On tuesday reed s father made a bold statement about his son s situation. they re taking him for trade and that s what they want and he s not coming home unless they get that. reporter: could brittney griner, trevor reed or the other american detained in russia, paul whelan, be traded? they re extremely rare and in the current political situation would be especially difficult to arrange something like that. not impossible but extremely difficult in the current conditions. reporter: the analysts we spoke to said it s a risky strategy for family members and others to speak out so often on behalf of these detainees in russia, especially now that v given that it might irritate vladimir putin even more. and recently wnba superstar lisa leslie said people in the women s basketball world were told not to make a big fuss out of brittney griner s case out of concern she might be used as a pawn while the ukraine war is still going on. brian todd, cnn, washington. in pittsburgh local pu
Situation. they re taking him for trade, and that s what they want, and he s not coming home unless they get that. reporter: could brittney griner, trevor reed, or the other american detained in russia, paul whelan, be traded? they re extremely rare and in the current political situation, it would be especially difficult to arrange something like that, not impossible but extremely difficult in the current conditions. reporter: the analyst we spoke to say it s a risky strategy for family members and others to speak out so often on behalf of these detainees in russia, especially now given that it might irritate vladimir putin even more. and recently, wnba superstar lisa leslie said people in the women s basketball world were told not to make a big fuss out of brittney griner s case out of concern that she might be used as a pawn while the ukraine war is still going on. brian todd, cnn, washington. i ll see you again at the top of the hour. in the meantime, paula newton will be