NBA Steps Up As An Ally In Push To Free Brittney Griner

The NBA is stepping up as an ally in the fight to bring Brittney Griner home. Speaking to ESPN‘s Malika Andrews in a televised interview on Tuesday, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said he’s working with WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert to safely bring Griner back to the U.S.

Silver said the league has also been working with high-ranking officials to bring the All-Star home.

“We’ve been in touch with the White House, the State Department, hostage negotiators, every level of government and also through the private sector as well,” Silver said, according to ESPN. “Our No. 1 priority is her health and safety and making sure that she gets out of Russia.”

As Blavity previously reported, Griner has been detained for the past three months after she was apprehended at a Moscow-area airport for allegedly carrying cannabis oil in her luggage. Many of Griner’s supporters have since advocated for her release.

WNBA legend Lisa Leslie has been one of the most vocal advocates for the basketball star.

“We talk about it daily,” Leslie said on an episode of the I Am Athlete podcast in March. “We’re like ‘What’s she doing now? You think they cut off her hair? You think she got a bed long enough for her to fit in?’ We’ve had full-on conversations about it. I’m like ‘Her parents gotta be sick.’ Yes, it’s thought about and talked about a lot. The questions is ‘What’s the right thing to do about it?'”

As Blavity previously reported, Leslie also said women’s basketball players have been instructed not to make a big deal about the case.

“What we were told was to not make a big fuss about it so they could not use her as a pawn, so to speak, in this situation in the war,” Leslie said on the podcast. “So to make it like it’s not that important, or don’t make it like ‘Free Brittney’ and we start this campaign and it becomes something they can use.”

Silver expressed a similar sentiment on Tuesday. The commissioner said experts advised the league not to take an aggressive approach during the early stages of Griner’s detention in Russia.

Several NBA players have also shown support for the 31-year-old. Phoenix Suns All-Star Chris Paul showed up to a recent game wearing a T-shirt with Griner’s photo on it.

Portland Trailblazers star Damian Lillard is another one of the NBA players who is speaking up for Griner.

In an interview with Time, Engelbert said, “It’s an absolutely unimaginable situation for for BG.”

“There’s not a day that goes by that I’m not working on this in some way,” the WNBA commissioner said.

According to Engelbert, Griner’s case has been transferred into the part of the State Department that’s known as the “Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs.”

“When you get this designation of being detained, not under the best conditions, they’ve shown success at getting people out,” Engelbert said. “She does have the legal process to go through. We don’t have a lot of diplomatic options here.”