Griner’s wife says call didn’t happen

WNBA star Brittney Griner tried to call her wife nearly a dozen times through the American embassy in Russia on the couple’s fourth anniversary Saturday, but they never connected because the phone line at the embassy was not staffed, Cherelle Griner said Monday.

The couple have not spoken by phone in the four months since Griner’s arrest in Russia, where she remains jailed. That was to have changed Saturday, when a call was to finally have taken place after getting Russian government approval. But the day came and went without contact.

On Monday, Cherelle Griner said she learned from her wife’s lawyers that Brittney Griner actually tried to call 11 times over a period of several hours, dialing a number she had been given at the U.S. embassy in Moscow, which the couple had been told would then patch the call through to Cherelle Griner in Phoenix. But each time, the call went unanswered.

“I was distraught,” Cherelle Griner said.

The State Department said Monday that “we deeply regret that Brittney Griner was unable to speak with her wife because of a logistical error.”

Brittney Griner, a seventime WNBA All-Star who plays for the Phoenix Mercury, was detained at a Russian airport Feb. 17 after authorities there said a search of her bag revealed vape cartridges containing cannabis oil. In May, the State Department designated her as wrongfully detained.

The NBA released its 75game summer league schedule, with the first game set to pit Orlando against Houston on July 7. Most teams will open their Las Vegas slates July 8 or July 9.