Controversy struck the WNBA earlier this week as a Hilton Garden Vacations employee reportedly sent a racial slur to Las Vegas Aces guard Chelsea Gray on social media. The renowned hotel chain has now responded by firing the employee.
Hilton Garden Vacations Fires Employee For Sending Racial Slur to Chelsea Gray
Gray shared a post on her Instagram story on Monday featuring a screenshot of a DM she reportedly received featuring a racial slur following the Aces’ 109-75 loss to the Indiana Fever on Sunday. The WNBA world on social media did some investigating in the wake of the post and seemingly found that the user was an employee for Hilton Grand Vacations.
“People act like we make this shit up. And the audacity to tell us as athletes to ‘shut up and dribble,’” Gray captioned her post.
The hotel chain launched an investigation into the matter and swiftly announced a resolution on Tuesday afternoon.
“The person responsible for posting this information is no longer with the company. His behavior was in violation of multiple company policies and does not reflect our company’s values in any way,” Hilton Grand Vacations said in a statement to Front Office Sports.
WNBA players have faced significant abuse on social media in recent seasons, especially as more fans get involved in sports betting. With fans able to place bets on every possession of every match, abuse and toxicity against players have become rampant, especially on social media, where those fans are able to hide behind a mask.
These incidents have increased severalfold as a result, and several players have posted hateful messages of abuse that they have received from fans who have lost money to betting in recent months.
Meanwhile, Alyssa Thomas revealed that she received death threats and racist abuse in the wake of her incident with Caitlin Clark. Thomas made contact with her fist to Clark’s neck and was later handed a one-game suspension by the WNBA.
In the aftermath of the incident, Thomas called for the league to do a better job of protecting the players.
Amid these instances, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert has come under fire for not doing more to protect the players. Several U.S. congressmen signed a letter recently, calling for Engelbert and the WNBA to do a better job of protecting players against “online harassment and off-court threats.”
