Before Saturday’s practice, the Boston Celtics wore “We are BG” shirts to show their support toward Brittney Griner and spread awareness to her ordeal.
The WNBA star has been detained in Russia for over 100 days, and the United States government has classified it as wrongful detention. Sports figures across the U.S. have expressed their support to “Free Brittney Griner.” The Celtics collectively joined in to use their platform in the NBA Finals to spread awareness.
“It came from the Players Association led by Grant Williams, but as a collective, we wanted to come out and show our support for Brittney Griner,” Jaylen Brown told reporters Saturday. “She’s been over there for an extended amount of time, and we feel like enough is enough.”
Williams told media he coordinated with the WNBAPA and NBAPA to have the shirts shipped overnight, per The Boston Globe’s Nicole Yang.
“We just wanted to show that togetherness and love that we have,” Williams said.
The U.S. government is reportedly negotiation Griner’s release, and her agent has said she has been receiving written correspondence from friends and family while detained in Russia, per CNN
NBA athletes and coaches have continually used their platforms to speak on social issues. Most recently, Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr passionately called for action against gun violence after the Uvalde, Texas school shooting.
Brown was asked how long the Celtics plan on wearing their shirts.
“I’m not sure to be honest,” Brown told reporters. “I guess we’ll talk about it as a team, but I felt like it was a good idea to use our availability and our platforms to bring attention to certain matters. I’ll always stand for that. Being an athlete, we’re not up here to just entertain you guys.
“We also have a voice, and I always appreciate and applaud athletes, entertainers, my teammates who plan to do something with that. I’m not sure if we’ll wear it for the rest of the time. But today was a good day to bring attention to a topic that was necessary. Tomorrow might be something else.”
Jayson Tatum spent time with Griner at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He recalled his time with Griner at Olympic Village.
“Being over there with the Olympics, obviously, it was during COVID, so we couldn’t really go out and see other events and things like that,” Tatum told reporters. “After the games, after practice, we’ll been in hospitality room — men and women — we would just be up there watching games, playing cards, karaoke, things like that, video games.
“A great person to be around. She just enlightened the entire room with her personality. So it’s extremely tough seeing what she’s going through and not everybody sees and feels that, and obviously, we’re all together in support, trying to bring her back with her family and things like that. Wearing those shirts today in support of her.”
The back of the Celtics’ shirts features a QR code for people to scan and learn more about Griner’s situation.
