Phoenix Mercury heart Brittney Griner signed a deal with Nike in 2013 after she was chosen because the No. 1 choose within the WNBA draft.
Greater than a decade later, a viral Fb put up claims the Nike deal has ended.
“Nike publicizes termination of contract with Brittney Griner after ‘robust backlash’ from on-line group: ‘We want extra athletes like Riley Gaines and fewer woke Brittney Griner!’” an Aug. 14 Fb put up stated, referring to former College of Kentucky swimmer Gaines, who opposes transgender athletes’ participation in girls’s sports activities.
This put up was flagged as a part of Meta’s efforts to fight false information and misinformation on its Information Feed. (Learn extra about our partnership with Meta, which owns Fb, Instagram and Threads.)
We discovered no proof, corresponding to credible information stories or public statements from Griner, Gaines or Nike to help this declare.
Neither Nike nor Griner’s representatives instantly responded to PolitiFact’s questions concerning the put up. However a spokesperson for Griner instructed Reuters the declare is fake and that the Mercury participant nonetheless has an lively partnership with the corporate.
As of Aug. 26, Nike was promoting Griner jerseys on its web site. Two weeks earlier, the model featured Griner in a video shared on its X account celebrating the U.S. girls’s basketball staff’s gold medal victory within the 2024 Olympics. Griner additionally was named in Nike’s press launch concerning the win the identical day.
We fee claims Nike introduced it’s ending its contract with Griner False.
