Securing the discharge of WNBA star Brittney Griner from wrongful detention in Russia was a monumental feat of politics and negotiations.
However PR additionally performed a crucial position.
“It was about screaming from the mountaintop and attempting to have the general public and in the end the federal government and White Home take note of us, as a result of we knew that with out the federal government assist and the assist of the White Home, she most likely wasn’t going to return dwelling,” Calder Hynes instructed PR Each day. Hynes is senior vice chairman of worldwide communications at Wasserman, the sports activities and leisure expertise company that has represented Griner for years.
Wasserman coordinated efforts to launch Griner from her practically 10-month imprisonment in Russia, a large endeavor that required working with not solely the federal government, worldwide attorneys and hostage consultants, but in addition the WNBA, USA Basketball and the courtroom of public opinion.
In an interview with PR Each day, Hynes and Griner’s longtime agent Lindsay Kagawa Colas revealed how they labored to first maintain the incident quiet – after which how to make sure each American seen Griner as their sister, daughter or neighbor.
This story was partially developed primarily based on reporting from “Inside Brittney Griner’s Russia arrest, detainment and launch,” written by ESPN’s T.J. Quinn, for particulars round Griner’s arrest and detention. All quotes with Kagawa Colas and Hynes are from interviews with PR Each day.
An early morning name and a global incident
Kagawa Colas was woke up early one morning by a name from a colleague. There was an issue. The data they’d was slim, only a textual content from Griner’s spouse, Cherelle, that the basketball star had been arrested as she returned to Russia to kick off her play with UMMC Ekaterinburg resulting from her possession of two marijuana vape cartridges.
Brittney Griner and Lindsay Kagawa Colas after Griner’s launch from Russian detention. Photograph supplied by Wasserman.
At first, this was simply one other downside to unravel. A day within the lifetime of a sports activities agent.
“We had been nonetheless hoping that this was going to be a sports activities diplomacy challenge that could possibly be solved,” Kagawa Colas instructed PR Each day. “Some misunderstanding. She has a prescription for this medically prescribed hashish oil. I’m certain we are able to determine this out.”
“The preliminary (PR) strategy was, let’s attempt to maintain this out of public data. Transfer previous it,” Hynes recalled.
However the timing meant that this is able to be greater than a minor drug bust. Griner was detained on Feb. 17, 2022.
One week later, Russia invaded Ukraine.
From quiet to loud
For greater than two weeks, few individuals exterior Griner’s fast circle knew of her detention. However on March 5, Russia itself broke the information of her detention, forcing her staff’s hand.
“That was a type of early indicators that she was a political pawn,” Kagawa Colas stated. “They usually had been going to begin utilizing this as a negotiation.”
That started a brand new, cautious part of efforts. The staff needed to right misinformation and advocate for Griner, however they didn’t need to exacerbate the state of affairs unnecessarily.
“It was extra about being factual, attempting to supply the general public and the press with what they wanted, maintain them shut, whereas on the identical time not attempting to go on the market with an agenda or pushback about why she’s there, or why she isn’t, or what the remedy is with regard to her security,” Hynes stated. “We couldn’t actually begin a forwards and backwards with the Russian authorities.”
However the months of Griner’s confinement dragged on. By August, she had been sentenced to a staggering 9 years’ incarceration. By November, she was transferred to a Russian labor camp, the place she was tasked with carrying bolts of material — she was too tall to carry out the stitching different ladies did — and breaking ice. The chilly climate required her to chop her trademark locs after they stored freezing.
At dwelling, the marketing campaign to carry her dwelling started to ramp up.
“Early, it was ‘be quiet,’” Kagawa Colas remembered. “‘Let’s not elevate her worth. Let’s see if we are able to resolve this quietly.’ Then it was, ‘if we need to maintain her seen and ensure she’s a precedence on the White Home, how will we try this with out compromising the White Home and compromising the negotiation?’”
One challenge — and alternative — was Griner’s identification. She is Black. She is a lesbian. She presents in methods which are gender-nonconforming. That allowed Biden’s political opponents to show her right into a wedge challenge to strike on the president, with the fires additional stoked by Russian-backed bots on social media. The extra controversy round her, the extra she could possibly be used as a pawn by Vladimir Putin and his regime. However the staff needed to communicate up. The time for silence had handed.
“How will we concurrently lower her worth in a commerce to make a commerce simpler, whereas additionally guaranteeing she’s a precedence? That may be a needle to string,” Kagawa Colas stated.
The reply was a marketing campaign that emphasised unity.
‘BG is for everyone’
The Wasserman staff determined that Griner’s multi-layered identification was an asset, not a legal responsibility.
“Possibly you may’t see your self in Brittney Griner, however we’re going to let you know why you truly can,” Kagawa Colas stated. Within the PR marketing campaign, they emphasised that Griner is the daughter of a veteran and a former regulation enforcement officer. Her favourite vacation is the Fourth of July. She’s an American hero, having received two Olympic gold medals for her nation.
However her Blackness and her sexuality weren’t averted both. The Wasserman staff stated these had been apparent causes that she was detained. Consequently, Black ladies in media grew to become a number of the most beneficial and highly effective voices within the marketing campaign.
“They intimately understood the story,” Hynes stated. “They usually understood the challenges extra simply. They had been far more understanding and open to masking the story with slightly bit extra of a private connection. However greater than something, we didn’t must undergo all the reason to them concerning the lesson. The whys of all this.”
And a few did use Griner’s identification to tear her down or even say she ought to stay in Russia. However the Wasserman staff tried to remain above the fray, stating that Griner has rights as an American and for those who consider in these rights, try to be advocating for her.
The opposite problem was that Griner, locked up in Russia, couldn’t communicate for herself. She wanted advocates. A type of was Kagawa Colas. The opposite key participant was Cherelle Griner, Brittney’s spouse.
“Cherelle was simply a mean American individual, had not been a public determine, had not been within the limelight, had not completed any media and not likely engaged,” Hynes stated. “And we had been impulsively asking her to do an interview on ‘Good Morning America’ with Robin Roberts.”
The Wasserman staff helped with media coaching, giving Cherelle the instruments she wanted as rapidly as potential to reach a tough position. From wanting the half to telling her emotional story clearly, she bought a crash course — and succeeded.
“Discuss an individual who has the utmost energy in all this,” Hynes stated. “Cherelle simply actually delivered.”
Past the media relations, there have been rallies and occasions in Arizona, the place Griner nonetheless performs with the Phoenix Mercury WNBA staff, and partnerships with the NBA. Each measure was meant to make sure that consideration stayed on Griner and the general public remained invested within the effort to carry her dwelling. #WeAreBG was used as a rallying hashtag to encourage others to advocate for and see themselves in Griner, utilized by each common individuals and celebrities like NBA star Carmelo Anthony to maintain her identify within the information.
After which in December, practically 10 months after Griner was stopped at clients in Moscow officers reached a deal. Her freedom was secured in change for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms supplier serving a federal jail sentence.
Freedom
When Griner was returned to the US and reunited along with her spouse, the staff took a second to have fun.
“It was overwhelming. It was confusion. It was pleasure. It was simply pure pleasure,” Hynes stated. “I bought very emotional, and I cried as a result of I don’t assume I understood how a lot pent-up emotion I had over this.”
However the second of celebration was transient. There was nonetheless an excessive amount of work to do.
Even selecting which picture of Brittney and Cherelle reuniting can be launched to the media needed to be rigorously orchestrated.
“We needed to steadiness each the historic significance of the second, the private, emotional facet that grounds the story, and I feel they’re essentially the most compelling,” Hynes stated.
Brittney Griner reunites along with her spouse Cherelle after spending practically 10 months in detention in Russia. Photograph supplied by Wasserman.
The army and the federal government had been concerned, necessitating time and sensitivity as Griner readjusted. However there have been additionally lots of of interview requests pouring in.
“All of us realized in a short time that clearly getting her dwelling was the objective, however in her bigger story and for our coping with her, if you wish to put it within the context of a PR marketing campaign, it was truly solely the primary part. It’s on to this complete subsequent chapter of Brittany’s life,” Hynes instructed PR Each day.
Griner did restricted interviews on her return, and the Wasserman staff rigorously prioritized whom she spoke to, placing an emphasis on basketball media and shops who had been engaged within the story for the reason that starting.
However general, Hynes stated the marketing campaign reaffirmed his perception within the energy of PR to perform essential issues.
“It was gratifying that it appeared like a true-blue PR marketing campaign, even right this moment, can have a very tangible impression on this actually constructive consequence.”
The return
Griner returned to the courtroom for the 2023 WNBA season, the place she shot a career-high 61.8% and was once more named an All-Star. Her memoir, “Coming Residence,” will probably be launched later this yr.
“Coming Residence begins in a land the place my roots developed and is the diary of my heartaches and regrets,” Griner stated in a press release concerning the guide. “However, in the end, the guide can be a narrative of how my household, my religion, and the assist of hundreds of thousands who rallied for my rescue helped me endure a nightmare.”
A documentary with Disney and ESPN on her experiences can be forthcoming. And so, Kagawa Colas says, is a brand new emphasis on activism and serving to different people who find themselves wrongfully detained, together with Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich.
“We’d wish to assume that consciousness round wrongful detention has been raised,” Kagawa Colas stated. “And we helped individuals achieve a greater understanding of how essential it was to do no matter is critical to get People dwelling. I hope that’ll be part of her legacy, how many individuals have come dwelling within the wake of her detention and our marketing campaign bringing her dwelling.”
As a result of as Hynes identified, basketball is just one a part of the higher arc of Griner’s life.
“(The detention) is a core a part of her identification. Her complete picture and persona is simply shifted now and long run for her. Numerous that is about setting her up for what she desires to do when she’s in the end completed enjoying. Who’s she gonna be?”
Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Each day. Observe her on Twitter or LinkedIn.
COMMENT
One Response to “The PR staff who helped carry Brittney Griner dwelling on how they stored her within the headlines”
I bear in mind following this from the very starting and seeing it on social media, however I didn’t understand how a lot was concerned in making all of it occur. Good job on explaining the behind-the-scenes exercise that was concerned in bringing Brittany dwelling.