G-League players kicked off Christmas Eve flight for ‘stealing’ blankets that had been given to them

American Airlines has issued an apology after flight attendants wrongfully accused two G-League players of stealing blankets before kicking them off of a flight in Dallas.

“We take pride in bringing people together, and we know that on this flight we let some of our customers down,” spokesperson Joshua Freed said, via The Toronto Star. “Our team at American, along with Envoy Air, is reviewing what happened, and will be reaching out to them.”

Marquis Teague and Trahson Burrell of the Memphis Hustle were boarding an American Airlines flight heading to Sioux Falls from Dallas on Sunday during Christmas Eve for a Christmas Day game on Monday when they were eventually accused of stealing from first-class passengers and booted off the plane, according to a report from Marc Spears.

The two players were given blankets by first-class passengers, according to Spears’ report, but were accused of stealing them by a flight attendant. Eventually, the accusation led to an argument..

The flight attendant said he wouldn’t fly unless Teague and Burrell were off the plane after Burrell offered some threatening words. To keep the flight from being delayed, Teague and Burrell were asked to get off the plane. American Airlines ended up putting Teague, Burrell and a Hustle assistant coach on a later flight to Sioux Falls (first class), but they missed a team holiday dinner.

This is awful for so many reasons.

A first-class blanket is hardly a thing for someone to be booted off of a plane over, whether they took them or not. Since they were given these blankets by a first-class passenger, this shouldn’t have been an issue. And, again, they’re just blankets — the airline should have plenty of them.

Teague and Burrell missing their team dinner over a situation that should never have been an issue is an awful thing. Hustle head coach Glynn Cyprien took to Twitter to vent his frustration.

The team’s assistant coach Darnell Lazare followed up.

This was a situation that should never have happened, but it happens all too often to black and brown Americans throughout this country. Teague and Burrell experienced it first hand on Sunday and, the sad part is, it probably wasn’t the first time they’d been profiled.

The airline eventually apologized, but the damage was already done. The only thing it can do now is make serious efforts to be better in the future.