Brittney Griner was in a Russian jail for three weeks before the general public knew she was being held.
If the Russian media hadn’t posted about her arrest, people still wouldn’t have known she was locked up. There is no telling how long the American Government would have kept the information from the public.
WNBA legend was on the I AM ATHLETE podcast and explained how she was told in no uncertain terms that she shouldn’t speak on the matter.
“What we were told, and again, this is all sort of passed along through hearsay, but what we were told was to not make a big fuss about it so that they could not use her as a pawn, so to speak, in this situation in the war,” said Leslie. “So, to make it like it’s not that important, or don’t make it like ‘Free Brittney’ and we start this campaign, and then it becomes they could use. That’s what we were ‘told’ and I don’t want to say who said that, but it’s what’s been spreading throughout the women’s basketball world.”
“Do we know if that’s the right thing to do or not?” she added. “It’s heartbreaking for all of us. That’s the feelings of it. You want to do more, and think, should we all use our social media platform and get behind it or not? Nobody really [knows]. This is the first time we’re in this situation, and we don’t know what to do.”
It looks like Griner isn’t getting home any time soon.
At best, she might get out in a couple of months. At worst, she is going to be in there for five years, doing a hard time.
It is hard to say how hard the US Government is working on getting her out.
Flip the page for Leslie speaking on being told to not saying anything about it.