Did Nike announce the end of a contract with women's basketball star Brittney Griner after "a strong backlash from the online community" over Griner as too "woke"? No, that's not true: Representatives for Griner told Lead Stories that the claim is false. Nike has made no such public announcement.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Facebook published August 14, 2024. The post read:
Νike Announces Termiɴatɪᴏn Oꜰ Cᴏɴtrᴀct Witʜ Brittnᴇʏ Griner Aftᴇr 'Stronɢ Backlash' From Online Cᴏmmunity: 'Wᴇ Need More Athletes Like Rilᴇy Gaineꜱ Anᴅ Less Wᴏkᴇ Brittney Griner!'
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Fri Aug 16 18:29:54 2024 UTC)
Under the post, its author linked to an article making the same claim that can be read here (archived here). The article appears as a WordPress blog and has no byline. There "Who we are" subsection on the website's Privacy Policy page only provides the site's URL; it gives no information about the site's publishers or purpose (archived here).
Lead Stories contacted Nike to ask about the claim. We will update this fact check, as appropriate, if we receive a response.
But, as of August 16, 2024, there is nothing on Nike's website (search archived here) to suggest it had announced "the termination" of its contract with Griner. In fact, she appeared in a video (at 14 seconds and 19 seconds -- archived here) on Nike's X feed, as recently as August 11, 2024, as can be seen in the screenshot below:
(Source: X.com/Nike screenshot taken on Fri Aug 16 at 21:41:00 2024 UTC)
Lead Stories also contacted Griner to ask about the claim. Her PR representatives responded via email on August 16, 2024, that the claim is "false." They wrote:
it is false, there is not truth to this.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks of claims about Brittney Griner can be found here.
