Following her rookie season with the Connecticut Sun, former Maryland women’s basketball star Brionna Jones was on her way into Turkey with her offseason club when diplomacy struck.
Due to the nature of WNBA contracts, many players also join teams overseas to supplement their income. Jones and the Phoenix Mercury’s Emma Cannon were heading to their first game with Russian team Nadezhda when their visas were denied due to a diplomatic issue between the United States and Turkey, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.
The two nations recently imposed dueling visa bans on each other, and some Euroleague imports are now stuck in the mix.