Picture Credit: Twitter
Boston Celtics players have come out in support of WNBA player Brittney Griner, who has been detained in Russia for more than 100 days - wrongfully as referred by the U.S. officials. Several of the Celtics players were seen wearing black T-shirts with “We Are BG” on the front in orange letters for their practice session at the NBA Finals on Saturday.
Boston forward Jayson Tatum addressed the issue and expressed that the entire team has come forward to support Griner. He said, “It’s extremely tough seeing what she’s going through. I know everybody sees and feels that, and obviously we’re all together in support trying to bring her back to her family and things like that. Yeah, wearing those shirts today in support of her.”
The shirts had a QR code on the back, that would redirect to an online petition seeking 300,000 signatures in support of Griner's return. Celtics guard and officer of the National Basketball Players Association, Jaylen Brown talked about how as athletes they are using their platform to raise awareness about something that is wrong.
“Today was a good day to bring attention to a topic that was necessary,” Brown
The 25-year-old said, “We felt like it was a good idea to use our availability and our platforms to bring attention to certain matters. I always stand for that. Being an athlete, we’re not just up here just to entertain you guys. “
“We also have a voice. 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,” he continued
“Everyone said, ‘Let’s do it,” Williams
Celtics forward Grant Williams also talked about how the entire team came together and decided to raise voices against the issue by coming together. He expressed, “They sent them overnight to get them here for today.”
“They did a phenomenal job, and want to credit them to make that process happen. We just wanted to do that as a team. It was one of those things where no one questioned it. Everyone said, ‘Let’s do it. Everyone put the shirt on immediately when we got them, fresh off the box. They were ironed and good to go”, he said