NBA commissioner Adam Silver says he's working 'side-by-side' with the WNBA to free Brittney Griner

By Ben Church, CNN

Updated 0933 GMT (1733 HKT) May 18, 2022

Brittney Griner was arrested in Russia in February.

(CNN)NBA commissioner Adam Silver says he's «working side-by-side» with WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert in order to get detained star Brittney Griner out of Russia.

The two-time Olympic gold medalist, who stars for the Phoenix Mercury but who plays for a Russian basketball team during the WNBA off-season, was arrested in February. Russian authorities said she had cannabis oil in her luggage and accused her of smuggling significant amounts of a narcotic substance — an offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison.The US State Department has since classified Griner as wrongfully detained in Russia and her case is being handled by the office of the US Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs (SPEHA) Roger Carstens. WNBA regular season to start without Brittney Griner, who's still in Russian custody «The league — and by that, both the WNBA and its brother league, the NBA — we have a huge responsibility to Brittney. Griner's one of our players,» Silver told ESPN. Read More«Part of our decision to not to take a higher profile here, frankly, came at the suggestion of experts in and out of government who felt the best path to getting Brittney out was not to amplify the issue. »Having said that, there's an enormous role for the public to play through protests or letting their representatives know how strongly they feel about this. So we're working. «Cathy Engelbert, the commissioner of the WNBA, is on this issue every single day. I'm working side-by-side with her. We've been in touch with the White House, the State Department, hostage negotiators, at every level of government and also through the private sector