Her face is wearing a hoodie. Her name is included in the hashtag. “BG” and her number are on fan jerseys and the WNBA field.
Like the star Phoenix Mercury Brittney Griner waiting in Russia, incarcerated since February 17 on drug charges, symbols of her support are everywhere. They come from people who don’t know her at all and who know and love her – from teammates, sympathizers and former coaches.
Dawn Staley, who coached Griner and her USA teammates gold medal in Tokyo Olympics last year, she said she thinks about her every day.
“I know Brittney, I’ve been around her, know her heart. I know what she’s about,” Staley said. “And if she is wrongfully detained or not, I will campaign for her release because no one who should be abroad is locked up abroad.”
Staley has been posting messages on Twitter about Griner every day since early May. “Can you please free our friend,” she wrote on Tuesday, tagging the official account for the White House. She added, “All of her loved ones will sleep a little easier.”
It’s been more than three months since Griner has been detained, allegedly had hash oil in her luggage at an airport near Moscow. But just in recent weeks, WNBA players and Griner’s wife, family, friends and agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, have launched a concerted campaign to push for her release. That’s where the hoodies – worn by much difference player – and initials – displayed on WNBA courts – are included. The hashtag #WeAreBG was seen on boot shirts and social media was also part of the campaign.
On Saturday, the WNBA players’ association posted a message on social media marking 100 days of Griner’s detention.
“The reclassification of Griner as unlawfully detained by the U.S. government shows our shift toward more overtly active components of our strategy,” said Kagawa Colas. said and added that she could not explain because of the sensitivity of the situation.
Advocates were quick to join in on the new approach.
“We’re more public,” said Terri Jackson, executive director of the WNBA players’ union. One reason, she said, is the determination of the State Department, and another reason is the guidance of Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner.
“She leads on this,” Jackson said. “She signaled through her team that she needed us, and that was all we needed to hear.”
Cherelle Griner appeared on “Good Morning America“On Wednesday and called on President Biden to intervene.
“I just kept hearing that he had strength,” said Cherelle Griner. “She is a political pawn. If they keep her because they want you to do something, then I want you to do it.”
A State Department announcement this month said Biden’s special envoy for hostage affairs would lead an interagency team to secure Griner’s release. But since then, Griner’s detention has extended until June 18, and the Biden administration has said little about its maneuver. In a television interview, Cherelle Griner said that her only communication with her wife was through occasional letters. She said she had been told that releasing his wife was a priority, but she expressed skepticism.
Representative Colin Allred, Democrat of Texas, has spoken publicly about Brittney Griner’s detention and working with her representatives. He said Griner, from Houston, reached out to her attorney in Russia but was unable to speak to her family. That violated international norms, he said.
“The Russians need to be aware that we know what they’re doing, we know why they’re doing it and there will be consequences if anything happens to her,” Allred said.
Griner’s family and friends sought to put pressure on Russia and Biden while also begging for more support and coverage in the United States.
“There’s not enough conversation about Brittney and her release and just any talk about it,” said Staley, the women’s basketball coach at the University of South Carolina. “And I know there is a process. I understand that. ”
She added later: “There are a lot of people who really know Brittney is doing nothing, they don’t empathize with the situation. I just want people to feel it’s their family. And when you feel it’s your loved one, you’ll do anything to help. Everyone has to live their life, I get that, but come on. Please sympathize”.
Several players in the WNBA, and a few in the NBA, have begun to publicly support Griner’s release; for the first two and a half months after Griner’s incarceration, most only said they loved and missed her.
Seattle Storm forward Breanna Stewartwho was named the most valuable player of the tournament in 2018, posting daily on Twitter about Griner. DeWanna Bonner, who played for the Connecticut Sun and was Griner’s teammate in Phoenix from 2013 to 2019, reminded Griner during a recent press conference.
“One more thing,” she said. “Free BG We Are BG We Love Her Free BG.”
In mid-May, the WNBA players’ union became an official partner in a Change.org petition sent to the White House, which called on Biden to do “whatever it takes” to bring it back to life. Griner got home safely. The petition was started in March by Tamryn Spruill, a freelance journalist who has written for a number of media outlets, including The New York Times, about how WNBA Griner representatives at Wasserman promoted the copy. petitions to news agencies.
In an interview with ESPN on May 17, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver was asked about the league’s role in Griner’s situation. NBA owns 42.1 percent by WNBA
Things to know about Brittney Griner’s detention in Russia
Silver said the NBA has a “huge responsibility” to Griner but it has been muted in favor on the advice of experts who think amplifying her situation could impede her release. she. “Having said that,” Silver said, “there is a huge role to play for the public through protesting or letting their representatives know how bad it is, how strongly they feel about this. .”
Last week, three Democrats in the House of Representatives recommend a solution called for Griner’s immediate release.
Representative Greg Stanton of Arizona, who introduced the resolution to Allred and Representative Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, said: “It sends a clear message that representatives of the American people support getting Brittney home as quickly as possible. the better.
Fans on social media and at games have been vocal in their pleas and pleas for months, and have expressed frustration with Griner’s camp for its initial strategy of silence. . Some of Griner’s closer supporters hold similar views but do not always feel they can speak out publicly.
Jackson, from the players’ union, said the initial directive not to speak out about Griner was difficult for WNBA players, who are known for advocating for LGBTQ rights, gender equality and social justice. , especially for women of color.
“It was probably very different for us when we adopted the idea that we had to be a little more patient, not so quick to speak out, to really take the time,” Jackson said.
In addition to following Cherelle Griner’s wishes, the players’ union sought advice from Dr. Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon. student in the history department at the University of Pennsylvania, whose field of study includes the African-American experience in the Soviet Union, Ukraine, and Russia.
“She’s been held captive for so long now,” St. Julian-Varnon said, “I think it’s appropriate to enter the second phase which is: ‘Okay, we’ve given Russia a few months. You have released Trevor Reed. So let’s take the pressure off and show that we haven’t forgotten her and that she is still very much wanted at home. ‘”
Reed, a former marine, was released as part of a prisoner swap in April after being held in Russia since 2019 on assault charges.
In one Interview with CNN Reed said media coverage of his case helped his release.
Staley said she recorded Reed talking about his detention so she could trace back to clues as to what might help Griner.
“Trevor is saying you have to scream to the bottom of your lungs. You have to have a meeting with the president,” Staley said. She added: “If you can get in front of him, it’s hard for him to tell you no. It’s hard for him to look a grieving parent or wife in the eye and say, ‘There’s nothing I can do.’
Because she won the national championship with South Carolina This year, Staley and her team will likely be invited to the White House soon to meet Biden.
“I’ll give Brittney’s wife, parents, family, I’ll give them our visit to the White House,” she said.
