Brittney Griner: The 'Tom Brady of women's basketball' has vanished

She's arguably the greatest female basketball player of all time, and she's been detained in Moscow amid a war. Fans want to know why more people aren't paying attention.

In one of the last public sightings of Brittney Griner, captured on CCTV, the American professional basketball player is seen walking through airport security trailing a small, black suitcase.

Griner, a star centre for the Phoenix Mercury, had landed at the Sheremetyevo airport outside of Moscow, there to play another season with a Russian league.

In the security footage, Griner wears running shoes, black sweatpants and a black hoodie with "Black Lives for Peace" written on the back, her dark hair hanging in braids down past her shoulders.

At 6ft 9in - tall even by basketball standards - she towers above the customs agents and other travellers.

In another shot, Griner is seen sitting in front of a man, seemingly a customs agent, shaking her head "no". Then, nothing - until a Russian mugshot emerged on state television last week.

Griner, 31, is believed to have been arrested by Russian authorities on drug charges.

A month after her detention, little is known about her circumstances.

The uncertainty around Griner's fate has fuelled an outpouring of support for the player, who is considered by fans and sports analysts alike to be perhaps the greatest female basketball player of all time.

And it has also engendered a sense of outrage among some fans who say the response to Griner's detainment has been strangely muted.

Fans and experts say that the attention she's been given in comparison to male players exposes longstanding gender inequities in professional sports.

"If this was an NBA [professional men's league] player of her calibre...This would be on the cover of not only every sports page but every news media page in the world," said Tamryn Spruill, a sports journalist who is writing a book on Griner.

Griner, a nine-year veteran of the league - is the "best of the best", said Melissa Isaacson, a sportswriter and professor at Northwestern University.

"She's every bit the Tom Brady of her sport," Ms Isaacson said. "You could argue very accurately that she is one of the best athletes in the world."

A native of Houston, Texas, she earned a basketball scholarship to Baylor University where she led the team to a national championship.

She is now one of the WNBA's most dominant players in history, widely considered the best offensive player in the league.

Few have accomplished what Griner has done - winning a college championship, WNBA and Euroleague titles and an Olympic gold medal. And, famously, her ability to dunk is unmatched.

Off the court, she has also been seen as a trailblazer, coming out as gay at age 22, just around the time of her entry into professional sport.

She then became the first overall draft pick in the WNBA that year and, soon after, the first openly gay athlete to be endorsed by Nike.

"Before Griner, there was this shadow over the league, where it was like 'don't say gay,'" Ms Spruill said. "And she was just like 'screw that, this is who I am'."

"BG's always been one to be a pioneer," Griner's teammate, Diana Taurasi has said.

Despite all this, Griner had a second job, and that was why she had flown to Russia - to play for EuroLeague team UMMC Ekaterinburg, where she had worked since 2014 during the US off-season.

Roughly half of WNBA players compete overseas in the off-season. For most, it's a way to augment their domestic income: WNBA players receive roughly five times more in Russia than they do in the US.

"If she were Steph Curry or LeBron James, she wouldn't be over there at all because she'd be making enough money," Ms Spruill said.

Griner's counterparts in the men's league make more than 200 times the maximum WNBA salary.

Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, the EuroLeague suspended all Russian teams and US and WNBA officials began calling players out of the country.

But it was too late for Griner, who is believed to have entered Russia one week earlier, on 17 February, though the timing remains unclear.

The Russian Federal Customs Service said in a press release that a sniffer dog had led authorities to search the carry-on luggage of an American basketball player and that it had found vape cartridges containing hashish oil. A state-owned Russian news agency, Tass, identified the player as Griner.

Russian authorities only confirmed her detention the third week of March, though they disclosed she was stopped at the airport in February. Where she is being held, and under what circumstances, is not publicly known.

US authorities and representatives for Griner have been mostly silent except to say they are working to bring her home.

A state department spokesperson confirmed Griner's detention, telling the BBC they were "aware of and closely engaged on this case".

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week that American officials are "doing everything we can" to help Griner.

"There's only so much I can say given the privacy considerations at this point," Blinken said.

Griner's agent, Lindsay Colas, has said she was in "close contact" with Griner and her lawyer in Russia, but could not comment further.

While there is no indication that Griner's arrest was connected to the invasion of Ukraine, some US officials have indicated strained US-Russian relations may jeopardise her safe return.

"We don't want Ms Griner to become a pawn in the political battle that's being waged throughout the world right now," said US congressman John Garamendi, a member of the House of Representatives' armed services committee.

"The war in Ukraine has essentially severed diplomatic ties between the US and Russia," Mr Garamendi said. "That is going to exacerbate this issue."

Russia has so far blocked consular access to Griner for the US embassy, he said.

She is said to face up to 10 years in prison if convicted on drug charges.

The US embassy in Russia did not respond to a request for comment.

As Griner nears the end of what is believed to have been a month in detention, some fans have been left incredulous by an apparent lack of attention for a world-class athlete in prison among sports media.

Some have speculated that the silence may be intentional - an effort to avoid inflaming an already precarious situation amid negotiations with Russia.

But others, like Ms Spruill, say the somewhat muffled coverage on Griner lays bare the clear inequities faced by female athletes.

Much more ink has been devoted to male players - whether it is American football player's Tom Brady's on-again, off-again retirement, Novak Djokovic's Covid saga in Australia, or Aaron Rodger's vaccination status - than to Griner, Ms Spruill says.

Nearly 60,000 fans have signed an online petition, organised by Ms Spruill, demanding the US government prioritise her safe return and treat her like "any other sports icon".

"There has absolutely not been enough coverage," Ms Spruill said. "It's hard for me to read that other than a choice by the broader media."

Griner's wife, Cherelle, posted on Instagram last week about the painful wait.

"People say 'stay busy.' Yet, there's not a task in this world that could keep any of us from worrying about you. My heart, our hearts, are all skipping beats everyday that goes by," she wrote.

"There are no words to express this pain. I'm hurting, we're hurting".