Collateral damage

 Brittney Griner sits in a jail cell in Russia right now, a casualty of war and penuriousness. One has nothing to do with the other, and yet they have everything to do with each other.

The casualty of war part ... well, Griner's basically being held hostage by the Russians in retaliation for U.S. and Western sanctions that are in turn retaliation for Russia/s lawless invasion of Ukraine. The official charge is possession of vaping paraphernalia with traces of cannabis oil -- an infraction that carries an absurd 10-year sentence, and which would have been resolved in about five minutes if the Russians weren't reducing Ukrainian cities to rubble.

Griner, after all, is a star basketball player in Russia. I'm guessing that carries weight in a corrupt oligarchy where greasing the right palms is no doubt the national pastime.

And the penuriousness part?

That's on her offseason employer, the WNBA. Because Griner, a future Hall of Famer, wouldn't be a star basketball player in Russia if the WNBA paid its players anywhere close to what it should.

An interesting aside in the news stories about Griner is the fact she makes a cool million bucketing for UMMC Ekaterinburg in Russia. That's four times what she makes playing for Phoenix in the WNBA, even though she's one of the league's most decorated players. A seven-time league All-Star, her resume includes a WNBA championship with the Mercury, two Olympic gold medals and a college national championship at Baylor.

Yet there she is in Russia, supplementing her income. And she's hardly alone. Among other WNBA stars playing in Russia or Ukraine this winter were league MVP Jonquel Jones, and Courtney Vandersloot and Allie Quigley -- last seen leading the Chicago Sky to the 2021 WNBA title.

All of them got out safely. Griner did not. She's collateral damage on two fronts, in a sense.

"Brittney Griner has the WNBA's full support ..." the league said in a statement after Griner was detained.

Pretty words. But words only.