Don't forget Brittney Griner, the WNBA star and Russian prisoner, is a person, too | Opinion
CHICAGO - You might have seen photos of Brittney Griner in her Phoenix Mercury jersey, or maybe one where she has an Olympic gold medal draped around her neck. You for sure have seen the photos of her being escorted into a Russian courtroom, scared and alone and far, far away from home.
But four and a half months after she was first detained, as President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris promise to do everything they can to bring her home, Griner’s wife and friends want you to know she is more than a WNBA player or a Russian prisoner.
So much more.
“What America needs to understand is that (Griner) is you, too,” Nneka Ogwumike said Friday afternoon. “She is the fun aunt. She is the wife who encourages her spouse to thrive. She’s the daughter who celebrates her dad’s service on the Fourth. She’s the kid who was bullied and a role model who stands up for those kids now.
“She’s my fellow Houston native and thus, my Dad’s favorite player. He can tell you that,” Ogwumike said. “We’re so lucky to know BG. If you don’t know her, you need to.”
Griner’s presence, or lack of it, will loom large over the WNBA’s All-Star festivities here this weekend. She has already been named an honorary starter for Sunday’s game, and the league is planning a special recognition of her wife, Cherelle, and Griner’s family.
But that is Griner the basketball player. As her fellow WNBA players try and marshal support beyond the league for her release, there was a concerted effort Friday to personalize Griner and her case. To make people realize that while Griner might be an extraordinary basketball player, she is also an ordinary American.
At a news conference organized by the Rev. Al Sharpton, Cherelle Griner spoke of the “gut-wrenching time for my entire family,” but also her joy at seeing the outpouring of love for them and her wife. Ogwumike described the Griner she knows, a woman who is “kind and resilient.”
The plight of a WNBA player might not be enough to stir outrage with the general public. But maybe the illegal detainment of a wife, daughter and friend who is missed by so many will.
“Thank you for your love, thank you for your support and thank you for keeping my wife’s name and legacy visible while she’s not here on U.S. soil,” Cherelle Griner said, flanked by Ogwumike and Sue Bird.
Cherelle Griner, Ogwumike and Bird were also quick to praise the Biden administration, expressing appreciation for what might seem like slow-moving efforts to bring Griner home. Griner has been imprisoned since Feb. 17 after Russian authorities claimed they found vape cartridges in her luggage, and she said in a handwritten letter to Biden earlier this week that she was “terrified I might be here forever.”
“I understand that what they are doing is very challenging due to the circumstances with Russia and the United States right now,” Cherelle Griner said. “I want to make sure the administration understands they have our full support in doing anything and everything necessary to bring BG home, as well as every other wrongfully detained American.”
OPINION: WNBA's Brittney Griner deserves our support as she sits in a Russian jail cell
Griner is seen by many as a pawn, a bargaining chip to exact concessions from the United States at a time when tensions are heightened because of Russia’s invasion in Ukraine. Her guilty plea to drug charges Thursday was considered a strategic move to help negotiations for her release.
After that hearing, U.S. embassy officials gave Griner a letter from Biden. Cherelle Griner has also read the letter and said it brought “so much joy” to both her and her wife.
“I believe every word she said to (Biden), he understood. He sees her as a person and he has not forgotten her, which was her biggest cry in her letter,” Cherelle Griner said. “So I’m grateful and I’m thankful the administration, which was the first one BG ever voted for, took time to see her as a person.”
If others can see the same, maybe it will help bring Brittney Griner home. Where she belongs.
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Brittney Griner's family, friends want others to know the real 'BG'
