NBA players are joining in the crusade to free WNBA superstar Brittney Griner from confinement in a Russian jail.
Multiple members of the Boston Celtics flossed t-shirts with the “We are BG” in gigantic letters during practices as they prepared for Game 2 of the NBA Finals.
Griner has been holed up in a Russian prison since February when a police canine allegedly detected traces of cannabis oil in a vaping cartridge in her luggage when she landed at the airport in Moscow. Griner has been playing for the UMMC Ekaterinburg in Russia for the past several years in the offseason in order to supplement her relatively paltry WNBA paycheck.
A few of the Celtics players, including outspoken point guard and Defensive Player of the Year, Marcus Smart, explained the purpose behind the design on the T-shirts. The shirts come with a QR code on the back people can scan for more information.
“We’re asking everybody in the sports world to come together collectively and fight this,” smart told The Athletic. “We over here, our brothers and our sisters in this game, we won’t allow that and we’re not going to stand for it. We stand with her.”
#FreeBrittneyGriner 👉 https://t.co/NilQSP8giS pic.twitter.com/6tw5S3dwAL
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) June 4, 2022
The Biden Administration has declared publicly Griner has been “wrongfully detained” as her trial looms and she has been held for well past 100 days. She faces up to 10 years in prison if she is convicted in a Russian court.
Celtics star Jaylen Brown said Griner has been detained long enough. “She’s been over there for an extended amount of time, and we feel like enough is enough.”
Superstar Jason Tatum was able to forge a tight bond with Griner while traveling with her during the Tokyo Olympics in the summer of 2021. He is therefore especially sympathetic to what she is going through right now.
“Great person to be around — she just [lights up] the entire room with her personality,” Tatum said. “So it’s extremely tough seeing what she’s going through. I know everybody sees and feels that, and obviously we’re all together in support of trying to bring her back to her family and things like that.”
