Calls for Griner's release growing

Her face is on hoodies. Her name is in hashtags. Her “BG” and number are on fans' jerseys and WNBA courts.

As Phoenix Mercury star Brittney Griner waits in Russia, detained since Feb. 17 on drug charges, symbols of support for her are all around.

Dawn Staley, who coached Griner and her U.S. teammates to a gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics last year, has posted messages on Twitter about Griner every day since early May. “Can you please free our friend,” she wrote Tuesday, tagging the official account for the White House.

It has been more than three months since Griner was detained, accused of having hashish oil in her luggage at an airport near Moscow. But only in the past few weeks has there been a coordinated public campaign by WNBA players and by Griner's wife, family, friends and agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, to push for her release. That's where the hoodies — worn by many players — and the initials — displayed on WNBA courts — come in. The #WeAreBG hashtag seen on warmup shirts and social media is also part of the campaign.

The delay in starting the campaign was strategic: Griner's camp was worried that publicity could make the situation worse because of tensions between Russia and the United States. But the delay has also been a source of frustration for women's basketball players known for their social justice advocacy. Their approach has changed since the State Department said May 3 that it had determined that Griner had been “wrongfully detained.”

“We're more public,” said Terri Jackson, executive director of the WNBA players union. One reason, she said, was the State Department's determination, and another was the guidance of Griner's wife, Cherelle Griner.

“She's led on this,” Jackson said. “She signaled through her team that she needed us, and that's all we needed to hear.”

Cherelle Griner appeared on “Good Morning America” on Wednesday and appealed to President Joe Biden to intervene.

“I just keep hearing that he has the power,” Cherelle Griner said. “She's a political pawn. If they're holding her because they want you to do something, then I want you to do it.”

The State Department's announcement this month said that Biden's special envoy for hostage affairs would lead an interagency team to secure Griner's release. But since then, Griner's detention has been extended until June 18, and the Biden administration has said little about its maneuvering. Cherelle Griner said during the television interview that her only communication with her wife had been through occasional letters. She said she had been told that her wife's release was a top priority, but she expressed skepticism.

Representative Colin Allred, Democrat of Texas, has been speaking publicly about Brittney Griner's detention and working with her representatives. He said Griner, who is from Houston, has had access to her attorney in Russia but has not been able to speak with her family. That violated international norms, he said.

“The Russians need to be aware that we know what they're doing, we know why they're doing it and there will be consequences if anything should happen to her,” Allred said.

Griner's family and friends have sought to pressure Russia and Biden while also pleading for more support and news coverage in the United States.