Former Baylor players, Arike Ogunbowale chastise Kim Mulkey for silence on Brittney Griner

Brittney Griner has been wrongfully detained in Russia on drug charges since February. During that time many voices across the basketball landscape have spoken their support for Griner and the need to bring her home.

Griner’s college coach Kim Mulkey will not join the chorus. When asked to comment if she had commented on Griner’s imprisonment the LSU head coach replied “and you won’t” to a reporter on Monday.

This response drew backlash from former players who were coached by Mulkey at Baylor, as well as other WNBA athletes, including Wings star Arike Ogunbowale.

Queen Egbo, rookie WNBA center for the Indiana Fever, spoke out about her former coach’s lack of support for Griner.

“A player that built Baylor, 2 national titles, & a 40-0 record,” Egbo said on Twitter. “Yet her former coach refuses to say anything or simply just show any kind of support. Keep that in mind when you’re choosing schools.”

Egbo played under Mulkey at Baylor for three of her four seasons at Baylor. Griner’s former teammate and free agent WNBA player Chloe Jackson also spoke out on Twitter.

“And I will say it again. SILENCE SPEAKS VOLUMES, smh,” Jackson said.

Griner fell out with Mulkey and Baylor after leaving for the WNBA. While at Baylor, Griner said coach Mulkey told players not to be open about their sexuality. Griner told Mulkey she was gay as a recruit and the coach said it was not a problem, according to ESPN, despite Baylor being a private Christian university.

The falling out with the university stemmed from Baylor’s school policy on homosexuality, Griner said.

“I would love to be an ambassador for Baylor, to show my school pride, but it’s hard to do that — it’s hard to stand up and say, ‘Baylor is the best!’ - when the administration has a written policy against homosexuality,” Griner said in her 2014 book ‘In My Skin.’ “I’ve spent too much of my life being made to feel like there’s something wrong with me. And not matter how much support I felt as a basketball player at Baylor, it still doesn’t erase all the pain I felt there...”

Current Baylor coach Nicki Collen did not hesitate to speak up on behalf of the former Baylor when asked at a recent press conference.

Collen said Griner “was Baylor” and said “she made Baylor a household name,” adding that Griner was one of the first people to reach out and congratulate her when she was hired at Baylor. Collen also said she wanted to retire Griner’s jersey.

Griner and Mulkey won two national championships together, went a perfect 40-0 one season and continued a college basketball dynasty. Nine years after that relationship publicly fractured, not even a nine-year Russian sentence isn’t enough to make Mulkey publicly show empathy for her former player.

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