MSNBC: Brittney Griner wouldn't have been in Russia if not for 'maddening pay disparity'

We’d call this a hot take but actually it’s a warmed-over take from back in March, when Jemele Hill wrote in The Atlantic that “Brittney Griner’s plight says more about America than Russia.” And what did it say, precisely? “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,” Hill wrote. See, if the WNBA paid more, Griner never would have been in Russia.

We had to check to see if Hill had rewritten her piece for MSNBC, but no, it’s someone else. But it is a repost of a piece from March, so we don’t know who copied whom.

If it weren't for a maddening pay disparity, Brittney Griner almost certainly would not have been in Russia. https://t.co/N5DHJTquh1

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) December 8, 2022

Dave Zirin wrote:

Sue Hovey, former ESPN executive editor and co-author of Brittney Griner’s 2015 memoir “In My Skin: My Life On and Off the Basketball Court” sent me this note via email:

“Brittney’s detainment in Russia also once again shines the spotlight on an unfortunate truth: that the vast majority of WNBA players earn their living overseas. A lot of casual sports fans still don’t know this, which kind of blows my mind. But that just shows you how much more work needs to be done when it comes to raising awareness around equity issues in women’s sports.”

…

Whether we are talking about oil or women’s basketball, the question comes down to what we, a country of 300 million people, are willing to support and what we are willing to sacrifice. Prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. had been happy to get cheap Russian oil as much as the WNBA was fine with seeing the comparatively meager salaries of their players subsidized by traveling overseas. Now that the global climate has changed, it’s time to restructure our economic decisions and investments.

“Investments?” Is the government supposed to pay WNBA players higher salaries?