WNBA star and freed Russian prisoner Brittney Griner was heckled while catching a flight at Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW). While it is fair to question the terms of her release, heckling someone with gratuitous insults is not okay.
Brittney Griner Heckled While Trying To Buy Food At DFW Airport
Griner spent nearly 10 months in a Russian prison after she was arrested on smuggling charges on Feburary 17, 2022. She was playing in the Russian Premier League at the time and customs officials at Sheremetyevo International Airport (SVO) in Moscow found vape cartridges containing hash oil, which is illegal in the Russian Federation.
She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nine years in prison under Russia’s strict anti-drug laws. However, US officials publicly stated that she was “wrongfully detained” and on December 8, 2022 Griner was released in a prisoner exchange for Viktor Anatolyevich Bout, a Russian arms dealer known as “the merchant of death.” Bout had been arrested in Thailand in 2008 via a US sting operation in Thailand, extradited to the USA, and sentenced to 25 years in jail after a jury convicted him of conspiracy to kill American citizens and officials and providing aid to a terrorist organization.
Griner’s release was controversial considering it was predicated on Bout’s release and the situation was further mired in political controversy due to some of her past action like boycotting the National Anthem (she now stands with her teammates).
On Friday evening, a “conservative” Twitter personality approached Griner and her teammates at DFW while they were buying food and confronted Griner:
“Was that a fair trade for the Merchant of Death? I know you kill it on the court, but he kills it in real life?”
“Is it true you had to have sex with Vladimir Putin to get released from Russia? Brit? What about his wife?”
Pretty vile stuff. I’m embedding the video for reference, but I recommend you don’t click on it and give this troll any ad revenue.
The WNBA condemned the confrontation:
“As we gather additional information about today’s incident at the Dallas Airport, it has come to our attention that this was orchestrated by a social media figure and provocateur. His actions were inappropriate and unfortunate.”
“The safety of Brittney Griner and all WNBA players is our top priority. Prior to the season, the WNBA worked together with the Phoenix Mercury and BG’s team to ensure her safety during her travel, which included charter flights for WNBA games and assigned security personnel with her at all times. We remain steadfastly committed to the highest standards of security for players.”
Meanwhile, the WNBA Player’s Union now brands commercial airline flights as a threat to players:
“Every commercial flight forced upon our players is a threat to their health and safety. We implore the league and the teams not to wait another day to change the rule regarding travel.”
The whole Griner situation is a sad one. On the one hand, I don’t think it was reasonable to secure her release for Bout. Sorry, but even though it is absurd she was sent to prison for a nearly a decade over trace amounts of marijuana, the laws of Russia are clear: drugs are not permitted in any quantity, even for foreign visitors. And what do you suppose Bout is up to today? He should have rotted to death in jail.
But that’s a separate matter from the airport heckling. As I said when Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D – Arizona) was also confronted at the airport, this sort of ambush-style tactic is not constructive.
> Read More: U.S. Senator Harassed By Pesky “Constituent” At National Airport
The US is highly-polarized right now and reasonable debate has given way to harsh confrontations in which rabid ideologues showboat on social media. Welcome to 2023. This is not going away.
CONCLUSION
WNBA star Brittney Griner was heckled at DFW Airport by a trolling YouTuber.
I can’t say I blame the players’ union for wanting to charter aircraft for players…or at least for Griner. These sorts of exchanges are more than just uncomfortable, they cross the line of decency and put her and others in danger if the wrong person is incited to act against them.
image: @alexstein99 / Twitter
“dOn’T cLiCk On ThE lINk I cHoSe To EmBeD”
I don’t want someone to go off googling it, so I include it, but I didn’t click on it and I hope you won’t either.
Definitely agreed with the heckling- that’s just plain rude to do to anyone. Whether it’s athletes, politicians, etc public heckling is not the way to go.
However, the WNBA’s reaction to this is a little out of bounds. I’m not castigating the part of defending BG here. Using this as an opportunity to call commercial travel “unsafe” and to push for private charters is a pure opportunistic move. Growing up in Southside Chi-town, MJ was as my idol for what he did on the court and as a role model for us, black kids growing up in the 90s. Point is, to say the least, I’ve been a huge fan of basketball for all of my life. However, the WNBA keeps pushing for equal standing as the NBA despite having 99% less revenue and the NBA 99% the entire WNBA since its conception. Despite this, the WNBA still operates on a net loss of about $10 mil. If the WNBA wants to have private charters, then they got to at least pull an audience a similar size to professional Korean or Japanese baseball, then they can start talking about it. I want the WNBA to do well and all, but it’s just not all that riveting even for die-hard basketball fans.
All this would be fixed if we just had Title IX for pro sports……. Lulz.
There is no danger here, stop being hyperbolic. She painted a target on herself acting like a jackass. She wants a private jet, then pay for it. Hell, maybe I should be ferried around on a private jet too, so I don’t have to deal with the < of society. It's for my "safety" and all……
I also find it quite ironic you are defending her breaking the law despite defending the stupid mask mandates due to karens being scared 2 years ago, including stripping some of us of our ACAA rights. Because “muh fear”. Either you are for stupid laws (masks, mj, etc) or you aren’t. Hell, she knew the rules flying to russia, she shouldn’t have broken them.
I don’t understand your point. I find both laws (masks and pot) to be unnecessary and unhelpful, but argued both should be respected. That doesn’t mean I approve of the consequences for breaking either one.
You defended it on a “legal basis” despite the actual legal requirement stating an individual assessment was required to disbar travel due to the required accommodation. IE
“You must not exclude a qualified individual with a disability from or deny the person the benefit of any air transportation or related services that are available to other persons, except where specifically permitted by this Part. This is true even if there are separate or different services available for individuals with a disability, except when specifically permitted by another section of this Part; and
You must not take any adverse action against an individual (e.g., refusing to provide transportation) because the individual asserts, on his or her own behalf or through or on behalf of others, rights protected by this part or the Air Carrier Access Act.”
I had something written here earlier and it got deleted somehow.
I know we will disagree, but I put the people complaining that they cannot wear a mask in the same category as the people who complain they are obese by failing to restrict their caloric intake. Further, I see aversion to masking driven by political biases, not health biases (and the same goes for those idiots who wear masks while walking outdoors or while driving alone – it becomes a political statement more powerful than the impotent mask).
Yes, I know you can get any number of MDs to sign off on a note excusing you from wearing a mask for “health” reasons – it is one reason why I believed and still believe that masking is better voluntary than mandatory. But I find those notes highly suspect. If my toddler children can wear masks, so should adults. They suck, I know. But throw out the leaders at the ballot box or fly a different airline if you feel so strongly about it during a declared public health emergency. I am an institutionalist and a law and order guy who believes that systems crumble when rules are ignored and a crumbling system ultimately benefits no one.
@ Matt, I did respond to this. Not sure if it was caught up in moderation due to the links.
I don’t see anything from you in moderating queue.
@Matt. Well, not sure what happened. The TLDR is I have had asthma long before it was popular for political reasons. Humidity triggers my asthma, and asthma attacks can result in death. Especially if on an enclosed plane where I couldn’t have quickly gotten medical treatment.
part 2, was the airlines didn’t care about transporting people from Ebola infected regions as they did in 2016 enough to force negative testing, masking, etc for those flights.
Part 3, one can’t “vote out” politicians when the whole world has gone mad. It’s now just a form of two wolves and a sheep “voting” on what’s for dinner. Until something changes, like voluntary individual taxation, or the return of the Fed to the founding size with power returned to local governments, then all of this is meaningless. My Senator Tillis is a moron, has been. My one vote wouldn’t change anything. Furthermore, who do I vote for? Someone worse than him so my vote hypothetically matters? Lets say one is gay, and the homeowners in a community decide they don’t want him living there, then “vote” for him to leave, what good is “throwing” some imaginary leader out of “office”? The “will” of the “people” (stupid) is for him to leave. What’s the recourse? The founding of this country was entirely empowerment to the individual, not the collective as it has been distorted.
While I disagreed with the trade of an arms merchant for an athlete, heckling is just wrong and violates basic human decency standards.
I think it’s stupid, and not something an adult does. I’m not sure what “basic human decency standards” are, as there is no “written” definition to it. That being said, if you are famous, to some extent (rightly or wrongly) you bring this on yourself. Especially if you go as far as to jam your way into politics. We don’t really see this happening to average “football, baseball, etc.” players who keep their political views private and don’t ram them down others throats. Again, not justifying it. Just stating a reality. Also, from watching the video, the “body guard” wasn’t anymore in the right with what was going on. There is a whole lot of “wrong” happening there all around.
” I’m not sure what “basic human decency standards” are…”
This is not surprising.
Like I f-ing said, you people can’t read. This is why society is such a dumpster fire. I didn’t defend the goofball, or any other stretch, but yet her you are twisting words.
Liberals “heckle all the time under the guise of the 1st amendment as they protest. Like “Hanoi Jane”, real Americans do not forget Griner’s vocal protests about living in America , pre arrest in Russia.
Hard for people like her to live in America when racists like you abound here…your post history doesn’t lie.
Should have never been heckled.. should have kept her locked up in Russia
Ms. Griner did not negotiate her release. She was unaware of anything that was happening, and did not know she would be heading home until she got off the plane in Abu Dhabi. I personally was glad to see her released, but if you don’t feel that way, heckling her at DFW is misdirected anger.
Not sure how that is relevant. Additionally, you don’t know what she did or didn’t know prior to her release. None of us do, except her, and anyone in contact with her at the prison. Stating you know something definitive here is a lie.
She is not being heckled for getting arrested for possessing illegal substances in Russia. That was her crime.
She is being heckled in public because of a deal brokered by other people. To my knowledge there has never been any evidence presented to suggest that she participated in the negotiating of the terms of her own release, or that she had control of the terms of the deal, or that she was given the opportunity to decline the prisoner swap.
When you take the stance that you require definitive evidence that she did not control the terms of her release in order to not blame her for the prisoner swap, you are personally holding her “guilty until proven innocent”
Heckling someone for the actions of others seems even more distasteful than heckling someone for their own actions.
Please, for the love of god, tell me where [redacted] I said anything about heckling being “tasteful” or otherwise, a benefit? Furthermore, Where did I state, exactly, that she “negotiated” the terms of her own “release”? Try reading what I actually wrote instead of what you thought I wrote to pre-emptively respond.
Watch the language – you can write whatever you want, but the F-word gets you banned. I have no desire to ban you. Just don’t curse.
Ok, Sorry.
Reading is fundamental, “Marcus”.
“She was unaware of anything that was happening, and did not know she would be heading home until she got off the plane in Abu Dhabi. ”
My comment had 0, and it was completely clear, % to do with the negotiation process, My comment was to this clause. Jerry defacto stated she didn’t know anything prior to the airport. This is a complete lie. She would have gotten on a plane with no forewarning of her release? Yeah, right. She may not have known the details, but I highly *suspect* she knew negotiations were ongoing and that she was being released upon walking out of prison at the latest.
You should chill out. There’s nothing being discussed here that warrants you losing your cool like this. There really isn’t.
Your writing is not as perfect as you think it is, and neither is your reading comprehension. In fact, you’re far from perfect in these matters, and you possess such a limited insight into these imperfections that many people stop discussing things with you.
A) I never claimed my “writing is perfect”. Again, point me to such a statement? I’ll wait…..
B) What was posted in response to the OP was perfectly understandable if you wanted to do so. You are the one that went off on a tangent.
C) Don’t respond to me. I really don’t care. About you, or anyone else. Again, irrelevant to the point.
You’re correct, Brandon. I don’t know what Ms. Greiner knew or didn’t know. Nor can I say for certain she wasn’t involved in negotiations. My personal belief is that it is more likely than not that she was not involved in negotiations, and when she was taken out of prison and put on a plane, she did not know an arms dealer was being exchanged for her. If my premise is true, then heckling her would be misdirected anger that would be better taken up with the State Department or the White House.
“Pretty vile stuff.”
Vile indeed.
It’s always interesting when some man – it’s always a man – demonstrates what a fragile little person he really is by acting like that in public. People who don’t have such fragile egos don’t have anything to prove so they don’t behave like that. I pity the poor pathetic guy.
You were saying? https://www.azmirror.com/2022/01/12/police-kyrsten-sinema-intentionally-went-into-a-bathroom-to-dodge-activists-filming-her-at-asu/
Cast not stones from glass houses.
Tell us about Sinema’s time imprisoned in a gulag. Except you can’t because she wasn’t imprisoned and she wasn’t accused of the horrible things the fragile little man accused Griner of. Nice exercise in Whataboutism though.
You partisans are soooooo cute. The fact you follow-up a “muh whataboutism” with a “whataboutism” is truly comedy gold.
Oh, and, BTW, I thought it was “always” a man. (Nice sexism, but ok) You made the claim, I debunked your silly claim (which you were too dense to catch) and then you cry “whataboutism” missing the point entirely. Why is reading soo complicated for you? I would really like to know? Help me out. Where did you miss this had nothing to do with the “gulag”, and everything to do with your whining about the “evil men”.
So, someone on the left gets heckled like those on the right have been recently
Free speech cuts both ways. Free speech is not just speech the left agrees with. Don’t like it? Griner can always go back to the Gulag if she hates the American value of free speech
I’m not going to say that. I do believe this is childish, from any side. That being said, this is the life she chose by A) doing something illegal and thinking she was above the law and B) by inserting herself into politics. Politics are largely tools for the lesser intelligent, and therefore subject to less enlightened behavior overall. All that being said, I’m sick of “words” being equated with “violence”. Grow the f- up people. She wasn’t harmed here. She doesn’t need a private jet because she is too big of a baby to be subject to the clownery she put herself into. She is a WNBA player, and nobody would know anything about her if she hadn’t previously made a spectacle of herself and gotten herself arrested for stupidity. I’m a firm 2A person, but I can guarantee the simple here would be foaming at the mouth if this was a 2A person who was arrested and released for carrying a gun on a plane illegally. Yes, the law is stupid. Most laws are. Most are redundant. Most shouldn’t exist. Until people realize that fundamental fact, these childish behaviors will remain. (IF it ever happens. Doubtful)
One has no right at all to free speech at an airport. None. Heckling her at an airport isn’t free speech, its mor0ns trying to inflame hatred and division in society to benefit their own brand. You are absolutely clueless as to what the American value of free speech is.
Why does this site and its comments have to devolve into partisan hatred? Sbe obviously made a horrific life mistake and broke the law, but how did she think she was above the law and how did she insert herself into politics. How did she herself (as opposed to the groups advocating on her behalf) do that?
Typical unAmerican comment
An airport is public property. Free speech is guaranteed on public property
Where were you when leftists were heckling those on the right in public?
Are you joking? She has a history. All you had to do was use google. Geez. She was hated before because she was “arrested” due to her own foray into politics. Not because she was bailed out by a side. Why is there so much recency bias and no ability to look back past 2 months?
https://www.sportskeeda.com/nfl/news-brittney-griner-anthem-stance-mocked-republican
She was one of those athletes that disrespected the American national anthem (like the OG loser Kaepernick), implying America’s systemically racist and sexist ( because of small pay compared to NBA… or something). In a way “she started it.” That she got caught in Russia was some sort of karma victory for the right.
Though, I read something about Griner changing her tune about all that since her stint in prison+eventual rescue. I guess the right does not forget very easily.
Lol. Trump voters have no right to cry about disrespecting the national anthem. You voted for a guy that’s being charged with espionage. Nazis love Trump. Imagine voting for the same guy that nazis love.
Ah, you mean Zelenskyy? Or Byrd? Or Trudeau? You struggle with this.
Derek, International Society for Krishna Consciousness Inc. vs. Lee (1992), the Supreme Court ruled that Airports are NOT PUBLIC FORUMS.
I am not a leftist or a rightie by any STRETCH of the IMAGINATION. Just fighting for truth and I only like to get involve here when i see these comments sections being used to spread proven lies.
Brandon, Jan, I didn’t know the history of her nor did I care to. I wasn’t / am not a fan of “the trade”. I wasn’t trying for “recency bias” but trying to understand the point being argued. From your all writing, it was implied to me that she waded into politics “during her arrest” and not for her past national athem views.
I stand by my comment though of why does this site have to devolve into partisan hatred? This partisan hatred (of the far lest/right) benefits media, personalities and politicians of all stripes that profit at the extreme expense of the average american just trying to make a living and do right by his/her family.
This is the entire problem. I don’t care about her, or this situation. Personally, i could care less about the “trade”. But you claimed I took it into politics. I am merely stating a fact of how she got here. Just because someone states the facts of the situation, that doesn’t make them a “righty”, or what have you. I don’t vote. What I stated was to show that *she* put herself in the proverbial “crosshairs” when she “disrespected the flag”. (Not my words, that is of those who *dislike her*)
So to get mad that I showed you were experiencing “recency bias” is puzzling. Recency bias is common phenomenon and your response is a direct result of this in action. Again, *not political*, only a matter of fact.
You should be put in a gulag for being such whiney beyotch and not even voting. Pathetic
As I have previously said, literally all you do is insult people. You are truly a special creature.
“ I stand by my comment though of why does this site have to devolve into partisan hatred?”
Consequences of free speech. As for my Griner explanation I just answered your question about why she’s central to political debates ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ don ‘t shoot the messenger
There were actually two cases. The one you cited and Lee vs the Int’l Society.
In the second case, the SC ruled that prohibiting distribution of leaflets in an airport was unconstitutional. The one you cited only applied to solicitation.
https://www.oyez.org/cases/1991/91-339
Since this case was not about trying to solicit money but was mere speech, the case I have cited should apply
This stein guy was found to not even have a flight that day so he was there for one reason only. Not only should he be banned from entering any US airport, he should be made an example of and used as a landmine detector in some war torn country
You’d be more qualified for that
Stein is hilarious and his target isn’t just liberals. Check out the clip of him going after Barstool’s Dave Portnoy.
They should be thankful to Stein, no one would have ever heard of the WNBA starting their season if it wasn’t for him
Best comment so far !
Oh boo hoo