Hilton Grand Vacations fires employee who sent racist message to Las Vegas Aces guard Chelsea Gray

A Hilton Grand Vacations employee who was suspected of sending a racist message to Las Vegas Aces guard Chelsea Gray was fired this week, Front Office Sports reported on Tuesday.

"The person responsible for posting this information is no longer with the company," the company said in a statement. "His behavior was in violation of multiple company policies and does not reflect our company's values in any way."

This comes shortly after Gray shared a screenshot of a message she received following the Aces' 109-75 loss to the Indiana Fever on Sunday. The former employee told her she sucks and proceeded to call her a racial slur. He was quickly and easily identified because his username and photo were included in the screenshot.

"People act like we just make this shit up," Gray wrote when she shared it on her Instagram story. "And the audacity to tell us as athletes to 'shut up and dribble.'"

This is unfortunately not the only drama that has involved Fever opponents. Just last month, Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas was given a suspension for an in-game incident involving Indiana guard Caitlin Clark. Even though Thomas accepted the punishment, she spoke out against the hateful messages, including death threats, she and her teammates had been receiving. 

"You know, our families are being threatened, kids are being threatened, people are sending racial slurs and all types of stuff," Thomas told reporters. "There's a difference between trolling, and there's a difference between hatred and the hatred that we're experiencing over a play that honestly was a complete accident, nobody even knew it happened. It's just unfortunate, but the league has to do better in this instance."

Fever coach Stephanie White and even Clark herself condemned the harassment. 

"I think as a league, as a whole, there's been so much more toxicity, racism, homophobia, straight-out nonsense, hate nonsense. And it is absolutely unacceptable," White said.  Around the same time, the WNBA also released a statement condemning "any and all forms of hate."

While there was no major issue between Clark and Gray on Sunday, there was a clip that went viral in which the two players made contact and Clark tried to get a foul called. However, the "fan" who sent the message did not mention Clark or the Fever in the image Gray shared. It is also unclear if he was a Fever or even WNBA fan. The only mention of sports in his Instagram bio, which fans screenshotted before his profile was deleted, was "sports betting."

Per FOS, the WNBA is aware of the message Gray received and has been in touch with the Aces security.