LeBron James, NBA star, on the arrest of Brittney Griner: “Our voice as athletes is stronger if we are together”

Brittney Griner’s arrest extended in Russia 0:49 (CNN) — Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James has joined the many athletes who express their desire for WNBA star Brittney Griner to return home after carrying more than 100 days detained in Russia. “We have to come together and help do everything we can to bring BG home quickly and safely. Our voice as athletes is stronger when we stand together,” James said in a tweet Sunday night. James also shared a message from Uninterrupted, in which he urged President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to take action and help bring Griner home. The two-time Olympic gold medalist was detained in February at a Moscow airport while playing for UMMC Ekaterinburg during the WNBA offseason. Russian authorities claimed to have found cannabis oil in Griner’s luggage and charged her with smuggling significant amounts of a narcotic substance, a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison. In May, a Russian court extended the 31-year-old athlete’s preventive detention until at least June. Last week, the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) marked the 100th day of her detention in Russia by renewing its calls for Griner’s release. The WNBA and the NBA have collaborated to bring Griner back to the United States. The State Department has classified Griner as wrongfully detained in Russia and her case is now handled by the office of Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs (SPEHA) Roger Carstens, a State Department official confirmed. to CNN last month. The SPEHA office directs and coordinates the administration’s diplomatic efforts to secure the release of Americans wrongfully detained abroad, and the move to his office means more flexibility in efforts to negotiate their release, since they do not necessarily have to wait for Russian legal proceedings to take place. CNN’s Kevin Dotson, Jacqueline Rose, Alexa Miranda and Jill Martin contributed to this report.