Mark Davis: It’s good that Brittney Griner is free. But did Biden press Russia enough?

The release of WNBA star Brittney Griner from a Russian prison colony Thursday brought immediate expressions of relief and gratitude from her loved ones, her fans and all who had expressed a desire for her return.

But it didn’t take long for competing reactions to gather. Many saw the prisoner swap that brought her home as frustratingly incomplete in view of who was left behind and hazardously uneven in view of the monster we gave back to Russia.

American Paul Whelan still sits in a Russian prison while murderous arms merchant Viktor Bout is knocking back celebratory vodkas with friends and family. Those optics create a complex soup of mixed feelings as the Biden administration defends what it clearly views as a diplomatic victory.

But was it? Secretary of State Antony Blinken insisted the deal offered by the Russians did not contain a choice of which American to bring home.

“The choice was one or none,” he told reporters. “I wholeheartedly wish that we could have brought Paul home today on the same plane as Brittney. … We made every possible offer available to us thus far to secure Paul’s release, but in this moment, there was no way to bring him home along with Brittney.”

One wonders if the Russians were ever told that it was both of them or nothing. Imagine an unyielding Biden administration stance that told the Russians we want both of our Americans, or we keep the “Merchant of Death” for every day of his 25-year sentence. Would that line in the sand have worked?

We will never know how hard the Biden team pushed for the return of Whelan, an ex-Marine. We do know there was enormous political pressure on them to free a captive who checks a variety of boxes. It was Griner’s own fan base that expressed joy for reasons beyond the fact that a fellow American was freed. Her status as a gay black athlete with a history of national anthem protests led specific interest groups to lobby with extra passion.

Race, sexual orientation and political beliefs ideally don’t weigh into assessing worthiness for rescue from foreign imprisonment. But those factors sprang from every corner of social media, with supporters claiming various types of identity-fueled validation, while critics wondered if Whelan’s whiteness or sexual orientation counted against him.

No one can read the minds of the people who struck this trade, but it met with instant pushback at multiple levels. “Trading a convicted arms dealer for a basketball player who kneeled for the national anthem is a terrible deal,” tweeted U.S. Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Terrell.

Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton went further. “This is a surrender,” he told CBS. “Terrorists in rogue states around the world will take note of this, endangering other Americans in the future, who can be grabbed and used as bargaining chips.”

Spies and prisoners of war have been frequently traded between nations, with a certain equilibrium between the people traveling in each direction. The snagging point for many in the homecoming of Griner, a Houston native who starred at Baylor, is its cost. Bout is now conveniently available to Vladimir Putin for whatever dark purpose either may fancy, while Russia returned a basketball star who had hash oil in her vape cartridges. On paper, we got rolled.

But no story like this happens on paper. It unfolds in the hearts of millions of Americans who are thrilled to see any fellow citizen back on U.S. soil. That reaction does not have to compete with principled criticism of the deal that made it happen. It’s possible to harbor both thoughts at the same time.

At the Biden announcement of Griner’s release, her wife, Cherelle, committed to an ongoing campaign to speak out for Whelan’s release. That would be a uniting and constructive use of their visibility.

And speaking of uniting, there is another gesture Griner could grant that would add to support for her release. In May, as she suits up for the new WNBA season, perhaps she can remember her 10 months in Russian hell, look around at the life America has made possible for her, and see fit to participate in the national anthem.

Mark Davis hosts a morning radio show on 660-AM and at 660amtheanswer.com. Follow him on Twitter: @markdavis.