it is an amazing story, and someone who has gone through that, they could not be changed and they understand every moment, and the gratitude of the opportunities, and the importance of how every moment in our life can be taken from us, and b.g. had that happen to her, and so she probably comes into everyday with a little bit more perspective than most people. good point. when she went to russia and first detained she was one of the most dominant athletes in women s basketball. i mean, she was a force. so, what can people expect when they see her back on the court this season? yeah, she was arguably the best women s basketball player in the world when she was detained. so, it is 10 months of not being able to do that and it is a strain on the body, and she is a larger person, too, and she has been working hard, and a ton of progress, and will she be
they then want to trade back to the united states for people who actually committed crimes. the trade of viktor bout for women s basketball player who made the mistake of traveling to russia for a sporting event and was detained on drug charges. this is not surprising at all, jonathan, if you re a journalist who has to dig into stories the last byline, the last piece he had was about russia s cratering economy about the invasion of ukraine. you can only imagine a reporter with sources sniffing around asking questions, they decide this looks like espionage and they round him up. worrisome indeed. we ll see what the white house has to say in the hours ahead. let s go back now to what president zelenskyy said about xi jinping of china, they ve
other benefit conferred on the hostage takers putting the value on the american citizen and an incentive or would be hostage takers around the world. people have a concern for the individual taken. a president has to have a humanitarian concern for the 30 million americans who are potential hostages. can you leave brittney griner rotting in a penal colony? no. it doesn t mean you do a swap. you put more pressure on the russians. what if that doesn t work? she stuck there. women s basketball player. have you put enough pressure on them? the other point is if you want to be in the swap business it ought to be like for like. the problem we face is that russians, terrorists trump up
nba and wnba. something that the wnba commissioner addressed. let s listen to a little bit of that and talk about it on the other side. we re never going to say they can t play in other leagues in our off-season. but we re focused on driving higher pay, for sure. driving opportunities to pay the players and to get them better benefits. but we need the whole sports ecosystem. we re chipping away at it. rome wasn t built in a day. what can you tell us about the pay disparity that exists? might this case help resolve the situation? and one other thing on my mind is, i can t imagine any wnba player, women s basketball player ever wanting to play basketball in russia ever again after something like this. i was just curious what your thoughts were on that. you re right on target. this is creating a situation that is becoming more of a life and death when it comes to fulfilling our passions and
russia, the merchant of death, convicted in 2011 and found guilty to kill americans and providing aid to terrorists, accused of supporting armed conflict, selling weapons to the killing of american citizens. todd: a lot of unknown and outrage as retired marine paul whelan remains in cap captivity. griff: celebration and seering criticism, especially here in washington following the u.s.-russia prisoner swauch to bring home a professional women s basketball player in exchange for one of the world s most incredibly dangerous arms dealers while leaving behind former marine, paul whelan, who has been in custody several years. brittney griner had been