After Alyssa Thomas found herself at the center of intense backlash following her flagrant foul on Caitlin Clark on June 24, Las Vegas Aces guard Chelsea Gray became the latest player to experience the same. However, unlike Thomas, Gray directly posted a screenshot of one of the messages she got, which led fans to identify the person and get him fired from his job. However, for her teammate A’ja Wilson, accountability alone isn’t enough.
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“We’re just playing the game that we love, that we work so hard to do. But it’s just a certain division that needs to be brought to everyone’s attention and understanding that, no, this is something that’s been going on, and it’s just getting to a point where it’s like, all right, now enough is enough,” she told journalist Gianna Hearn after practice.
“I think there’s a larger conversation that needs to be had that is really above us, and I think that is the part that we really need to get to. So hopefully, at All-Star, we can have an opportunity and a conversation because at this time, something needs to change. It’s actually disgusting. So I’m glad that Chelsea had an opportunity to speak up and had an opportunity to show what we’ve been going through.”
When Chelsea Gray took to her Instagram stories to reveal the kind of abuse WNBA players have to face, many fans assumed it was her collision with Caitlin Clark during Aces vs. Indiana Fever that caused the backlash.
The user of the account through which she was called a slur was identified as Nick Schreiber, an employee of Hilton Grand Vacations in Austin, Texas, which prompted the company to launch an internal investigation. That swift action earned praise from Aces head coach Becky Hammon, who said she hopes more companies respond the same way when incidents like this occur.
“Any of that behavior is not acceptable, and we need more companies to step up and do what Hilton did. You know, you’re free to be a bigot and ignorant. You’re also free to pay the consequences,” Hammon said.
A league as big as the WNBA will always have fans, analysts, players, and coaches debating the game. But hate has no place in that conversation, and that’s something the Las Vegas Aces made clear by publicly condemning the abuse, calling it “unacceptable” while reaffirming their support for Chelsea Gray and the entire WNBA community.
So when everyone rallied behind Chelsea Gray, she made sure to thank those who stood by her, making it clear their encouragement meant far more than the hate she received.
“Appreciate all the messages, posts, emails, etc. Even if I don’t reply to all of them, know that I thank you! 😊,” she wrote on her stories. However, this incident also shows that the WBNA’s ‘No Space for Hate’ task force is still struggling to contain questionable behaviour directed against the players online.