Brittney Griner faced harassment on Saturday morning inside a Dallas airport. The WNBA star and her Phoenix Mercury teammates were approached by popular YouTuber and Blaze television host Alex Stein as they traveled from Dallas to Indianapolis.
Stein is known for his outlandish political views and ‘trolling’ of politicians on his popular YouTube channel, but he decided to come after Griner this time. She was detained in Russia for nearly ten months after being found guilty of carrying hash oil in her luggage while playing overseas during the WNBA offseason. Hash oil contains tetrahydrocannabinol or THC and is primarily used in vape pens.
The incident unveiled many deeper conversations on social media that went from being centered on if the American government was doing enough to get Griner home to the trade between Russia and the United States. The two countries worked a deal to exchange Griner for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
Many people on social media didn’t agree with the exchange because of the possible threat Bout could pose to the American people, and the fact that he was a high-value prisoner serving time for serious offenses, as opposed to Griner’s minor offense.
Bout was known as one of the most notorious arms dealer in the 1990s and early 2000s before he was convicted in 2011 of charges including conspiring to kill Americans and aiding terrorist organizations. Stein, with cameras in tow, confronted Griner over this deal.
YouTuber vs. Griner
He walked up to Griner to confront her about the prisoner trade between U.S. and Russia that brought her home.
“BG, was that a fair trade for the Merchant of death?” said Stein. “I know you kill it on the court, but he kills it in real life.”
An unidentified team personnel member of the Mercury intervened to push Stein away ,but he refused to let up. He took his trolling a step further when he asked Griner, “Is it true you had to have sex with Vladimir Putin to get released from Russia?”
“Hey, Britt, do you still wanna boycott America?” asked Stein.
The team personnel who intervened told Stein, “You’re weird, bro.”
“I’m weird why? She hates America,” replied Stein.
Stein has a little over 524,000 followers on Twitter, 246,000 followers on Instagram, and 323,000 subscribers on YouTube.
Social Media Is Not Real Life
Social media is a helpful tool, but oftentimes people have a hard time separating real life and online.
Chris Paul recently sat down in an interview with “The Pivot” podcast and said that his daughter was subjected to taunting at school because of his basketball career.
“My daughter is the sweetest soul you’ll ever meet in your life,” Paul said. “But she’s at that age now where at school, kids talk crazy to her. She had a little boy at school that said some reckless stuff to her that was like, ‘Your daddy ain’t never gonna win no championship.’”
Russell Westbrook’s wife delivered a series of tweets last year that accused fans of threatening her family. Westbrook was often the subject of online abuse and trolling during his time with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Athletes know the job they sign up for once they put on a uniform to represent professional sports organizations. Every athlete has had to face scrutiny, ridicule, and sometimes harassment at some point in their careers. Those things are at a greater risk of happening now with social media but when people take the trolling from social media to real life is when things get dangerous.
Griner kept her composure and ignored Stein. But what if she retaliates or Paul’s daughter or Westbrook’s wife? Griner and other professional athletes have given up their right to privacy but not to being protected. In the NBA, fans from who go overboard in their trash talking at games increasingly are being ejected from arenas. The WNBA also said the league put together a plan ahead of the season to help better protect Griner.
The question still remains, are people having a hard time separating social media and real life? Some social media users suggested that there should be a year ban of all social media. The Associated Press reports 15 countries have banned TikTok either completely or from government issued devices. The state of Utah recently passed laws restricting teenagers’ use of social media.
Maybe these practices could be put in place more by everyday people to help avoid potential dangerous situations like this one. Also, there should be laws in place to protect celebrities and entertainers for hecklers who often cross the line.
