“Kissed the Flag or Kissed the Gulag?!” — Riley Gaines Torches Brittney Griner: “America Saved You — Show Some Damn Respect!”

In a moment that sent shockwaves through American media, swimming champion and outspoken patriot Riley Gaines ripped into WNBA star Brittney Griner for kneeling during the National Anthem — just months after America moved heaven and earth to drag Griner out of a Russian prison cell.

Gaines didn’t hold back.

“You don’t have to sing the Star-Spangled Banner — but you damn well better stand for it,” Gaines fired, blasting Griner in a public statement dripping with disgust.

“This country saved you from rotting in a Russian Gulag.

The absolute least you can do is stand up straight and show some respect.”

The controversy erupted after Griner — fresh off her headline-grabbing release from Russian detention on drug charges — resumed her habit of kneeling during the anthem to protest racial injustice in America.

But for Gaines, the timing couldn’t be worse — or more insulting.

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“Disrespecting the flag is spitting on the graves of soldiers who died so you could live free.

Or in Griner’s case — live free again after a Russian prison,” Gaines added with brutal clarity.

“Ungrateful” or “Unapologetic”?

Griner has long defended her anthem protests as part of her stand against systemic injustice.

But her critics aren’t buying it — especially after the U.S. government went to extraordinary lengths to bring her home.

“America risked its global credibility to save Brittney Griner,” one commentator posted online.

“And this is how she repays the country? By kneeling in defiance the moment she’s back?”

Griner, for her part, expressed confusion at the backlash.

“People called me careless, unpatriotic…said I didn’t deserve America’s help because I knelt during the anthem — I don’t understand that,” she told reporters.

But many Americans — especially veterans and their families — see it differently.

“She has the luxury of protest because brave men and women fought for that right,” said one Marine Corps veteran on social media.

“But don’t get it twisted — that flag is why she’s not still sitting in a Russian cell right now.”

Patriotism War: Symbol or Substance?

This public feud between Gaines and Griner is just the latest flashpoint in America’s long-running war over patriotism, protest, and the meaning of the flag.

To some — like Gaines — the flag is sacred.

It represents sacrifice, freedom, and the blood price paid by generations of Americans.

To others — like Griner — the flag is not immune from criticism.

Kneeling is not about hating America, but about demanding that it live up to its highest ideals.

But one thing is clear: optics matter.

And kneeling after America just saved you from the clutches of a hostile foreign regime? That’s not a good look.

Final Verdict?

In the court of public opinion, Griner may have overplayed her hand.

Riley Gaines — unfiltered, unapologetic, and armed with brutal common sense — just said what millions of Americans were already thinking.

Maybe next time, Brittney Griner should save the kneeling for the basketball court — and stand up straight when the country that saved her life plays its anthem.

You can protest America’s flaws — but you shouldn’t forget who brought you home.