Boston Celtics Wear "WE ARE BG" Shirts In Support Of Brittney Griner

While preparing for one of the biggest games of their career thus far, the Boston Celtics still made time to highlight an important injustice for a fellow basketball star.

Source: Boston Globe / Getty

Members of the NBA team wore T-shirts that had “WE ARE BG” written across them at practice on Saturday ahead of Game 2 of the NBA Finals, showing their support of WNBA superstar Brittney Griner, who is still detained in Russia.

“The shirts were super important not only showing our support for our sister that is detained over in Russia, Brittney Griner, we just wanted to show that togetherness and love that we have throughout not only the NBA but the WNBA,” Celtics’ Grant Williams said according to ESPN. “She’s been a vital part of the WNBA over years past, college, and in the amount of impact she’s had on young female athletes, USA and overseas.”

He continued, “We hope to have her back in the U.S. and reunited with her family and do what she loves and bring that love and tenacity she always plays with on the court.”

Williams went on to say that the shirts were a collaboration between the NBPA and WNBPA to show support for Griner as she remains detained in Russia, where she has been in custody since February.

“They sent them overnight to get them here for today,” Williams, a vice president within the National Basketball Players Association, explained. “They did a phenomenal job, and want to credit them to make that process happen. We just wanted to do that as a team. It was one of those things where no one questioned it. Everyone said, ‘Let’s do it.’ Everyone put the shirt on immediately when we got them, fresh off the box. They were ironed and good to go. So we wanted to show that love and support.”

Griner has been in Russian custody since being detained at an airport in mid-February, with the United States government saying she has been wrongfully detained. She was allegedly carrying vape cartridges containing hashish oil, an illegal substance in Russia and has now been in detention for over 100 days.