{"id":12540,"date":"2022-07-15T12:07:57","date_gmt":"2022-07-15T12:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/?p=12540"},"modified":"2022-07-15T12:07:57","modified_gmt":"2022-07-15T12:07:57","slug":"brittney-griner-to-get-support-from-russian-boss-and-teammates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/brittney-griner-to-get-support-from-russian-boss-and-teammates\/","title":{"rendered":"Brittney Griner To Get Support From Russian Boss and Teammates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/brittney-griner-celebrates-with-her-ummc-yekaterinburg-team-mates.jpg\" alt=\"Brittney Griner celebrates with her UMMC Yekaterinburg team mates\" width=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-12541\" \/><strong>Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Brittney Griner\u2019s trial currently underway in Russia<\/li>\n<li>Russian boss and teammates testify of her good character<\/li>\n<li>LeBron James gets flak over Brittney Griner comments<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mobile.twitter.com\/brittneygriner\">WNBA star Brittney Griner<\/a> is currently under enormous pressure as she is under trial in a Russian courtroom facing the <strong>possibility of a 10 year jail sentence<\/strong>. Griner was traveling to Russia during the WNBA off-season to play for <strong>UMMC Yekaterinburg<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Griner was arrested at the Sheremetyevo Airport on 17 Feb for possessing 4 canisters of vape oil which was found to contain cannabis oil. <\/p>\n<p>She has since been locked in a Russian prison as U.S diplomats have tried to secure her freedom but Russia hasn\u2019t been willing to release her.<\/p>\n<h2>Russian Boss and Teammates Come Forward<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Griner recently pleaded guilty to her charges<\/strong> but claimed that her actions were not done intentionally.  When you plead guilty to charges in Russia it does not automatically mean that you are guilty but it does help to move things along faster. Analysts believe this is what Griner\u2019s defense team is trying to do.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/UMMC_Ekaterinburg\">UMMC Yekaterinburg<\/a> boss <strong>Maxim Ryabkov<\/strong> came forward this week to testify on behalf of Griner and vouch for her good character. Ryabkov said that she was an outstanding basketball player who worked well with her team mates and always looked at promoting the right team spirit.<\/p>\n<p>A number of her UMMC Yekaterinburg teammates also testified at the hearing and spoke highly of Griner. <strong>Maria Blagovolina<\/strong>, the legal representative of Griner said that the WNBA star was very emotional during the trial and was touched to see Ryabkov and her teammates from UMMC Yekaterinburg come forward and show her support.<\/p>\n<p>There are many who believe that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/brittney-griner-being-used-as-political-pawn-as-russia-extends-imprisonment\/\">Griner is simply being used as a political pawn by Russia<\/a> in its dealings with the United States of America.<\/p>\n<h2>LeBron James Gets Flak Over Brittney Griner Comments<\/h2>\n<p>Multiple players from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/sports-betting\/basketball\/nba\">NBA<\/a> have also come forward during the last few weeks to support Griner and call for the U.S government to do more to secure her release. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/lebron-james-gets-two-young-fans-ejected-for-making-death-threats-against-him\/\">LeBron James<\/a> recently spoke about Griner in the recent episode of &#8220;<em>The Shop<\/em>&#8221; on youtube and said that if he was in Griner\u2019s shoes, he would think twice about coming back to America after the way they had treated her!<\/p>\n<div style=\"position:relative;height:0;padding-bottom:56.25%\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SRFCUvLBsg4?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0?ecver=2\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"position:absolute;width:100%;height:100%;left:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>James got flak for his comments on social media for putting down America and not being sensitive over Griner\u2019s situation. King James went on social media to clarify that his comments were misinterpreted and that he wasn\u2019t knocking the USA!  <\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">My comments on \u201cThe Shop\u201d regarding Brittney Griner wasn\u2019t knocking our beautiful country. I was simply saying how she\u2019s probably feeling emotionally along with so many other emotions, thoughts, etc inside that cage she\u2019s been in for over 100+ days! Long story short <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/BringHerHome?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#BringHerHome<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; LeBron James (@KingJames) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KingJames\/status\/1547031202611154944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 13, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Summary Brittney Griner\u2019s trial currently underway in Russia Russian boss and teammates testify of her good character LeBron James gets flak over Brittney Griner comments WNBA star Brittney Griner is currently under enormous pressure as she is under trial in a Russian courtroom facing the possibility of a 10 year jail sentence. Griner was traveling [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","category-usa"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Brittney Griner To Get Support From Russian Boss and Teammates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"WNBA star Brittney Griner is currently facing the possibility of a 10 year jail sentence in Russia, but her teammates are preparing to testify on behalf of her\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/brittney-griner-to-get-support-from-russian-boss-and-teammates\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Brittney Griner To Get Support From Russian Boss and Teammates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"WNBA star Brittney Griner is currently facing the possibility of a 10 year jail sentence in Russia, but her teammates are preparing to testify on behalf of her\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/brittney-griner-to-get-support-from-russian-boss-and-teammates\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-07-15T12:07:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/brittney-griner-celebrates-with-her-ummc-yekaterinburg-team-mates.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Landon Wheeler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Landon Wheeler\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/brittney-griner-to-get-support-from-russian-boss-and-teammates\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/brittney-griner-to-get-support-from-russian-boss-and-teammates\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Landon Wheeler\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7735831f7fb7440b065c8376a41cf88d\"},\"headline\":\"Brittney Griner To Get Support From Russian Boss and Teammates\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-15T12:07:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/brittney-griner-to-get-support-from-russian-boss-and-teammates\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":486,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/brittney-griner-to-get-support-from-russian-boss-and-teammates\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/07\\\/brittney-griner-celebrates-with-her-ummc-yekaterinburg-team-mates.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Sports\",\"USA\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/brittney-griner-to-get-support-from-russian-boss-and-teammates\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/brittney-griner-to-get-support-from-russian-boss-and-teammates\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/brittney-griner-to-get-support-from-russian-boss-and-teammates\\\/\",\"name\":\"Brittney Griner To Get Support From Russian Boss and Teammates\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/brittney-griner-to-get-support-from-russian-boss-and-teammates\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/brittney-griner-to-get-support-from-russian-boss-and-teammates\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/07\\\/brittney-griner-celebrates-with-her-ummc-yekaterinburg-team-mates.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-15T12:07:57+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7735831f7fb7440b065c8376a41cf88d\"},\"description\":\"WNBA star Brittney Griner is currently facing the possibility of a 10 year jail sentence in Russia, but her teammates are preparing to testify on behalf of her\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/brittney-griner-to-get-support-from-russian-boss-and-teammates\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/brittney-griner-to-get-support-from-russian-boss-and-teammates\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/07\\\/brittney-griner-celebrates-with-her-ummc-yekaterinburg-team-mates.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/07\\\/brittney-griner-celebrates-with-her-ummc-yekaterinburg-team-mates.jpg\",\"width\":380,\"height\":250,\"caption\":\"Brittney Griner celebrates with her UMMC Yekaterinburg team mates\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7735831f7fb7440b065c8376a41cf88d\",\"name\":\"Landon Wheeler\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/46a3d81b7d342ca0efc5534703b4ff788fb760adae2a0a1be536a2b1a075d464?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/46a3d81b7d342ca0efc5534703b4ff788fb760adae2a0a1be536a2b1a075d464?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/46a3d81b7d342ca0efc5534703b4ff788fb760adae2a0a1be536a2b1a075d464?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Landon Wheeler\"},\"description\":\"All things casino related are what interests Landon, and having been involved in that industry for the last thirty years and having actually worked in several different roles in the casino industry he is definitely very well placed to keep you in the know in regards to what is happening in the casino industry as a whole.\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/author\\\/landon-wheeler\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Brittney Griner To Get Support From Russian Boss and Teammates","description":"WNBA star Brittney Griner is currently facing the possibility of a 10 year jail sentence in Russia, but her teammates are preparing to testify on behalf of her","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/brittney-griner-to-get-support-from-russian-boss-and-teammates\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Brittney Griner To Get Support From Russian Boss and Teammates","og_description":"WNBA star Brittney Griner is currently facing the possibility of a 10 year jail sentence in Russia, but her teammates are preparing to testify on behalf of her","og_url":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/brittney-griner-to-get-support-from-russian-boss-and-teammates\/","article_published_time":"2022-07-15T12:07:57+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/brittney-griner-celebrates-with-her-ummc-yekaterinburg-team-mates.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Landon Wheeler","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Landon Wheeler","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/brittney-griner-to-get-support-from-russian-boss-and-teammates\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/brittney-griner-to-get-support-from-russian-boss-and-teammates\/"},"author":{"name":"Landon Wheeler","@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/7735831f7fb7440b065c8376a41cf88d"},"headline":"Brittney Griner To Get Support From Russian Boss and Teammates","datePublished":"2022-07-15T12:07:57+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/brittney-griner-to-get-support-from-russian-boss-and-teammates\/"},"wordCount":486,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/brittney-griner-to-get-support-from-russian-boss-and-teammates\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/brittney-griner-celebrates-with-her-ummc-yekaterinburg-team-mates.jpg","articleSection":["Sports","USA"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/brittney-griner-to-get-support-from-russian-boss-and-teammates\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/brittney-griner-to-get-support-from-russian-boss-and-teammates\/","url":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/brittney-griner-to-get-support-from-russian-boss-and-teammates\/","name":"Brittney Griner To Get Support From Russian Boss and Teammates","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/brittney-griner-to-get-support-from-russian-boss-and-teammates\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/brittney-griner-to-get-support-from-russian-boss-and-teammates\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/brittney-griner-celebrates-with-her-ummc-yekaterinburg-team-mates.jpg","datePublished":"2022-07-15T12:07:57+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/7735831f7fb7440b065c8376a41cf88d"},"description":"WNBA star Brittney Griner is currently facing the possibility of a 10 year jail sentence in Russia, but her teammates are preparing to testify on behalf of her","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/brittney-griner-to-get-support-from-russian-boss-and-teammates\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/brittney-griner-to-get-support-from-russian-boss-and-teammates\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/brittney-griner-celebrates-with-her-ummc-yekaterinburg-team-mates.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/brittney-griner-celebrates-with-her-ummc-yekaterinburg-team-mates.jpg","width":380,"height":250,"caption":"Brittney Griner celebrates with her UMMC Yekaterinburg team mates"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/","name":"","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/7735831f7fb7440b065c8376a41cf88d","name":"Landon Wheeler","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/46a3d81b7d342ca0efc5534703b4ff788fb760adae2a0a1be536a2b1a075d464?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/46a3d81b7d342ca0efc5534703b4ff788fb760adae2a0a1be536a2b1a075d464?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/46a3d81b7d342ca0efc5534703b4ff788fb760adae2a0a1be536a2b1a075d464?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g","caption":"Landon Wheeler"},"description":"All things casino related are what interests Landon, and having been involved in that industry for the last thirty years and having actually worked in several different roles in the casino industry he is definitely very well placed to keep you in the know in regards to what is happening in the casino industry as a whole.","url":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/author\/landon-wheeler\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12540\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}