Brittney Griner is powerless. So are her supporters.

Griner was in a Moscow suburb, being led right into a courtroom the place she’ll by no means discover actual and precise justice. Within the gallery of onlookers, there was a minimum of one news photographer snapping away. Just for an instantaneous, she was captured in a state of surprise — her eyes broad open, her brows raised above her wire-rimmed glasses. There’s no telling why Griner flashed that expression. But a world away, that picture got here throughout our telephones, Twitter feeds and tv screens.

We’re stressed and fired up. We yearn for somebody to do one thing. We cry for justice. And but we are able to’t do a factor.

Brittney Griner will stand trial beginning July 1 in Russia

All our American units, those we depend on for our calls for to be heard and seen — to specific our freedoms, rights and frustrations — can not #FreeBrittney. She stays locked away, in all probability unaware of what number of of her fellow basketball players, and even involved citizens, have rallied to her trigger.

But beneath the impassioned shouts and silent prayers, there was a tragic realization. If we are certainly BG, because the T-shirt declares, then we are simply as helpless as she is.

It stuns a U.S. resident that Griner, a winner at each degree and a recognizable face in girls’s basketball since her teen years, might face a decade in jail for allegedly getting into Sheremetyevo International Airport with vape cartridges that contained hashish oil in her baggage. How can such an enormous in her trade be caged for such a trivial matter? The unjust punishment boggles the thoughts.

But it’s simply as troublesome to simply accept how ineffective our American strategies of protest have been on this state of affairs.

We are fast to mobilize behind causes and consider there will probably be energy in our numbers. And we anticipate outcomes. On Tuesday, a preferred rapper tweeted, then deleted, “why is no one talking about britteny griner,” misspelling her identify whereas questioning what he perceived to be an absence of consideration on her case. In fact, consideration has surged since her February arrest. The horrifying actuality: That hasn’t led to any obvious progress.

But that hasn’t stopped the gamers of the WNBA, as soon as once more, from dashing to the rescue.

We’ve seen the lasting energy when skilled athletes put their jobs on the road to take up a trigger — Curt Flood sacrificing his profession to tackle Major League Baseball’s reserve clause and start a brand new period of athletic freedom, Arthur Ashe awakening to his energy on the climax of his tennis profession and advocating for social justice. Still, no group of athletes has demonstrated the fearlessness of WNBA gamers.

The girls protested police brutality during the playing of the national anthem earlier than Colin Kaepernick took a knee, squared up towards a sitting senator — and gained — then moved to the front lines for vaccine advocacy when a number of of their male counterparts, who have larger platforms, declined that duty.

For their sister, WNBA gamers are not remaining silent over issues of doubtless hurting her case. But even their makes an attempt haven’t expedited any extra apparent urgency from the U.S. authorities to safe her launch.

And so we wait, imagining what else and what extra we might do.

Griner will stand trial starting Friday, however her detention already has been prolonged one other six months. During this time, we’ll see her being led into court docket, decreasing herself and carrying handcuffs. It will probably be like watching a film and holding out hope for a plot twist once you’re already fairly positive of the ending.

Beneath the sympathy for her is a egocentric streak of unhappiness, nearly too embarrassing to say out loud. The thought consumes anyway: If the 31-year-old is convicted — and there’s a big likelihood she will probably be — her enjoying days can be over.

She has been dunking with athletic ease since she was a high school student. As a junior at Baylor, she grew to become the primary Division I participant — man or lady — to document 2,000 factors and 500 blocks in a school profession. She went on to win a WNBA championship and two Olympic gold medals. Still, how many people have truly witnessed Griner on the basketball court docket?

How few of us have bought tickets and tuned in to the video games of a generational star? If extra of us had watched, would she and her friends not have wanted to complement their salaries abroad, in locations reminiscent of Russia?

With a WNBA star detained, tensions brew over gamers going abroad

She is a marvel we could by no means see once more — and, sadly, one we didn’t absolutely admire throughout the apex of her profession. Our full-throated help won’t be sufficient to repair that mistake.

Her spouse does interviews and shares the maddening story of the botched phone name on the date of their fourth wedding ceremony anniversary. We tweet help, however our consolation towards her feels futile.

Her teammates and friends throughout the WNBA put on these T-shirts and play on surfaces that show her initials. We salute and even take part with the efforts, however our cheers sound hole.

Her authorities says it prioritizes the safety of U.S. residents overseas and guarantees to press for her launch. We hear the phrases, however our belief on this course of wanes each day — 132 days and counting — by which Griner has been refrained from her household, her mates and her profession.

Though protest is encoded in our tradition — a language we share even once we divide into separate battlegrounds — our weapon of alternative isn’t denting the impermeable Russian armor that surrounds her. Our blaring frustrations and accusatory social media posts have accounted for therefore little, if something, for Griner.

She is so accessible to us, in fast video clips and tiny frozen photographs, but we are able to’t assist her.