DALLAS — Brittney Griner and her Phoenix Mercury teammates had been confronted by a “provocateur” at a Dallas airport on Saturday, the WNBA stated.
The league stated in an announcement it was wanting into the workforce’s run-in with a “social media determine” whose “actions had been inappropriate and unlucky.”
“The protection of Brittney Griner and all WNBA gamers is our prime precedence,” the league stated, with out specifying what precisely occurred.
Griner and her supporters had lobbied for constitution flights after she returned from detainment in Russia, saying the extremely publicized case compromised her and others’ security. The league granted Griner permission to e book her personal constitution flights to highway video games.
Mercury participant Brianna Turner stated in a tweet individuals on the airport adopted the workforce with cameras “saying wild remarks.”
“Extreme harassment,” Turner tweeted. “Our workforce nervously huddled in a nook uncertain the right way to transfer about. We demand higher.”
A Twitter consumer posted a video that seems to point out part of the confrontation.
The Deliver Our Households House Marketing campaign, an advocacy group that works to carry dwelling People who’re held hostage or detained in international nations, issued an announcement condemning the incident.
“Accosting a just lately returned hostage like that is unacceptable, and we urge social media firms to ban the monetization of any ensuing content material. Our Marketing campaign stands with Brittney, her teammates, and the Phoenix Mercury,” the group stated.
Griner has been warmly acquired by crowds at dwelling in Phoenix and on the highway. This previous week, she performed two video games in her dwelling state of Texas and the workforce was headed to Indianapolis to face the Fever on Sunday.
The WNBA has added constitution flights for the playoffs this season, however solely a handful of back-to-back common season video games had been scheduled for such flights.
WNBA groups have flown commercially in the course of the common season because the league’s inception in 1997. The league usually doesn’t enable groups to constitution as a result of it may create a aggressive benefit for groups who can afford to pay for them.
“Previous to the season, the WNBA labored along with the Phoenix Mercury and BG’s workforce to make sure her security throughout her journey, which included constitution flights for WNBA video games and assigned safety personnel along with her always,” the league’s assertion reads. “We stay steadfastly dedicated to the best requirements of safety for gamers.”
The WNBA gamers’ union issued an announcement Saturday, saying the state of affairs on the airport makes it “fairly clear that the matter of constitution journey is NOT a ‘aggressive benefit’ challenge.”
“What BG and all of her PHX teammates skilled at this time was a calculated confrontation that left them feeling very unsafe,” the WNBPA assertion reads. “Everybody who was paying consideration knew this is able to occur.”
The Mercury launched an announcement saying the workforce will probably be working with the league on subsequent steps.
“We’re dedicated to our assist of BG and advocating for all American hostages overseas,” the workforce assertion reads. “We’ll proceed our assist of marginalized communities and preventing the sort of hate that focused us at this time. Nobody, no matter identification, ought to ever concern for his or her security.”
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