INDIANAPOLIS — Phoenix coach Vanessa Nygaard said Sunday that the Mercury will make adjustments for traveling to future road games, one day after star center Brittney Griner was confronted by a «provocateur» at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
Nygaard would not divulge details of those changes, citing league policy and safety concerns about her team. «We will ensure that our players and our organization and our staff are safe,» Nygaard said before the Mercury played at Indiana. «We will be making adjustments that maybe should have happened before but right now we're going to prioritize the safety of our players and we've seen that the organization has supported us.» YoutTube personality Alex Stein posted a 93-second video of himself at the airport shouting at Griner, questioning why she still hates America and whether trading a Russian prisoner to obtain her release was a fair trade.
Griner's teammates say they were startled when the confrontation began and that they were eventually escorted to a different room with more privacy. «That's obviously nothing no one wants to deal with, especially on a business trip for work,» Phoenix center Brianna Turner said. «We're representing the league, we're representing the city of Phoenix, our organization and in times like that we don't want to cause a big scene.
we don't to like throw phones or say some things. I guess the lesson is you live and learn but I don't know what you do if it happens again.» Griner doesn't talk before games on the road, but was expected to after the contest against the Fever.