NBA chief Adam Silver has stressed that he is working “side-by-side” with WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert to bring home basketball star Brittney Griner, who has been jailed in Russia.
That said Silver on Tuesday evening (local time) in an interview with the television channel ESPN. “We are in contact with the White House, the State Department, hostage negotiators, all levels of government and also through the private sector,” Silver said.
Two-time Olympic champion Griner, star player of the WNBA team Phoenix Mercury, was arrested in February on charges of drug possession at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport and has been in custody since then. According to the information, the 31-year-old faces five to ten years in prison.
The US State Department said Tuesday it is still urging regular contact with Griner. A consular officer was able to meet with her last week when her detention in Russia was extended by a month. “This consular officer felt that Brittney Griner was doing as well as could be expected under what can only be described as extremely difficult conditions,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in Washington.
