?What Are You, Some Kind of Freak??: Brittney Griner?s Painful Struggles in Her Childhood Became a ?Twisted Game of Pay It Forward?

WNBA star Brittney Griner is one of the most dominant players in the world. During her time for the Baylor Lady Bears, it was very evident. She was head and shoulders above her opponents. NBA superstar LeBron James even compared her to all-time great Wilt Chamberlain because of her dominance. Her size coupled with her athleticism played a major role in her dominance. However, she was not always comfortable with her size. Especially during middle school when she was bullied verbally and teased a lot on a daily basis.

Griner didn’t initially play basketball. She played volleyball and tennis. The WNBA star opened up about the issues she faced at Humble middle school in her book, In My Skin. Even though she had not hit her growth spurt yet, she was still a few inches taller than most girls her age. However, she didn’t have the typical body of a girl age.

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Because of this, she became a constant target of verbal bullying and teasing. The Phoenix Mercury star tried to avoid being bullied. She always tried to walk with another friend or tried to stay away from her bullies. But that didn’t help.

Brittney Griner tried to ignore the hate comments

Griner’s bullies teased her about the way she looked, walked, spoke, the way she dressed, etc. Griner wrote in her memoir, “They’d say things like ‘What are you, some kind of freak?'”

She tried to ignore all the comments, but the pain was too much and it took a toll on her. So then, she started reacting to the teasing. She stated she’d push her bully away and keep walking when someone teased her. But she didn’t stop there.

“And then I would often act out later in the day, saying something rude to a teacher or cutting another kid down with a nasty comment. It became a terrible cycle, how I passed along the meanspirited behavior, ruining someone else’s day to match what was happening to me. It was like a twisted game of Pay It Forward,”?she wrote.

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With all the bullying and hate comments, basketball became her solace. She soon found her love for the game and started working hard. In no time she became one of the best basketball players in the country with her mindboggling growth spurt.

She then joined Baylor University and played college basketball for four years winning the National title once. After a successful college career, she joined the WNBA and won a WNBA title in 2014.