WNBA superstar Brittney Griner was falsely imprisoned in Russia for nearly a year after authorities found a small amount of prescription cannabis oil in her luggage. Now, Griner is warning Americans that what she experienced in Russia could happen in the U.S., too.<\/p>\n
This month, two American citizens were shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis amid a strong increase in activity from ICE and the border patrol, following a directive from United States President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
As Griner promotes the release of an upcoming documentary shedding light on her imprisonment in Russia, she has spoken out on the current state of the country, issuing a warning to Americans about where she thinks the country is trending.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope this film can shed some light into what it could be like if we keep letting this happen,\u201d Griner told The Hollywood Reporter<\/a>. \u201cRight now, we\u2019re in a very bad place, especially with everything that\u2019s going on in Minnesota and just across our country \u2026 I definitely think people will understand a little bit more now and be able to see some comparisons.\u201d<\/p>\n Griner knows that she will face criticism by speaking out, but that is not going to stop her from speaking out.<\/p>\n \u201cI am human, and sometimes it gets me worked up, it makes me want to say something,\u201d she said. \u201cBut at the same time, a lot of these people are just looking to get noticed in their mediocre lives, and they need a response from me or whoever they\u2019re attacking to feel important, because they want to get their two seconds of fame. I try to do a good job ignoring it.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the dire warning from the WNBA star, she does seem confident that the country can change if people come together.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope people get the sense of, \u2018when we come together we can stop what\u2019s going on,\u2019\u201d Griner said. \u201cWe can change what\u2019s going on right now in our country.\u201d<\/p>\n Griner is certainly not the only athlete standing up against ICE and Trump. Several prominent voices have spoken out.<\/p>\n Over the weekend, WNBA superstar Breanna Stewart\u00a0held a sign that read \u201cAbolish ICE\u201d<\/a> during player introductions before an Unrivaled game. Additionally, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr\u00a0offered some candid comments<\/a>\u00a0on Renee Nicole Good\u2019s death earlier this month, and he followed that up\u00a0with some strong words<\/a>\u00a0on the latest shooting and the state of the media on Sunday. Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers called Good\u2019s death \u201cstraight-up murder<\/a>.\u201d Spurs star Victor Wembanyama refused to be silent<\/a> as he spoke out on the recent incidents, too.<\/p>\n Clearly, this issue is important to athletes across the country, and Griner is helping lead the conversation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WNBA superstar Brittney Griner was falsely imprisoned in Russia for nearly a year after authorities found a small…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[5550,99,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-441940","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-brittney-griner","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}