Hours before the start of the WNBA draft, league commissioner Cathy Engelbert spoke to reporters and addressed the Brittney Griner situation, saying the WNBA was working with “everybody in our ecosystem” to ensure Griner’s safe return from Russia.
Griner has been detained in the country since February after being stopped and searched at the airport, where officials discovered vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage.
“We continue to be working diligently on bringing Brittney Griner home,” Engelbert said. “This is an unimaginable situation for (Griner) to be in … Certainly we’re trying everything that we can, every angle, working through with her legal representation, her agent, elected leaders, the administration, just everybody in our ecosystem to try and find ways to get her home safely and as quickly as we can.