was released from a Russian prison over a trivial offense, but a lot of people are wondering if we couldn’t have gotten out retired Marine Paul Whelan as well in exchange for the “Merchant of Death,” who senior defense officials say will almost certainly return to arms dealing, just as the prisoners released in exchange for Beau Bergdahl went right back to work as terrorists.
We suppose CNN+ star Jemele Hill wouldn’t like our opening paragraph, what with our bringing up Whelan. Hill is seeing a lot of experts on hostage negotiations on Twitter today:
Did not know there were so many hostage experts with geopolitical expertise on Twitter …
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) December 8, 2022
Neither are you https://t.co/gr1xF2QxGw
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) December 8, 2022
Ah, but she is, or at least she plays one in The Atlantic. Good for Brad Slager for digging up this hot take by Hill:
She was saying…??? https://t.co/xwBptOURfh pic.twitter.com/8bCbC0Lw5d
— Brad Slager: Just Watching Walls Moving Out… (@MartiniShark) December 8, 2022
“If the U.S. gave women’s basketball the respect it deserves, the WNBA star might not be in legal jeopardy,” Hill wrote earlier this year.
Griner’s plight is especially acute because she’s a Black queer woman being held by authorities in a country that is hostile toward LGBTQ people. Russia’s leader, Vladimir Putin, has made a show of embracing “traditional values” that he claims the West has rejected. Last year, he signed a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. In 2013, the country passed a “gay propaganda” law that banned distributing information on LGBTQ issues and relationships to minors. (Of course, elected officials in some U.S. states also approve measures targeting gay and transgender people.)
…
Russia wouldn’t be a tantalizing option for America’s best women’s basketball players if they could earn more at home and be treated with the same professional respect as NBA players. It is damning that teams in oppressive countries such as Russia and China—another opportune marketplace for women’s basketball players—place a higher value on players such as Griner than the teams in her own country do.
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So it’s Hill’s expert take that if Americans paid women in the WNBA more money, they wouldn’t have to play in countries that are even more repressive against LGBTQ people than the United States is. It America’s fault she was taken prisoner.
You write about sports lmfao
— Noam Blum (@neontaster) December 8, 2022
No, she writes about race. Sports is tangential to her agenda.
— Coder, A CoderDyne Account (@CoderInCrisis) December 8, 2022
You’d think she’d be better at spotting a terrible trade then. Nope.
— Sir Poops 🎩 (@Sir_Poops_) December 8, 2022
https://twitter.com/regassert6/status/1600888899404181505
She was not a hostage. https://t.co/CNHopm4Bi3
— 🐒 Alicia Layne 🐒 (@Alicia701) December 8, 2022
Did not know there were so many geopolitical experts on Twitter who don’t know the difference between a ‘hostage’ and a ‘prisoner.’ https://t.co/He577lpFOT
— Darrell B. Harrison (@D_B_Harrison) December 8, 2022
It doesn't take an "expert" to know trading an anti-American arms dealer for an obscure anti-America basketball player is a bad deal.
Especially when there's a marine we could have brought home instead. https://t.co/W8EIjbnQcK
— Coder, A CoderDyne Account (@CoderInCrisis) December 8, 2022
"I don't know what I am talking about, but I must defend Joe Biden at any cost, without any nuance or argument. https://t.co/pZNLTBP1L1
— Nathan Wurtzel (@NathanWurtzel) December 8, 2022
Has been, race baiting ousted sports commentator has thoughts on expertise in one’s field https://t.co/t3huqb2eSA
— The Dank Knight 🦇 (@capeandcowell) December 8, 2022
Race bait clown lady suddenly becomes a prisoner exchange expert. 🤡🤡🤡 https://t.co/LC6CSxLuMZ
— Joel Hemingway (@joelthemingway) December 8, 2022
She writes trash. The medium in inconsequential.
— DarkPrinceFrost (@darkprincefrost) December 8, 2022
As someone said above, you’d think a sports writer would be able to recognize a bad trade when she saw it.
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Related:
Randi Weingarten playing the ‘gay AND Black woman’ card with Brittney Griner’s release goes SO wronghttps://t.co/X3tY8olTIb
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) December 8, 2022
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