Before Game 1 of the Finals, Silver announced that the NBA would be working with the U.S. government to try to “expedite” her case to bring her home as soon as possible. Silver explained Wednesday how the NBA got involved with Griner’s case. “Well, actually, what spurred us, you used the words ‘wrongfully detained,’ and so that is an official designation used by the U.S. government,” Silver said. “Initially, when she was detained, even though we all knew what was going on, we were told by the U.S. government to keep it a little bit more as a low-profile issue I think because they were hoping that Russia frankly wouldn’t see her as such a high-value asset, in which they would be looking to get something in return for her.”