How Dawn Staley is showing support at SEC spring meetings for Brittney Griner
Dawn Staley donned an orange lapel pin during this week’s SEC spring meetings.
Emblazoned with the words “We are BG,” it was a nod to Phoenix Mercury star Brittney Griner, who has been imprisoned in Russia since Feb. 17.
“I know what she does for her community, and there is nothing more that keeps me up at night than knowing that she’s probably isn’t sleeping well,” Staley told The State on Wednesday. “I think about her wife. I think about her parents, and what they’re feeling every single day — they’re agonizing over. Her future is unknown. So I’m just trying to bring light to it, so somebody can act favorably to get her home.”
Griner, who played for Staley with Team USA, was detained at a Moscow airport almost three months ago when authorities reportedly found vape cartridges that allegedly contained a cannabis variation of oil. She could face up to 10 years in prison — if convicted — though experts don’t expect any sentence to be that harsh, according to Politico.
“She’s a person; she’s a sister; she’s a wife; she’s an Olympian; she is a professional athlete,” Staley said. “But she is just like you and I, that finds herself being wrongly detained in Russia.”
The ex-Baylor basketball standout was a member of the 2020 Olympic team coached by Staley, helping Team USA to a gold medal. Griner averaged 16.5 points, 7.2 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game during the tournament. She concluded the event with a 30-point effort in the gold medal game against Japan.
Griner has earned WNBA all-star and all-defensive first- or second-team honors on seven times during her nine-year professional career. She also set the NCAA all-time mark for blocks in a season in 2010 and guided Baylor to a national title in 2012 during her undergraduate years.
