'WE ARE BG' releases statement amid Brittney Griner release
WE ARE BG is a campaign started after WNBA star Brittney Garner was detained in Russia.
The organization says true to Brittney's commitment to helping others, they are committed to the idea that all wrongfully detained Americans should be brought home.
BRITTNEY GRINER: Russia frees WNBA star Brittney Griner in prisoner swap
President Biden recently announced that Griner will return home to the U.S. as a part of a prisoner swap with Russia. For Griner to come home, the U.S. will return Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, known as the "Merchant of Death."
US' Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) basketball player Brittney Griner, who was detained at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport and later charged with illegal possession of cannabis, arrives to a hearing at the Khimki Court, outside Moscow on
In the wake of her release, WE ARE BG released this statement from Brittney Griner's Agent and Wasserman EVP Lindsay Colas:
Today, we are breathing a deep sigh of relief. Brittney Griner is on her way home.
We are overwhelmed with gratitude to President Biden, Vice President Harris and the entire Biden-Harris Administration, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and the members of The White House National Security team, along with the entire Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs team at the U.S. Department of State, led by Roger Carstens and including Fletcher Schoen. In addition, we remain forever grateful to Governor Bill Richardson and Mickey Bergman from the Richardson Center, and BG’s tireless Russian legal team, Maria Blagovolina and Alex Boykov.
In equal measure, we are so thankful to the incredible community of advisors, athletes and advocates, led primarily, and as has come to be routine, by the players of the WNBA and their fearless Union, The WNBPA. Thank you also to BG’s teams, the Phoenix Mercury, USA Basketball, UMMC Ekaterinburg, the WNBA and the NBA. We’d also like to personally thank Casey Wasserman and our internal Wasserman WE ARE BG team that showed up in big ways when our friend and client needed it the most. Also, to so many people around the world who raised their voices and stood with us - especially Black women, the LGBTQ+ community and civil rights leaders - thank you.
It’s through hardship that character is revealed, and over the last nine months, we have seen the best of so many. At the top of that list are BG and President Biden. Throughout this ordeal, BG has carried herself with courage, grace and grit; and President Biden made us a promise, and then kept his word and did what was necessary to bring her home.
We are forever grateful for his follow-through on that commitment.
In return, our commitment to President Biden and to the families of Americans who are being held hostage and wrongfully detained – especially Elizabeth and David Whelan, on behalf of their brother Paul Whelan, who remains in Russia and whose continued detention weighs heavily on our hearts – is to continue our work in the movement to bring them home.
Our eyes have been opened through this process to your struggle and as we have always done, BG and our coalition of activist athletes will ensure that silence is no longer an option. Your stories will be told, your loved ones' names will be known, and you will be reunited, because bringing our people home is a moral issue that matters to this Administration. It should matter to all Americans. As patriots, our obligation is to use all available tools to end the needless suffering of Americans and their families.
WE ARE BG was conceived to celebrate the ways that BG represents all of us, and express why her fight is all of ours. WE ARE BG will endure as a coalition to advocate for Americans who need to be returned home, including:
Paul Whelan - Russia
Emad Shargi - Iran
Siamak Namazi - Iran
Morad Tahbaz - Iran
Shahab Dalili - Iran
Luke Denman - Venezuela
Airan Berry - Venezuela
Eyvin Hernandez - Venezuela
Kai Li - China
Mark Swidan - China
Majd Kamalmaz - Syria
Jeffery Woodke - Mali
Paul Rusesabagina - Rwanda
Thank you again to each of you who signed our petition, wrote, called, prayed, posted, advised, and advocated. Your effort mattered, and BG will be home to her family for the holidays because of you.
To learn more about the WE ARE BG campaign, click here.