Saturday, August 20, 2022

Map shows which states show the most support for Brittney Griner as the WNBA star seeks freedom from Russian prison

Brittney Griner.
Brittney Griner is escorted to a court room in Russia for her drug smuggling trial.AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko

Brittney Griner has been detained in Russia for more than half a year.

The WNBA superstar was first arrested in February, when customs agents at a Moscow airport found cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage. Since then, she's been convicted of drug smuggling with criminal intent and sentenced to nine years in Russian prison.

Brittney Griner.
Griner behind bars.Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool/AP Photo

The US State Department has classified Griner as "wrongfully detained," which sends a "strong signal that the US government does not believe that there is a legitimate case against her," as an expert previously told Insider. Even still, plenty of Americans have been vocal about the fact that they don't want the two-time Olympic gold medalist to come home.

The team at betonline.ag set out to find where those people opposed to Griner's return — and, conversely, those offering their support — are located. Using trends software with direct access to geotagged Twitter data from more than 180,000 tweets, the group determined which states produced the most tweets with phrases like "free brittney griner," "bring brittney home," "#wearebg," "#freebrittneygriner," and more that expressed support for the eight-time WNBA All-Star.

Unsurprisingly, Arizona — home to Griner's WNBA franchise, the Phoenix Mercury — offered more support for the 6-foot-9 center than any other state. South Carolina, Oregon, and Massachusetts followed close behind at the top of the list.

Brittney Griner.
Brittney Griner.Michael Hickey/Getty Images

Though Griner is a Houston, Texas, native and brought a national championship to Baylor Bears, the Lone Star State was not among the top-10 most favorable to the superstar. In general, Griner is seemingly best supported in the Southwest and on both coasts, with minimal support coming from the Midwest excepting for Illinois and Iowa.

Here's the list of the top 1o states most favorable towards the embattled American basketballer:

1. Arizona
2. South Carolina
3. Oregon
4. Massachusetts
5. Iowa
6. Illinois
7. Maryland
8. Washington
9. Georgia
10. Colorado

And here's the map depicting which US states produced the most and fewest supportive tweets:

A map depicting which states have produced the most and least tweets in support of Brittney Griner.
Griner is seemingly best supported in the Southwest and on both coasts, with minimal support coming from the Midwest excepting for Illinois and Iowa.betonline.ag

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