Some of the obstacles to freeing Brittney Griner were domestic, not foreign.

As Cherelle Griner smiled and said, “Today, my family is whole,” it was impossible not to feel moved by the enormity of the moment. Her wife, WNBA superstar Brittney Griner, was at long last leaving a Russian penal colony.

Don’t believe the nonsense that all this has been about a vape cartridge. Until Dec. 8, Brittney Griner was a political prisoner in Russia. She was sentenced to nine years of hard labor in Mordovia’s “land of prisons” because there is an increasing hot/cold war between the United States and Russia. She was sentenced because she had the misfortune to be profiled, targeted and caught at a Moscow airport, right when Russia was launching what it thought would be an easy invasion of Ukraine. Ever since, she has been part of what is politely called “hostage diplomacy.”

Understanding Griner as a political prisoner would mean building a very specific kind of movement that involves raising the profile and plight of the imprisoned in order to force officials and diplomats to prioritize her freedom. I remember the day when news of Griner’s capture made its way across the ocean, thinking that raising awareness would be the least of our problems. After all, this is 6-foot-8-inch Brittney Griner. Her absence will be noticed. But this was not the case. Instead, there was a kind of organized erasure coming from the 24-hour sports news cycle.

If a Tom Brady or a Steph Curry were in a Russian prison facing years of hard labor, the outcry from the sports world and this government would be a cacophony. But Griner was an afterthought. In the sports world, this reflected how the media treats women’s sports, specifically Black, queer athletes.

Factor in Griner’s history as someone who has raised the issue of police violence on Black lives, including taking a knee during the national anthem, and we had a recipe for erasure. Better to report on Aaron Rodgers’ latest whine to a podcast host than on the efforts to lift Griner’s name and secure her freedom.

There were also many who stayed silent on the counsel of the State Department, who said that any agitation would only make Brittney a more valuable “asset” to Putin.

And yet, as the months dragged on, Cherelle Griner began her own effort to say her wife’s name and encourage others to do the same. Fans and other prominent athletes in the WNBA and NBA worlds – including the aforementioned Curry at the Golden State Warriors championship ring ceremony – called for her freedom. Supporters made homemade buttons and T-shirts. The media got the hint and began pressing people like Griner’s former coach at Baylor, Kim Mulkey, on why they weren’t supporting Griner.

The true hypocrisy would have been choosing silence when faced with Brittney and Cherelle Griner’s pain. Their self-advocacy and calls for solidarity are incredibly inspiring. In a time when inspiration can sometimes seem in short supply, Dec. 8 was a good day.

DAVE ZIRIN is the sports editor of The Nation and the author of The Kaepernick Effect: Taking a Knee, Changing the World.