Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde once wrote that “life imitates art far more often than art imitates life.” A perfect illustration of that aphorism is the story of WNBA star Brittney Griner, with its enriching theme about patriotism rediscovered.
In 2019, Griner, a seven-time WNBA All-Star and two-time Olympic gold medalist, made news when she ventured outside the sports pages and opined that the WNBA should stop playing the national anthem before games.
To highlight a veiled critique of America, she vowed not to leave the locker room when the anthem was being performed. In an interview with The Arizona Republic, she said, “I honestly feel we should not play the national anthem during our season. I think we should take that much of a stand.”
The story took an unexpected turn last year, when she was arrested at the Moscow airport for having a vape cartridge containing hashish oil in her luggage. After languishing for almost 10 months in a Russian prison, she was returned to the U.S. as part of a prisoner swap, controversial because she was traded for a notorious Russian arms dealer.
That is life; where is art?
While Griner was in the Russian prison, her plight resembled that of a fictional character, Philip Nolan, the protagonist of an 1863 short story by Edward Everett Hale, “The Man Without a Country.” In the story, which is an appeal for national unity during the Civil War, Nolan is an Army officer who becomes involved in an 1807 plot to overthrow the U.S. government. Captured, tried and convicted of treason, Nolan excoriates the assembled crowd in the courtroom before being sentenced, “Damn the United States! I wish I may never hear of her again!”
The judge takes Nolan at his word, literally, and sentences him to spend the rest of his life aboard Navy warships, banning him from ever setting foot in the country again. The crew of every ship Nolan shuttles between is ordered not to mention the United States to him and to cut out every article about America in the newspapers and books provided to him. Each time he inquires about the United States, the men on the ship must remain silent.
For the next 55 years, Nolan is a man without a country, something akin to Griner’s situation before the prisoner swap saved her from a nine-year sentence in a tiny, miserable Russian cell.
“The Man Without a Country” ends with Nolan in his bed dying after more than five decades at sea, realizing the full measure of what he has lost. He begs the final officer overseeing his captivity to describe America. The officer takes pity on Nolan and recounts the history of America for the decades that Nolan missed. (The officer emphasizes the emancipation of enslaved people but compassionately omits the details of the Civil War, not wishing to rekindle memories of treason in the dying man.)
After hearing about the America he never knew, Nolan surprises the officer by opening a trunk with a shrine he has created to the United States in his room over the years. It includes a flag, a picture of George Washington, a bald eagle and an old map of the United States, showing former territories that, unbeknown to him, had become states.
He tells the officer that yes, he does have a country and shows him a prayer book that U.S. authorities neglected to confiscate long ago. It contains a remorseful prayer that Nolan wrote for America. After Nolan’s death, the officer discovers the prisoner’s personal epitaph:
“In memory of Philip Nolan, Lieutenant in the Army of the United States. He loved his country as no other man has loved her; but no man deserved less at her hands.”
Like the fictional Nolan, Griner has had her own Pauline conversion, with a renewed appreciation for her native land since returning.
At the start of the latest WNBA season, the basketball star, who previously remained in the locker room during the national anthem, now stands proudly on the court for the anthem amid cheers from the crowd and her fellow players.
“Just being able to hear my national anthem, see my flag, I definitely want to stand. Now everybody that will not stand or not come out, I totally support them 100%. That’s our right, as an American in this great country,” Griner said.
