Brittney Griner expressed understandable frustration on Monday over how long she felt the WNBA took to address the travel situation for her and the Phoenix Mercury.
She said it took things to hit “rock bottom” for it to be properly handled.
Griner had been harassed at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport earlier this month by a conservative YouTube personality as she and her Mercury teammates were traveling following a game against the Dallas Wings.
Griner was speaking during a media availability on Monday about Phoenix’s interim coach Nikki Blue when the subject of travel was brought up.
“‘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, according to 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.”
There has been some vagueness and contradiction over what type of travel had already been allowed for Griner amid concerns over her security this season and what was amended following the incident in Dallas.
Greiner had been jailed in Russia for 10 months on drug charges and was considered wrongfully detained by the U.S. State Department.
She was given a nine-year jail sentence, but was returned to the United States in a prisoner exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
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It was because of that situation and the intense publicity that surrounded the case that the WNBA and Mercury had said there would be special accommodations made for Griner.
However, that’s where the discrepancies begin between what the league said was allowed and reporting over further accommodations.
The WNBA said they had told the Mercury that could do “anything you want to do” when it came to travel for Griner, but ESPN reported the league had not said that and instead approved a hybrid plan.
That plan allowed Griner to fly two preapproved charter flights with the option for the WNBA to approve more as needed, but that was only for Griner and not the team.
It also allowed for Griner and the Mercury to fly JSX jet service routes when they were available, which would allow them to avoid public airport terminals.
JSX is described as a so-called public chartering service with preset routes, but it does not have them for all WNBA markets.
It also has the ability to create special routes, but those are not allowed due to the current WNBA collective bargaining agreement.
However, ESPN also reported that since the incident at the Dallas Airport, the Mercury has been able to use the created routes by JSX flights for the entire team.
