{"id":1485153,"date":"2022-05-20T07:45:36","date_gmt":"2022-05-20T11:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1485153"},"modified":"2022-05-20T07:45:43","modified_gmt":"2022-05-20T11:45:43","slug":"adam-silver-says-nba-working-with-every-level-of-government-for-release-of-wnbas-brittney-griner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/adam-silver-says-nba-working-with-every-level-of-government-for-release-of-wnbas-brittney-griner\/","title":{"rendered":"Adam Silver Says NBA Working With \u201cEvery Level of Government\u201d for Release of WNBA\u2019s Brittney Griner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fadam-silver-says-nba-working-with-every-level-of-government-for-release-of-wnbas-brittney-griner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1485153&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced Tuesday that the league is working with \u201chostage negotiators\u201d and \u201cevery level of government\u201d for the release of WNBA center and two-time Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner. The WNBA star has sat for nearly four months in a Russian prison after being <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/sports\/2022\/03\/05\/wnba-star-brittney-griner-arrested-on-drug-charges-in-russia\/\">charged<\/a> with drug trafficking.<\/p>\n<p>Silver\u2019s recent moves come after the U.S government <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/sports\/2022\/05\/03\/u-s-officials-consider-wnba-player-brittney-griner-wrongfully-detained-in-russia\/\">upgraded<\/a> Griner\u2019s case to\u00a0the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs on May 3, which has encouraged Griner\u2019s supporters, because this means the Biden administration could be taking the case seriously and will hopefully amp up efforts to bring her home.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cIt is time for her to come home,\u201d president of the WNBA players\u2019 union, Nneka Ogwumike, said in a statement. \u201cHaving learned that the U.S. government has now determined that BG is being wrongfully detained we are hopeful that their efforts will be significant, swift and successful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Silver and the NBA have not taken any aggressive action on Griner\u2019s imprisonment up to this point on the advice of government \u201cexperts,\u201d Silver explained to ESPN.\u00a0\u201cPart of our decision to not to take a higher profile here, frankly, came at the suggestion of experts in and out of government who felt the best path to getting Brittney out was not to amplify the issue,\u201d Silver told <em>NBA Today<\/em>\u00a0host Malika Andrews during the NBA Draft Lottery:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The league\u00a0\u2014 and by that, both the WNBA and its brother league, the NBA \u2014 we have a huge responsibility to Brittney. Griner is one of our players. \u2026\u00a0We\u2019ve been in touch with the White House, the State Department, hostage negotiators, every level of government and also through the private sector as well. \u2026 Our number one priority is her health and safety and making sure that she gets out of Russia.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">NBA Commissioner Adam Silver weighs in on the league\u2019s role in ensuring Brittney Griner&#8217;s safe return to the United States. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/QsOCb4fgEs\">pic.twitter.com\/QsOCb4fgEs<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Malika Andrews (@malika_andrews) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/malika_andrews\/status\/1526715367787307008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 18, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>Griner\u2019s attorney,\u00a0Alexander Boykov, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/sports\/2022\/05\/13\/detention-of-wnbas-griner-in-moscow-extended-for-1-month\/\">announced<\/a> Friday that the WNBA player\u2019s pre-trial detention was extended for another month. Griner\u2019s trial was originally scheduled to begin May 19. Griner, 31, faces 10 years in Russian prison if convicted.<\/p>\n<p>Silver assured fans that Cathy Engelbert, the commissioner of the WNBA, \u201cis on this issue every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m working side-by-side with her,\u201d Silver said of Engelbert.<\/p>\n<p>Silver encouraged fan activism in his statement to ESPN, saying, \u201cThere\u2019s an enormous role for the public to play through protests or letting their representatives know how strongly they feel about this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A petition started in May has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.change.org\/p\/secure-brittney-griner-s-swift-and-safe-return-to-the-u-s?recruiter=629105003&#038;utm_source=share_petition&#038;utm_medium=twitter&#038;utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&#038;recruited_by_id=cd4fc900-a810-11e6-a4f9-53ba26dddade&#038;share_bandit_exp=initial-32582064-en-US\">raised<\/a> more than 137,000 signatures, with the goal of \u201cdemanding that lawmakers prioritize Griner\u2019s return,\u201d and asking the Biden administration to \u201ctake action today \u2014 doing whatever is necessary \u2014 to bring Brittney Griner home swiftly and safely.\u201d The petition includes an email and phone number for the White House for further action.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Secure Brittney Griner&#8217;s Swift and Safe Return to the U\u200b.\u200bS. \u2013 Sign the Petition! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/FJFuWIY2ox\">https:\/\/t.co\/FJFuWIY2ox<\/a> via <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Change?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Change<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 dawnstaley (@dawnstaley) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/dawnstaley\/status\/1525553909460357120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 14, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>According to reports, a consular official was able to meet with Griner last week, but the U.S. State Department complained on Tuesday that the \u201csporadic contact\u201d they have been allowed by Russian officials is not acceptable, and it is pushing for more regular contact with the WNBA player. The State Department also hinted that Russia may have broken international treaty rules.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat consular official came away with the impression that Brittney Griner is doing as well as might be expected under conditions that can only be described as exceedingly difficult,\u201d State Department spokesman Ned Price said. \u201cBut sporadic contact is not satisfactory. It also may not be consistent with the Vienna Convention to which Russia has subscribed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced Tuesday that the league is working with \u201chostage negotiators\u201d and \u201cevery level of government\u201d for the release of WNBA center and two-time Olympic gold medalist<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":489,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1485153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1485153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/489"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1485153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1485153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1485153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1485153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1485153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}