“The View” co-host Sunny Hostin said Thursday that the release of WNBA player Brittney Griner proves that women basketball players need to be paid more.
Griner was released Thursday in exchange for notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout, also known as the “Merchant of Death.” Russian authorities arrested Griner in February after allegedly catching her with cannabis oil at a Moscow airport. In August, a court sentenced her to nine years in a Russian penal colony.
Hostin, who sits on the WNBA board of advocates, said both she and her daughter play basketball and that Griner’s release “highlights why our women need to be paid their value in sports because that’s why she was over there in the first place.”
To supplement her income from the Phoenix Suns, where she makes an average annual salary of $221,450, Griner played for the Russian team UMMC Ekaterinburg during the WNBA off-season. (RELATED: NFL Star Says He’s Still Not Voting For Joe Biden After Brittney Griner Release)
The panel also discussed U.S. marine Paul Whelan, who began serving a 16-year Russian prison sentence in 2020 and was not included in the prisoner exchange.
“We’re not going to forget [Whelan],” co-host Whoopi Goldberg said. “We’re going to remind Americans every day that he’s there, and that he needs to come back.”
“We don’t want the family to think that we’re not paying attention,” she added.