Phoenix Mercury coach Vanessa Nygaard said the team will make travel adjustments to upcoming road games after center Brittney Griner was confronted by a YouTube personality on Saturday at the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.
However, Nygaard declined to reveal details, citing safety concerns.
The situation is a hot topic after Alex Stein, a Dallas-area YouTube personality, filmed Griner at the airport and attempted to ask her questions.
On Saturday, Stein posted a photo on Twitter, saying “I just met my favorite WNBA player Brittney Griner. Video coming soon,” and later posted an 11-second video of him shouting toward Griner as she walked through the concourse.
“Do you still want to boycott America, Britney?” Stein asks Griner as she walks by. Some security officials get physical with Stein at this point before he asks, “What about the merchant of death, Brit?”
Griner spent 10 months in a Russian jail after being detained for marijuana possession in February 2022. In December, she was released in a deal in which the United States agreed to release imprisoned Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
Stein, 36, aired the entire 93-second video on YouTube on Sunday.
“Was it a fair trade for the merchant of death?” Stein asked Griner multiple times.
Nygaard didn’t like what transpired at the airport as the Mercury were leaving Dallas to get to Sunday’s road game against the Indiana Fever.
“No one should be a victim of targeted harassment,” Nygaard said before the game. “I’m grateful that our team and our staff are physically OK. Most of all, I’m grateful that BG has been back here in the United States for 185 days now. If her being home makes some people mad, I think that obviously says more about them than it does about her.”
The Mercury traveling party was eventually escorted into a room at the airport to get away from the heckling.
“That’s obviously nothing no one wants to deal with, especially on a business trip for work,” Phoenix center Brianna Turner said. “We’re representing the league, we’re representing the city of Phoenix, our organization and in times like that we don’t want to cause a big scene.
“We don’t to like throw phones or say some things. I guess the lesson is you live and learn but I don’t know what you do if it happens again.”
While the WNBA said it has been working to keep Griner and all the players safe, the players union said Saturday that the league needs to do a better job of providing charter flights.
New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart, who is a member of the union’s executive committee, is all for Griner flying however she wants.
“I think that, you know, that there needs to be extra precautionary measures taken and you know, I don’t think anyone is against BG having charter flights whenever she wants, so that she can be herself and travel and be comfortable and be safe,” Stewart said. “Because that’s the last thing we want is what happened yesterday.”
Griner scored 29 points as the Mercury posted an 85-82 win over the Fever on Sunday.
–Field Level Media