It's been nearly 150 days since Brittney Griner has been detained in a Russian prison over drug charges. The WNBA star recently pleaded guilty to the said charges during her trial, which has now further extended her sentence. Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James has shared his brutally honest thoughts on Griner's situation in Russia, and the four-time NBA champion could not help but take a bit of a shot at the United States for their role in all this.
In a trailer for the new episode of Uninterrupted's The Shop, LeBron says that if he were in Griner's situation, he would seriously question the effort the U.S. has been putting in with regard to facilitating her release:
“Now, how can she feel like America has her back?” James asked (h/t Jonathan Sherman of Lakers Daily). “I would be feeling like, ‘Do I even want to go back to America?'”
For their part, the United States government has reportedly been doing what it can to help Griner. Previous reports even went as far as saying that President Joe Biden had given the green light on a prisoner swap involving Griner and notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor “Merchant of Death” Bout. This deal never came to fruition, though, and there currently appears to be no real development in Brittney Griner's possible release.
LeBron James has never been shy to share his true feelings, particularly when it comes to social issues such as this one. It is clear in his statement here that the Lakers star feels that the government has done Griner and her family a disservice for their inability to facilitate her release.