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      N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver misses Game 6 of the finals after testing positive.

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      If Golden State wins the N.B.A. championship on Thursday, the league’s commissioner, Adam Silver, will not be there to hand over the trophy. Silver is missing his second straight game because of the league’s coronavirus health and safety protocols.Silver tested positive for the coronavirus before Game 5 and has mild symptoms, according to a person familiar with the test result who was not authorized to publicly disclose the details.Golden State is facing the Boston Celtics in the N.B.A. finals, and just needs to win Game 6 in Boston on Thursday for the title. Silver, who has been the commissioner since 2014, normally would be expected to lead the championship trophy presentation. Instead, the ceremonial task will fall to the league’s deputy commissioner, Mark Tatum, if Golden State wins.If Boston wins, Game 7 will be Sunday in San Francisco.The league has loosened its virus protocols in recent months, limiting testing and shortening isolation periods for players who have tested positive, in accordance with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Players are not required to be vaccinated.Boston’s Al Horford missed the first game of the Eastern Conference semifinals because of the league’s coronavirus health and safety protocols. More

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      The Celtics Got Lucky By Not Getting What They Wanted

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      Other teams’ superstars kept getting traded, and the Celtics wanted in on the action. Boston (mostly) missed out, and is probably better off for it.Moments after Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals ended last month, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown embraced each other.“They said we couldn’t play together,” Tatum said with a wide smile.That had been the most pressing issue facing the Boston Celtics since Tatum, 24, and Brown, 25, were handed the reins to the team before the 2019-20 season. That year — Tatum’s third and Brown’s fourth in the N.B.A. — they led the team to within two wins of reaching the finals. Since then, they have faced questions about whether Boston could be a championship-caliber team built around them.Those questions were at their loudest earlier this year — dominating TV panels and podcasts — when the Celtics were 18-21 and on pace to miss the playoffs. Instead, a remarkable turnaround propelled the Celtics into the finals, against Golden State, for the first time since 2010.“We definitely thought about and had conversations about trading for a number of the great players that were sort of thought to be available over the past 10 years,” Wyc Grousbeck, the owner of the Celtics, said in an interview. “It’d be wrong to say we never engaged in trade talks with player X, Y or Z.”But, he added, “we valued our guys more than, apparently, the market did.”The trend in the N.B.A. over the last 15 years — though it didn’t originate then — has been to chase the creation of so-called superteams at the expense of developing continuity and nurturing young players. The 2007-8 Celtics, who brought in Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett to complement Paul Pierce through blockbuster trades and won a championship, were a prominent example of this.Since then, several teams have emptied their cupboards of draft picks and young players to acquire big-name stars — as the Celtics did — in a leaguewide arms race to compete for mercenary championships. This has coincided with the player empowerment movement, where top players have tried, often successfully, to be traded to teams with other stars.This has left the players’ new teams on edge, wondering if giving up all the picks and young players will be worth it.The Celtics tried to get in on the trend — they traded for Kyrie Irving and signed Gordon Hayward to a big free-agent deal just after drafting Tatum in 2017 — but today’s team is the result of yearslong investment in young players. The Celtics are on the doorstep of a championship with a foundation that goes against what has become conventional wisdom about team-building in the N.B.A. Whether as a result of luck or shrewd front office work, or both, the Celtics’ approach is paying off.In recent years, the All-Stars Jimmy Butler, Kawhi Leonard, Ben Simmons, James Harden, Anthony Davis and Paul George have been among those to engineer trades. Irving forced a trade out of Cleveland to land in Boston.Almost every time a star was rumored to want out of their situation, the Celtics would be linked to the trade talks. Few teams could offer young players as talented as Boston’s or as many draft picks, some of which Boston acquired in a heist of a deal with the Nets as they created their own superteam in 2013.Grousbeck declined to comment on what deals Boston came close to making. In at least one case, the star seemingly made the decision for the Celtics. Davis’s father, Anthony Davis Sr., publicly said that he didn’t want his son playing in Boston — a signal that even if Davis were traded to Boston, he wouldn’t re-sign once his contract expired, making it less worthwhile for the Celtics to part with their top players in a deal.Brown, left, and Tatum were drafted one year apart. Their growth over the past five years, especially this season, has made Boston a top contender in the Eastern Conference.Elsa/Getty Images“I think that what happens is you want to trade draft capital if you get the right deals and if you feel like you’re close enough to winning,” Danny Ainge, who was Boston’s president of basketball operations from 2003-21, told Sports Illustrated recently. “None of us know what would have happened in different circumstances.”In some cases, superteam gambles worked — at least in the short term. The Toronto Raptors won the championship in 2019, led by Leonard; the Lakers won a title in 2020 with Davis. But the Nets won just one playoff series with Harden before he forced a trade to the Philadelphia 76ers in February. To get Harden from Houston, the Nets had given up the 24-year-old center Jarrett Allen, who made his first All-Star team this year with Cleveland.The Nets’ one series win with Harden came against Boston in the first round of the 2021 playoffs, with Brown out injured. The Celtics, left behind in the superteam arms race, seemed adrift. Some of their recent first-round draft picks, like Romeo Langford (2019) and Aaron Nesmith (2020), looked like misses. Irving and Hayward were gone. Kemba Walker, a former All-Star whom the Celtics had signed to a maximum contract to replace Irving, had been injured and playing poorly. Suddenly, Boston looked like a team that had, unlike the Raptors and Lakers title teams, held on to its young players for too long.The day after the Celtics were eliminated from last year’s playoffs, Boston simultaneously announced that Ainge was stepping down as team president and that Brad Stevens would replace him. Stevens had been the team’s head coach for eight seasons, but he had no front office experience.Grousbeck said he pitched Stevens on replacing Ainge, citing Stevens’s tenure with the team and a “personal bond” that he had with ownership. At the news conference announcing the move last June, Stevens said he had discussed the possibility of taking over the position with both Ainge and Grousbeck, and that he told Grousbeck: “I love the Celtics. I want to do what’s best for the Celtics.”One of Stevens’s first moves was to hire Ime Udoka as coach, Udoka’s first leading role after nine years as an assistant. Grousbeck said he wasn’t worried about the inexperience of Stevens and Udoka in their new jobs.“I went to Ime and Brad before the season started and specifically said in person, ‘I’m not stressed about how this season starts,’” Grousbeck said.There are countless examples of professional sports owners preaching patience but not practicing it. As the season progressed, the Celtics mostly kept the faith that they could win with Tatum and Brown as their centerpieces.“Now, did I start worrying in the first half? Yes, I did. But I kept it to myself,” Grousbeck said.Marcus Smart, left, has been a vocal leader for the Celtics and critical as a defender. He was named the defensive player of the year this season, the first guard to win the award since Gary Payton in the 1990s.Winslow Townson/Getty ImagesAfter their 18-21 start, the Celtics went 33-10 and earned the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Most of the players in their finals rotation were drafted by the Celtics and are 25 and younger, including Tatum (24), Brown (25), Robert Williams III (24), Grant Williams (23) and Payton Pritchard (24). Marcus Smart, 28, was drafted by the Celtics in 2014 and named the defensive player of the year this season.This would appear to leave the Celtics in strong shape for years to come. They’re in the finals and many of their players haven’t hit their primes. But championship windows can be slim. After this year, the N.B.A. will have crowned at least five different teams as champion in seven years. The Celtics might end up regretting not trading for Davis or another big name if they don’t win a title this year. After all, just one year ago, when the Celtics looked to be locked into mediocrity, the Phoenix Suns came within two wins of a championship, only to slink out in the second round of this postseason despite being the West’s No. 1 seed.But if Boston wins, perhaps the next team will think twice before striking a deal when the next Harden or Simmons tries to force a trade. The Celtics aren’t quite the model of patience — a stroke of luck, it seems, felled their superstar trade negotiations — but what they have appears to be working just fine.Not that Grousbeck is interested in taking a victory lap.“I don’t think anybody needs any advice from us about building a team,” Grousbeck said. More

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      Celtics Gain NBA Finals Edge on Golden State With Physical Play

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      The Celtics lead the N.B.A. finals, two games to one, in a series that has been defined by size and rebounds more than finesse and flash.BOSTON — After Game 3 of the N.B.A. finals, Boston Celtics center Robert Williams attended his postgame news conference dressed in a T-shirt with the face of the bruising, Hall of Fame player Dennis Rodman printed on it.It was fitting attire after a game in which the Celtics had banged into the Golden State Warriors and sent them skittering across the court, in which they wrested rebounds and loose balls away from them. At times, Golden State looked disheveled and tired when its players smacked into the bigger, more athletic, younger Celtics.“We want to try to impose our will and size in this series,” Celtics Coach Ime Udoka said.Game 3, on Wednesday night, was the first finals game in Boston since 2010, and the Celtics made a statement, playing with edge to earn a 2-1 series lead over Golden State with a 116-100 win. Boston will also host Game 4 on Friday night.It has been a series marked by toughness: The team able to exhibit more of it has been able to win each of the first three games.“If we were going to come out here and play, the last thing when we left that court we didn’t want to say we weren’t physical enough,” Celtics guard Marcus Smart said. “It worked out for us.”Statistically, that physicality manifested itself in several ways Wednesday night.It showed in the rebounding — Boston grabbed 16 more rebounds than Golden State. Williams had 10, as well as four of the Celtics’ seven blocks.“There’s a play early in the fourth, I got by Grant Williams and thought I had daylight to get a shot up, and you underestimate how athletic he was and how much he could bother that shot,” Golden State guard Stephen Curry said.Williams has been inconsistent this series because of a knee injury that has bothered him throughout the playoffs. Williams had surgery on his left knee in March, but aggravated it during the Celtics’ Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Milwaukee Bucks. On Wednesday, he felt good enough to give Boston a lift.“They’ve been killing us on the glass this whole series,” Williams said. “Wanted to just put an emphasis on it.”Golden State guard Stephen Curry, left, was caught under the Celtics’ Al Horford in the fourth quarter of Game 3 of the N.B.A. finals on Wednesday night.Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle, via Associated PressThe Celtics’ physicality also showed in their ability to score inside. They outscored Golden State, 52-26, in the paint.“It was just us being us, just continuing to drive the ball and try to find a great shot for our teammates and ourselves,” Smart said. “This Warrior team does a very good job of helping each other out on their defensive end. They’re going to make you have to make the right play every single time, and if you don’t, they’re going to make you pay.”Although Golden State is known for an offense that can be mesmerizing to watch, it was impressive defensively during its dynastic run from 2015 to 2019. That returned this season — the only team with a better defensive rating than Golden State has been Boston.In the finals, the Celtics have used their size to widen the gap between the two teams.The Celtics won Game 1, 120-108, and showed Golden State’s players they would need to be more physical if they meant to compete.Golden State trailed early in Game 2 as well, and that was the crux of the halftime conversation. The players knew that the only way to match Boston was to match its intensity, despite being smaller at most positions. With that in mind, Golden State outscored Boston, 41-14, in that third quarter and won, 107-88.“There wasn’t a whole lot of strategic change,” Golden State Coach Steve Kerr said after Game 2. “You know, a couple tweaks here and there. The preparation was mostly about our intensity and physicality.”In Game 3, the Celtics reclaimed that edge.“We had to,” Smart said of the physicality with which Boston dominated Golden State. “Game 2, they brought the heat to us. For us, that left a bad taste in our mouth because what we hang our hat on is effort on the defensive end and being a physical team.”Golden State was not able to match it, not for long enough anyway.Golden State has outscored Boston by 43 points in the third quarter this series, and took a lead in Game 3, 83-82, on a 3-pointer by Curry. That basket had followed a quick stretch of 7 points without Boston gaining possession. Curry was fouled shooting a 3-pointer, and since the foul was flagrant, Golden State got the ball back and scored another 3.But as the quarter closed, Golden State’s grip on the game slipped.“Take the hits, keep fighting,” Williams said was the message in the huddle after the third quarter. “Obviously, they’re a great team that goes on runs, a lot of runs, but just withstanding the hit.”Golden State couldn’t get through the defense, nor could it stop the Celtics from grabbing second chances. Hustle plays typically went to Boston.At one point in the fourth quarter, several players tangled over a loose ball, and Smart came up with it before Draymond Green pushed him. It was Green’s sixth foul, and the crowd jeered at him after having spent the evening chanting curses at him.Golden State’s Klay Thompson complained about fans swearing with “children in the crowd.”“Real classy. Good job, Boston,” he said.Green said the chants didn’t bother him. What bothered him more, he said, was that he played “soft.” He was a catalyst for Golden State’s more physical play in Game 2, but he was ineffective in Game 3.He said his final foul came when he was trying to get players off Curry, whom he heard screaming at the bottom of a pile. Curry stayed in the game but said afterward that he had pain in one of his feet.It is among the many bruises Golden State will have to manage after a Game 3 loss that challenged its toughness. The Celtics shoved over Golden State’s beautiful brand of basketball, leaving Curry and his teammates searching for ways to get back up. More

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      Klay Thompson’s Fix for His Shooting Woes? Unearthing His Alter Ego.

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      The Golden State guard has turned to highlights of himself at his peak — in the mode of “Game 6 Klay” — to help emerge from a shooting slump in the N.B.A. finals.BOSTON — Klay Thompson might as well have spent Game 2 of the N.B.A. finals on Sunday launching the ball straight into swirling winds. His field-goal attempts veered left and right, fell short and carried long.Afterward, knowing Golden State would need him to be more productive as its series with the Celtics continued, Thompson sought to remind himself that he was good at basketball. So he fired up a laptop and watched old clips of a familiar figure: himself.“I remember being in college,” he said, “and when you’d go through a shooting slump, the video guys would pull up a great game when everything seemed in unison, and your body was working so well that the ball was just flowing off your fingertips.”All Thompson needed to do, he said, was search for “Game 6 Klay” on YouTube, and various high-profile reminders of his long-range acumen were readily available to him. Most recently, he scored 30 points and made 8 of 14 3-point attempts in Golden State’s Game 6 win over the Memphis Grizzlies last month to close out their Western Conference semifinal series. He also famously scored 41 points, in a performance that included making 11 of his 18 3-pointers, in 2016 in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder.“There were some very high-pressurized situations I was in, and I ended up shooting the ball well,” he said. “When you can do it when your back is against the wall, you can do it at any given moment. It’s just about keeping that mental strong.”Thompson was just 1 of 8 from 3-point range during Game 2 of the N.B.A. finals. His career regular-season 3-point percentage is 41.7.Ezra Shaw/Getty ImagesIf nothing else, Thompson is familiar with keeping, as he put it, that mental strong. His celebrated comeback after missing two full seasons because of injuries has culminated in another trip to the finals, his sixth with Golden State. But he was clearly disappointed with his effort in Game 2 against Boston, as he shot 4 of 19 from the field and finished with 11 points. On the bright side, he said, the Warriors drubbed the Celtics to tie the series ahead of Game 3 on Wednesday night in Boston.“It feels good going 4 for 19 and winning by 20,” said Thompson, referring to Golden State’s 107-88 win. “I’d rather do that than go 13 for 19 and lose by 10. Been there, and that’s never fun.”On Tuesday, Thompson arrived for his news conference wearing one sneaker while he worked to fit the other with an insole. He was, in his own way, a work in progress, and that has been the case since January, when he was finally back in uniform after a 941-day absence. In 32 regular-season games, he shot a career-low 38.5 percent from 3-point range, but he offered flashes of his familiar greatness, and his mere presence on the perimeter helped create more space for teammates like Stephen Curry.It has been more of the same for Thompson in the playoffs: some good, some great, some bad. His inconsistency should not be surprising given how long he was gone. His left knee and his right Achilles’ tendon are surgically repaired, so there were always going to be ups and downs as he sought to regain his rhythm and his conditioning. His teammates do not seem concerned.“If you saw him now, you’d think he’s averaging 50 in this series,” Curry said. “He’s got a very confident look about him. That’s the best thing about him. It’s all about the work you put in. It’s about the mind-set.”On Sunday, Thompson had a bit of a different look. He missed 9 of his first 10 field-goal attempts before he made a 3-pointer early in the third quarter that put Golden State ahead, 59-52. He pumped his fists, but was soon muttering to himself and shaking his head.“When I watched the film, I probably seemed a little rushed,” he said. “I wasn’t underneath my shot.”Even as the score grew more lopsided, Golden State Coach Steve Kerr left Thompson in the game against Boston’s reserves. But rather than unearth some confidence, Thompson missed his final four shots.“I think he’s just pressing a little bit,” Kerr said. “He just wants so badly to do well that he’s taking some bad ones. I’m not particularly concerned about it because this isn’t the first time it’s happened. Klay has a way of responding to mini-slumps or whatever you want to call them.”Thompson thought back to this year’s Western Conference finals against the Dallas Mavericks. Over the first four games of the series, he shot just 29.2 percent from 3-point range. In Game 5, he scored 32 points and shot 8 of 16 from 3-point range to help eliminate Dallas.“I stuck to the process,” he said, “and eventually I blew the lid off.”Ahead of Wednesday’s game against Boston, Kerr said a point of emphasis would be to make sure that Thompson got some good looks early that were in rhythm.As for Thompson’s film study — which he apparently tries to be discreet about — Golden State’s Draymond Green said he had not caught Thompson watching old clips of himself on YouTube.“The reality is, if I did, we’d probably make fun of him,” Green said. “So it’s probably good that I haven’t.”To be fair, Thompson does not have much trouble staying grounded on his own. On Tuesday, he recalled where he was about a year ago: working out in an empty arena with Rick Celebrini, the team’s director of sports medicine and performance.“To be back here on this stage,” Thompson said, “you’ve just got to remind yourself to keep working because it’s a blessing and really an honor to be here.” More

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      Boston Celtics Stun Golden State in N.B.A. Finals Game 1

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      SAN FRANCISCO — After a long and eventful road to the N.B.A. finals, Golden State was grateful for a full week to rest and recover before facing the Boston Celtics in Game 1 on Thursday night.Golden State’s modest break came to an abrupt end. Boston made sure of it, stunning Golden State, 120-108, to take the opening game of the best-of-seven series at Chase Center.The Celtics leaned on their depth to erase a 15-point deficit in the second half. Al Horford scored a team-high 26 points, while Jaylen Brown added 24 and Derrick White scored 21 off the bench.Jayson Tatum scored just 12 points in the win while shooting 3 of 17 from the field, but he had a game-high 13 assists. The Celtics also managed to overcome a turbocharged effort from Golden State’s Stephen Curry, who scored 34 points.Game 2 is Sunday night in San Francisco.In remarks before the game, N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver noted how the finals was pitting two of the league’s original franchises — a fitting series for the N.B.A., which has been celebrating its 75th anniversary this season. The Philadelphia Warriors won the league’s first championship, all the way back in 1947, when they took care of the Chicago Stags in five games. The Celtics are chasing their 18th title, and their first since 2008.The finals, of course, are familiar turf for Golden State’s celebrated stars. Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green are making their sixth finals appearance in the past eight seasons. And the Warriors had looked familiarly dominant in needing just five games to eliminate the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference finals.The Celtics, on the other hand, were coming off a bruising seven-game series with the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals. Ahead of Game 1 against Golden State, Marcus Smart and Robert Williams III were still recovering from injuries. And Tatum and Brown, the Celtics’ two young stars, had been supplying huge minutes throughout the playoffs.Golden State looked primed to jump all over Boston in the early going. In the first quarter alone, Curry sank six 3-pointers — a finals record for 3-pointers in a quarter — and scored 21 points as Golden State led by as many as 10. Even Andre Iguodala got into the act, supplying his first minutes since the first round after missing most of the postseason with back trouble.But the Celtics are not in the finals by accident. They produced the league’s top-rated defense in the regular season, and they ramped up the pressure on Curry as the game wore on. Consider a single possession of the second quarter, as Curry tried to work himself free by coming off a series of screens. White defended him, then Tatum, then Smart, the league’s defensive player of the year. Surprise: Curry could not find an opening.Jordan Poole closed the first half for Golden State by bricking a 3-point attempt off the top of the backboard, and the Celtics led, 56-54. A gold-clad crowd that had roared for much of the half seemed to be in a collective stupor. Adult refreshments awaited many fans on the concourse.Golden State is famous for its explosive third quarters, though, and Thursday’s version of it was no different. By the time Curry threw in an acrobatic layup, Golden State was back up by 9.But fueled by unsung players like White and Payton Pritchard, the Celtics mounted a huge run in the fourth quarter, taking a 109-103 lead when Horford sank back-to-back 3-pointers.Fans began to file toward the exits in the final minute. More

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      ESPN’s Jeff Van Gundy and Mike Breen Will Miss First NBA Finals Game

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      Mike Breen and Jeff Van Gundy, two longtime staples of ESPN’s broadcast team for the N.B.A. finals, will miss the opening game of the championship series between Golden State and the Boston Celtics. An ESPN spokesman said that both broadcasters had tested positive for the coronavirus in recent days, but Van Gundy said in an interview that he had not.The N.B.A. finals begin Thursday in San Francisco and would be the 14th championship series featuring Breen on play-by-play alongside Van Gundy and Mark Jackson, two former N.B.A. head coaches. Instead, Game 1 will be called by Jackson and Mark Jones, with Lisa Salters as the sideline reporter.Breen missed Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals series between Miami and Boston on Sunday after testing positive for the virus. Van Gundy and Jackson, who had called games with Breen over the prior week, continued on with the game, with Jones filling in for Breen.Van Gundy said in an interview Thursday that he had not been tested for the virus before Sunday’s game because he was asymptomatic, although his voice was noticeably hoarse during the Game 7 broadcast. The N.B.A. did not institute a testing mandate for members of the television and news media for this year’s playoffs, as it did last postseason.Van Gundy said that on Monday, upon flying home to Houston, he started to feel slight symptoms. The next day, he took a home test, which he said was inconclusive. ESPN then sent Van Gundy two other rapid tests, which he said came out negative. Van Gundy also said he wasn’t sure why he had been pulled from broadcasting Game 1, and that he hoped to be back for Game 2 Sunday in San Francisco.Van Gundy added that he was no longer experiencing symptoms.Adrian Wojnarowski and Kendra Andrews, reporters who frequently appear on air for ESPN, have also tested positive for the coronavirus, and will miss the series opener. Andrews is a beat writer covering Golden State, and Wojnarowski is the network’s top N.B.A. reporter. More

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      Brittney Griner’s Supporters Have a New Strategy to Free Her: Make Noise

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      Those close to Griner pursued a strategy of silence after her detention in Russia in February, hoping to avoid politicizing her case. Now they are amping up public pressure, with some of it aimed at President Biden.Her face is on hoodies. Her name is in hashtags. Her “B.G.” and number are on fans’ jerseys and W.N.B.A. courts.As the Phoenix Mercury star Brittney Griner waits in Russia, detained since Feb. 17 on drug charges, symbols of support for her are all around. They come from people who don’t know her at all and people who know and love her — from teammates, sympathizers and former coaches.Dawn Staley, who coached Griner and her U.S. teammates to a gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics last year, said she thinks about her every day.“I know Brittney, I’ve been around her, know her heart. I know what she’s about,” Staley said. “And if she’s being wrongfully detained or not, I would be advocating for her release because nobody should be in a foreign country locked up abroad.”Staley has posted messages on Twitter about Griner every day since early May. “Can you please free our friend,” she wrote on Tuesday, tagging the official account for the White House. She added, “All of her loved ones would sleep a little easier.”It has been more than three months since Griner was detained, accused of having hashish oil in her luggage at an airport near Moscow. But only in the last few weeks has there been a coordinated public campaign by W.N.B.A. players and by Griner’s wife, family, friends and agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, to push for her release. That’s where the hoodies — worn by many different players — and the initials — displayed on W.N.B.A. courts — come in. The #WeAreBG hashtag seen on warm-up shirts and social media is also part of the campaign.On Saturday, the W.N.B.A. players’ union posted messaging on social media marking the 100th day of Griner’s detention.Decals with Griner’s No. 42 and initials are on each court in the W.N.B.A.Jennifer Buchanan/The Seattle Times, via Associated PressThe delay in starting the campaign was strategic: Griner’s camp was worried that publicity could make the situation worse because of tensions between Russia and the United States, including the war in Ukraine. But the delay has also been a source of frustration for women’s basketball players known for their social justice advocacy. Their approach has changed since the State Department said on May 3 that it had determined that Griner had been “wrongfully detained.”“Griner’s reclassification as wrongfully detained by the U.S. government cued our shift to the more public activist elements of our strategy,” Kagawa Colas said, adding that she could not elaborate out of respect for the sensitivity of the situation.Supporters have quickly joined in the new approach.“We’re more public,” said Terri Jackson, the executive director of the W.N.B.A. players’ union. One reason, she said, was the State Department’s determination, and another was the guidance of Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner.“She’s lead on this,” Jackson said. “She signaled through her team that she needed us, and that’s all we needed to hear.”Cherelle Griner appeared on “Good Morning America” on Wednesday and appealed to President Biden to intervene.“I just keep hearing that he has the power,” Cherelle Griner said. “She’s a political pawn. If they’re holding her because they want you to do something, then I want you to do it.”The State Department’s announcement this month said that Biden’s special envoy for hostage affairs would lead an interagency team to secure Griner’s release. But since then, Griner’s detention has been extended until June 18, and the Biden administration has said little about its maneuvering. Cherelle Griner said during the television interview that her only communication with her wife had been through occasional letters. She said she had been told that her wife’s release was a top priority, but she expressed skepticism.Representative Colin Allred, Democrat of Texas, has been speaking publicly about Brittney Griner’s detention and working with her representatives. He said Griner, who is from Houston, has had access to her attorney in Russia but has not been able to speak with her family. That violated international norms, he said.“The Russians need to be aware that we know what they’re doing, we know why they’re doing it and there will be consequences if anything should happen to her,” Allred said.Griner’s family and friends have sought to pressure Russia and Biden while also pleading for more support and news coverage in the United States.“There’s not enough conversations being had about Brittney and her release and just any talks of it,” said Staley, the women’s basketball coach at the University of South Carolina. “And I know there’s a process. I get that.”She added later: “There’s so many people that really know Brittney that aren’t doing anything, that aren’t sympathizing with the situation. I just want people to feel like it’s their loved one. And when you feel like it’s your loved one you would do anything to help. Everybody’s got to live their life, I get that, but come on. Empathize.”Fans have waged their own public campaign for Griner, even when those closest to her used a strategy of silence.Darryl Webb/Associated PressSeveral players in the W.N.B.A., and a few in the N.B.A., have begun publicly advocating Griner’s release; in the first two and a half months after Griner’s detention most had said only that they loved and missed her.Seattle Storm forward Breanna Stewart, who was named the league’s most valuable player in 2018, posts daily on Twitter about Griner. DeWanna Bonner, who plays for the Connecticut Sun and was Griner’s teammate in Phoenix from 2013 to 2019, brought up Griner during a recent news conference.“One more thing,” she said. “Free B.G. We are B.G. We love B.G. Free her.”In mid-May, the W.N.B.A. players’ union became an official partner on a Change.org petition addressed to the White House, which urged Biden to do “whatever is necessary” to bring Griner home safely. The petition was started in March by Tamryn Spruill, a freelance journalist who has written for several media outlets, including The New York Times, about the W.N.B.A. Griner’s representatives at Wasserman promoted the petition to news outlets.In an interview with ESPN on May 17, N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver was asked what role the league should play in Griner’s situation. The N.B.A. owns 42.1 percent of the W.N.B.A.What to Know About Brittney Griner’s Detention in RussiaCard 1 of 5What happened? More