The Phoenix Mercury beat the last-place Los Angeles Sparks 85-81 on Tuesday night, roaring back from a halftime deficit and also withstanding a fourth-quarter push.
Of note, the Mercury had to do all that without the services of 10-time All-Star center Brittney Griner.
And according to a number of fans, it’s the controversial Griner’s fault she wasn’t available.
Griner was actually playing a solid first half of basketball, notching 14 points, three rebounds and two blocks before the incident in question occurred.
With the first half winding down, however, Griner inexplicably started getting aggressive toward Sparks rookie Rickea Jackson.
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As Mercury teammate Celeste Taylor was making a free throw, Griner got tangled up with Jackson.
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It eventually looked like Griner threw the first elbow, not quite hitting Jackson, but sending a clear message.
The popular Jackson, refusing to cede any ground to the bigger Griner, first seemed to issue a warning to the bigger player.
That warning did not go over well with Griner, who immediately began to approach Jackson.
When Griner lifted her arm again, Jackson was ready to bat it away this time, sparking a quick slap fight between the two that was ultimately broken up by coaches and teammates.
You can watch the ugly incident below, courtesy of sports writer Tyler De Luca:
Brittney Griner and Rickea Jackson 👀👀 pic.twitter.com/YxUdsNEKYE
— Tyler DeLuca (@TylerDeLuca) September 18, 2024
The brief fracas was enough for the referees to issue technical fouls and eject both Griner and Jackson, according to The Associated Press.
While both players were ejected, the social media response to the viral scuffle was overwhelmingly in favor of Jackson.
“Rickea stood on her own and didn’t take the disrespect,” one X user said in response to the De Luca video. “Rookies are different now a days.”
“I love Rickea even more now,” another X user posted.
Other social media users turned to some dark humor to protest Griner’s actions, joking about sending her to a Russian gulag for her actions.
The reference, for those unfamiliar, is that Griner — for as storied of a WNBA career as she has had — is perhaps best known for being a political bargaining chip that ultimately saw the U.S. release a notorious Russian criminal to secure her freedom.
(The 33-year-old Griner got in trouble for carrying drugs in a Russian airport, was imprisoned in 2022, and spent 10 months in jail.)
Before that international incident, Griner was perhaps best known for protesting during the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” — though she has changed her tune on that since the Russian episode.
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