How Griner’s absence affects Team USA at 2022 FIBA World Cup

The 2022 FIBA World Cup will be the first major competition that the U.S. women’s basketball team will compete in without Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner since the 2012 Summer Olympics. The World Cup, which starts Wednesday in Sydney, will be a poignant marker for the women’s basketball world that one of its most recognizable stars of the past decade is facing an uncertain future in a Russian prison.

Griner has been detained since February, when she was arrested at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport with vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage. Griner had been prescribed medical cannabis in the United States to relieve pain from chronic injuries, but it is illegal in Russia. She was given a nine-year sentence in August, and now she awaits the possibility of a U.S.-Russia prisoner swap, along with fellow American detainee Paul Whelan.

“She really has [been a stalwart of USA Basketball] and that’s something our players have dealt with the entirety of the season,” U.S. coach Cheryl Reeve of the Minnesota Lynx said. “She’s on our minds daily, and we’ll honor her. No one will wear 15. So just finding ways to continue to make sure she knows that she’s being thought of and our players are thinking of her daily.”

Griner, the No. 1 WNBA draft pick in 2013, has been an enthusiastic participant in USA Basketball senior national team events since she made the squad for the 2014 World Cup, which she played in just a couple of weeks after winning the WNBA title with the Mercury. In the Tokyo Olympics last year, Griner averaged 16.5 points, tied for the U.S. lead with Las Vegas Aces forward A’ja Wilson, and 7.2 rebounds.

“She’s a big part of our sisterhood,” said Seattle Storm guard Jewell Loyd, who was Griner’s U.S. teammate in Tokyo. “Getting to…