Brittney Griner and her Phoenix Mercury teammates were confronted by a "provocateur" at a Dallas airport on Saturday.
The WNBA said in a statement it was looking into the team's run-in with a "social media figure" whose "actions were inappropriate and unfortunate."
"The safety of Brittney Griner and all WNBA players is our top priority," the league said, without specifying what exactly happened.
Before the season started, the league had discussed with Griner's representatives and the Mercury security concerns when the All-Star center traveled for road games after she returned from detainment in Russia. The thought was that the highly publicized case compromised her and others' safety. The league granted Griner permission to book her own charter flights.
The WNBA added charter flights for the playoffs this season, but only a handful of back-to-back regular-season games were scheduled for such flights.
WNBA teams have flown commercially during the regular season since the league's inception in 1997. The league typically doesn't allow teams to charter because it could create a competitive advantage for teams who can afford to pay for them.
"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," the league's statement reads. "We remain steadfastly committed to the highest standards of security for players."
Mercury player Brianna Turner said in a tweet people at the airport followed the team with cameras "saying wild remarks."
"Excessive harassment," Turner tweeted. "Our team nervously huddled in a corner unsure how to move about. We demand better."
A Twitter user posted a video that appears to show a part of the confrontation where the individual asks questions of Griner about "why she hates America?"
The Bring Our Families Home Campaign, an advocacy group that works to bring home Americans who are held hostage or detained in foreign countries, issued a statement condemning the incident.
"Accosting a recently returned hostage like this is unacceptable, and we urge social media companies to prohibit the monetization of any resulting content. Our Campaign stands with Brittney, her teammates, and the Phoenix Mercury," the organization said.
Griner has been warmly received by crowds at home in Phoenix and on the road. This past week, she played two games in her home state of Texas and the team was headed to Indianapolis to face the Fever on Sunday.
Still, Saturday's incident left many calling for change in flights for the Mercury and teams around the league.
Griner's agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, said on social media, after the incident, that she feels that all teams need to charter flights.
"Brittney Griner and the WNBA players are leaders who inspire hope for a better, more inclusive and less divided America," Kagawa Colas said. "They are celebrated for the ways their activism inspires positive change. In doing that, they also become targets for hate, threats and violence. And today's incident is a clear reminder of that. We cannot celebrate these women and their leadership without also protecting them. It's past time for charters and enhanced security measures for all players."
The WNBA players' union issued a statement Saturday, saying the situation at the airport makes it "quite clear that the matter of charter travel is NOT a 'competitive advantage' issue."
"What BG and all of her PHX teammates experienced today was a calculated confrontation that left them feeling very unsafe," the WNBPA statement reads. "Everyone who was paying attention knew this would happen."
The Mercury released a statement saying the team will be working with the league on next steps.
"We are committed to our support of BG and advocating for all American hostages abroad," the team statement reads. "We will continue our support of marginalized communities and fighting the kind of hate that targeted us today. No one, regardless of identity, should ever fear for their safety."
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Dockworkers kicked off a three-day strike at the Port of Montreal on Monday, shutting down two terminals that handle more than 40 per cent of container traffic at Canada's second-largest port.
Bullet casings recovered from the scene of a B.C. woman’s murder 30 years ago will be retested for DNA after the province’s highest court ruled it is “in the interests of justice†to do so in support of an ongoing appeal.
A National Day for Truth and Reconciliation ceremony is planned in Ottawa this afternoon to honour the survivors of Canada's residential school system and the children who never returned home.
A man who authorities say spent 12 hours camped outside Donald Trump's golf course before Secret Service spotted him with a rifle pleaded not guilty on Monday to federal charges including attempted assassination.
Republican JD Vance and Democrat Tim Walz will meet Tuesday in the lone vice presidential debate of the 2024 election, bringing together undercards who have spent two months going after each other and the opposing nominees who top the major-party tickets.
Officials tell The Associated Press that Israel has launched small, precision raids across the border in Lebanon and that a larger ground operation is being planned.
A California man charged with shooting and wounding two Jewish men as they left synagogues in Los Angeles last year was sentenced Monday to 35 years in prison, federal prosecutors said.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris poked at Donald Trump over crowd sizes, his refusal to debate again and his privileged background on Sunday as she hauled in campaign cash in California and held a raucous rally at the same Nevada venue where the Republican nominee had appeared just two weeks ago.
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The Liberal government is announcing more details on its existing strategy and funding to fight hate crimes.
Migrant groups are pushing the federal government to reverse its cap on international study permits and tightening post-graduate work permit qualifications, claiming it will leave many students 'in limbo.'
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The two astronauts stuck at the International Space Station since June welcomed their new ride home with Sunday's arrival of a SpaceX capsule.
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Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Indigenous Affairs Minister Greg Rickford released a statement Monday marking the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, acknowledging what they described as the 'painful legacy' of the residential school system.
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This Monday, Sept. 30 is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a federal statutory holiday and day of remembrance for the Indigenous children who never came home from Canadian residential schools, as well as those who survived them.
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized $11,000 US from an inbound American citizen at the Ambassador Bridge.
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Shoppers can support local businesses at a pop-up sales event at Devonshire Mall.
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A 10-year-old boy from Lethbridge is being praised as a hero after a routine summer outing at the pool nearly turned tragic for his friend.
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Overnight on Thursday as the community of Elliot Lake was resting to prepare for the upcoming Kraft Hockeyville celebrations, when vandals struck a building that has been top of mind for the northern Ontario city for more than a year.
Ontario Provincial Police remind the public that ‘a case is never closed until it is solved,’ while highlighting the force's continued investigation of the 1996 disappearance of Melanie Ethier.
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He may not have logged the fastest time or even gone the full distance, but residents of a Newfoundland town agree the goat who unexpectedly joined the local weekend half marathon was the event's undisputed champion.
A mother in a community where the cost of living is one of the highest in the country says grocery prices are 'inhumane' and retailers are putting profits ahead of people’s basic human right to food.
A soccer game in England on Tuesday night drove a spike in online traffic across the Atlantic to a website launched by the Newfoundland and Labrador government.
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