Airline apologizes for kicking former UK player, teammate off flight

Former Kentucky point guard Marquis Teague, a member of the 2012 national championship team, was kicked off a flight Sunday along with an NBA G League teammate after being accused of taking blankets from first class.

According to a story on TheUndefeated.com, Teague and Memphis Hustle teammate Trahson Burrell, were accused by an American Airlines attendant of stealing two first class blankets as they headed to their seats in coach on a Christmas Eve flight from Dallas to Sioux Falls, S.D. The players said a first class passenger handed them the blankets, according to the story.

The accusation led to a heated argument. Teague and Burrell were asked to get off the plane after the flight attendant said it wouldn’t fly as long they were aboard. The two and an assistant coach were put on a later flight, causing them to miss a team dinner, the report said.

Hustle head coach Glynn Cyprien and assistant coach Darnell Lazare each used Twitter to voice their objections to how the players were treated.

An American Airlines spokesman later apologized. The flight was run by one of its regional carriers, Envoy Air.

“We apologize for what occurred on this flight,” American Airlines spokesman Joshua Freed told The Undefeated. “We take pride in bringing people together, and we know that on this flight we let some of our customers down. Our team at American, along with Envoy Air, is reviewing what happened and will be reaching out to (the two players and the assistant coach).”

Teague left UK after his freshman season and was drafted 29^th overall by the Chicago Bulls. He played parts of three seasons in the NBA with the Bulls and the Brooklyn Nets and bounced around the G League and professional teams in Israel and Russia before being taken by the Memphis Hustle in the 2017 G League expansion draft.

Cyprien was an assistant coach under Billy Gillispie at Kentucky.

This story was originally published December 26, 2017 at 4:33 PM with the headline "Airline apologizes for kicking former UK player, teammate off flight."