Griner’s wife: Call never happened
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 since the phone line at the embassy wasn’t staffed, Cherelle Griner said Monday.
The couple hasn’t spoken by phone in the four months since Griner’s arrest in Russia on drug-related charges. That was to have changed Saturday, when a long-awaited call was to have finally taken place. But the day came and went without any contact, leaving an anguished Cherelle Griner to wonder what went wrong and to suspect at least initially that Russian authorities had thwarted the call.
On Monday, she said she learned from her wife’s lawyers a more distressing truth: Brittney Griner had actually tried to call 11 times over a period of several hours, dialing a number she’d 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 because the desk at the embassy where the phone rang was unstaffed on Saturday.
“I was distraught. I was hurt. I was done, fed up,” Cherelle Griner told The AP.
The experience has further exacerbated already simmering frustrations about the U.S. government’s response to her wife’s case. U.S. officials have repeatedly said they’re working behind the scenes to get the two-time Olympian home from Russia and consider her case a top priority. But Cherelle Griner said she remains “very pissed” by the snafu, especially since the call had been on the schedule for two weeks and yet no one warned her during that time that it might be logistically impossible because of the weekend.
The State Department said it was aware of the issue and was looking into it. Cherelle Griner said a contact in the U.S. government had apologized to her. She’s since learned that the one number Brittney Griner had been told to dial typically processes calls from prisoners Mondays through Fridays but not weekends.
College basketball: Darius Lee, a 21-yearold senior guard/forward at Houston Baptist, was killed and eight other people were wounded in an early-morning shooting at a gathering in New York. Lee grew up in Harlem, attended St. Raymond High School for Boys in the Bronx and was back home for summer break. He was scheduled to graduate in December with a bachelor’s degree in sports management. Lee was recently named the university’s male student-athlete of the year. He led the team in scoring and rebounding last season, and finished sixth in the nation in steals per game, earning a second team All-Southland Conference selection.
NBA: An emergency protective order filed last month against veteran PG Rajon Rondo in Louisville, Kentucky, was dismissed. The protective order, which was filed against Rondo by a woman on May 13, was dismissed on Thursday after the “parties reached an agreement,” according to the document obtained by ESPN.
NHL: The Stars were close to an agreement with Peter DeBoer to make him their next coach, according to reports. DeBoer, 54, was fired by the Golden Knights last month.