NEW YORK (AP) — The WNBA is working with Brittney Griner and the Phoenix Mercury on travel options including charter flights moving forward.
Griner’s travels were back in the spotlight last week when the team flew to Texas and then Indiana, which required Griner and her Mercury teammates to pass through commercial airports. While passing through Dulles Airport last Saturday, the All-Star center who had been held in Russia for nearly 10 months was harassed by what the WNBA called a “provocateur.”
The league only allows teams to use charter flights when they have back-to-back games.
Many teams use the public charter airline JSX. These flights are permitted by the WNBA with some protocols in place, including those teams flying on 30-seat planes using predetermined routes and times.
Mercury flew to the first road game in Los Angeles on JSX and took the airline to Dallas. There was no regular flight available on the airline from Dallas to Indianapolis, which is why Grenier was on the commercial flight.
Questions remain about who would pay for it if the WNBA allowed Griner to fly privately. Also if the league allows Phoenix to use JSX to travel to any of the other 11 cities the teams play in by creating their own flights, how do other teams see that as it would give Mercury a potential competitive advantage.
The league said Griner’s security has been an ongoing concern since preseason. League officials have been talking with Mercury officials and All-Star representatives seven times about how to protect Grenier and her teammates after the highly publicized legal case, during which she was jailed in Russia on drug charges before being released in December in a prisoner exchange. .
The league granted Griner permission to book its charter flights before the season began.
“We’re just working with Phoenix to make sure we have a good plan going forward,” WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said Friday on ESPN, “Certainly for Britney and the rest of the Phoenix Mercury.”
The executive director of the WNBA Players Association spoke to Griner on Thursday and said she was frustrated.
“She said, ‘We knew this was going to happen,’” said Terry Jackson. “Terry, I read the mail that came into my locker,” she said. It’s fan mail, but it’s also a lot of hate mail.”
Mercury is currently on a two-game road trip to Washington and New York. Griner did not play in Friday’s loss to the Mystics due to a groin injury.