Alabama Basketball: Nate Oats’ wife responds to Twitter troll

Alabama basketball fans should be livid online

Twitter has its merits, but it can be a toxic place. Alabama basketball fans saw this earlier in the week when a random Twitter troll attacked Crystal Oats, Nate Oats’ wife. The commenter shared a photo of the Oats family and made vile comments regarding her appearance. The comments are easy to find, but I will not be sharing them here because that level of harassment does not deserve a platform.

The tweet made its way to Oats, and she responded to it directly with some crucial context.

The Twitter account that posted the comment is no longer active.

First and foremost, no one deserves this type of harassment. As far as Alabama basketball fans can tell, the only thing that Mrs. Oats did to deserve this was marry the head coach who brought the Tide back to the forefront of college basketball. Even if she gave a reason for fans not to like her, she would not deserve to be bullied on social media.

Adding the context of her cancer battle just makes the comments worse. Oats overcame double hit lymphoma, a rare form of cancer. She faced chemotherapy and is thankfully cancer-free. Again, this is not the only reason why the comments were unacceptable, but they make matters worse.

Over 100 Alabama basketball fans replied to Oats and showed their support. Some commended her on her strength in her battle against cancer. Others advised to avoid the troll, and some said that they reported the account that sent the tweet.

Despite only being in Tuscaloosa for two years, the Oats are a part of the Alabama family. Fans have welcomed families of coaches for years, and they have done the same for Crystal Oats and her three daughters. Sometimes, that means defending her against disgusting comments on social media. No matter what it takes, fans are happy to oblige.

That being said, it doesn’t seem as if Oats needs the help. She took care of this troll on her own in an outstanding fashion.