Former WNBA MVP Breanna Stewart has made charter air travel a key factor in her free agency, league sources told ESPN.
The issue of private air travel has come to the forefront of free agent conversations around the WNBA, multiple sources told ESPN, because of the assumption that Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner will need to fly privately due to security concerns after she was released from a Russian prison camp in December. Griner was arrested at an airport in Russia last February after authorities there found a small amount of hashish oil in her luggage. She was then wrongfully detained for nine months, before her release as part of a prisoner swap negotiated by President Joe Biden’s administration.
If Griner were to fly privately the league would have to address whether her teammates on the Mercury would fly privately with her. That would raise the question of fairness for the other teams in the league, which are barred from flying privately.
Griner has indicated she wants to play for the Mercury again this season, but as yet, has not asked for special travel accommodations from the league, sources said.
Stewart, who has played with Griner on United States’ national teams and tweeted about her nearly every day of Griner’s incarceration, raised the…
