Oscar-Winning Director of ‘Queen of Basketball’ to President Biden: ‘Bring Back Brittney Griner’
video of the incident has circulated online.A former Pentagon official told Yahoo Sports earlier this month that Griner, a Phoenix Mercury player who competes in Russia during the WNBA’s off-season, could be used as a “high-profile hostage” as tensions mount between President Biden and Russian President Putin over the escalating Ukrainian war.Former WNBA star Lisa Leslie told the “I am Athlete” podcast she’d been advised not to make a “big fuss” over Griner’s arrest in a clip released on Friday.“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,” Leslie said in the clip. “So, to make it like it’s not that important or don’t make it where we’re like, ‘Free Brittney’ and we start this campaign, and then it becomes something that they can use,” she said. “I won’t say who said that, but that’s what’s been spreading through the women’s basketball world.