MIAMI — (AP) — On the eve of its debut, Unrivaled held a security meeting with its players about their safety.
In the past few months, three separate cyber-stalking cases have gone public with women's basketball players in college and the WNBA. The most recent involved Rookie of the Year Caitlin Clark. A man was charged with felony stalking of the Indiana Fever star earlier this week. UConn star Paige Bueckers had a stalker who was arrested a few months ago. There are many others that haven't gotten as much attention.
“I think it’s scary. Just naturally, with us being more available to people things like that happen,” Unrivaled co-founder Napheesa Collier said. “We did have a safety meeting the other day.”
The 36 players competing in the new 3-on-3 league discussed not posting anything that shows where they are living and not posting in real time where they may be, for instance at the beach or restaurants.
“It’s just precautions. You can’t control other people’s actions, but you should do everything in your power to keep yourself safe,” Collier said.
Breanna Stewart and her wife Marta Xargay were victims themselves during the WNBA Finals last October, receiving threatening homophobic anonymous emails after Game 1.
“We have a ton of security here and you see them everywhere,” Stewart said. “Making sure that whether we post pictures or social media, nothing is real time because that’s when it’s like they’re really able to figure out where you are.”
DiJonai Carrington has received cyber threats as well and takes precautions when she's out.
“It's super unfortunate that it's going on, but I think as the game grows it's going to continue to happen because some people are just crazy and aren't in their right mind and need to be held accountable for those things,” she said. “But, I don’t think it’s going to stop, honestly. We have to do stuff and go above and beyond and try to protect ourselves.”
Aliyah Boston, who plays with Clark on the Fever, praised what Unrivaled's done so far to make players feel safe.
“It’s super scary and I feel bad for Paige, Caitlin, (Breanna) and everyone’s family because that’s not something that you ever want to experience,” she said. “But I think everyone around us do a great job of trying to make sure we feel safe and making sure that they’re responding to everything. If we’re unsure of anything, they are on it. They know exactly what to do.”
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