Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner was critical of how the WNBA had handled her travel situation this season in the wake of an incident earlier this year at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.
Griner, whom the U.S. State Department deemed was wrongfully detained in Russia for 10 months last year on a drug charge, is back playing in the WNBA this season. As the Mercury were heading through the airport on June 10 to get from Dallas to Indianapolis, a YouTube personality harassed Griner over her past political statements.
The WNBA labeled him a provocateur and said in a statement that “the safety of Brittney Griner and all WNBA players is our top priority,” but the incident brought the league’s travel policies, a long-running concern, back into question.
Speaking to reporters on a video call Monday, Griner expressed dissatisfaction with the league’s belated reaction.
“‘I’ll say this. I think we should have already had the option to use a different airline, a more private airline, charter flights,” Griner said, per ESPN. “It’s a shame that it had to get to rock bottom, because I feel like waiting for something to happen and then making a change … you don’t know what that ‘something’s’ going to be. We’ve all seen what can happen in this world. And when you play the ‘Let’s wait and see’ game, you’re really playing with fire. You’re playing with people’s lives.
“So I’m glad that they finally got it together. And, you know, are going to allow us to do this. It’s just a shame that it took so damn long, honestly.”
It remains unknown whether Griner or the Mercury as a team are taking chartered flights to road games. The WNBA has claimed that Griner was already approved to fly privately before the start of the season, yet Griner was with her team as they had to traverse through parts of the Dallas airport open to the public to reach a commercial flight to their next game.
After the incident, Phoenix coach Vanessa Nygaard said the team would make travel adjustments for their upcoming road games. Nygaard was fired on Sunday after a 2-10 start to the season and assistant Nikki Blue was named the interim coach.
Griner, for her part, had not spoken publicly about the incident until after Saturday night’s loss against the Seattle Storm.
“The message is being heard,” Griner said after posting 11 points and six rebounds in the defeat. “It has been a very warm welcome being back home, but there are times when it’s not so warm, so we’re dealing with that in different steps, trying to avoid it as much as we can. My team is doing a good job on keeping the noise back.”
–Field Level Media