WNBA star Brittney Griner was wrongfully detained in Russia for close to a year after officials discovered a small amount of prescribed cannabis oil in her bag. Now, Griner is cautioning Americans that the kind of ordeal she endured overseas could also happen here in the United States.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, two U.S. citizens were fatally shot by federal agents in Minneapolis amid a sharp rise in ICE and Border Patrol activity, which followed a directive from United States President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
While promoting an upcoming documentary that details her time imprisoned in Russia, Griner has been outspoken about the current state of the country, warning Americans about the direction she believes things are heading.<\/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 is fully aware that speaking out will draw criticism, but she has no intention of staying silent.<\/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 Even with her stark warning, the WNBA standout remains hopeful that meaningful change is possible if people unite.<\/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 Needless to say, this warning from Griner sparked a lot of reactions on social media.<\/p>\n \u201cWho cares what she thinks or says?\u201d one person wrote in the comments of the story on Yahoo<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI assume she is talking about the violence. Well she needs to take a good look at herself, she is the cause of a lot of the problems with the WNBA,\u201d someone else wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cYou broke the law. What did you expect to happen in Russia when you broke their law?\u201d another person added.<\/p>\n \u201cShe should be be grateful to be in the U.S. after the whole Russian prison situation,\u201d someone else wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cWe come together to vote. Stop watching the news which has been proven biased on both sides and do your own research. Bottom line use your mind not your emotion,\u201d another person added.<\/p>\n Griner isn\u2019t alone in pushing back against ICE and Trump. A number of high-profile athletes and coaches have also made their voices heard.<\/p>\n Over the weekend, WNBA star Breanna Stewart held a sign that read \u201cAbolish ICE\u201d<\/a> during player introductions before an Unrivaled game. Warriors head coach Steve Kerr shared blunt remarks<\/a> on Renee Nicole Good\u2019s death earlier this month and later followed up with pointed criticism<\/a> about the most recent shooting and the media\u2019s role on Sunday. Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers described Good\u2019s death as \u201cstraight-up murder<\/a>,\u201d while Spurs phenom Victor Wembanyama also refused to stay quiet<\/a> as he addressed the recent events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WNBA star Brittney Griner was wrongfully detained in Russia for close to a year after officials discovered a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[5550,99,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-442619","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\/442619","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=442619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}