In the last few days, the WNBA and much of its broader ecosystem — including the Players’ Association, the athletes themselves and even some of the media members who cover the league — have lost their ever-loving minds.
It makes you wonder if the WNBA is really ready for primetime.
This pile-up of absurdities started last week when the Indiana Fever were eliminated from the playoffs by the Connecticut Sun, ending a spectacular record-breaking rookie season for Caitlin Clark.
There’s still plenty of playoff basketball to talk about, and yet —?the discourse has descended, once again, into a struggle.
“I think that in my 11-year career, I never experienced the racial comments like from the Indiana Fever fan base,” Sun forward Alyssa Thomas told the press after Game 2. “It’s unacceptable and honestly there’s no place for it. I’ve never been called the things that I’ve been called on social media.”
Angel Reese of the Chicago Sky joined the pile-on. Then Phoenix Mercury player Brittney Griner said she didn’t “appreciate the new fans that sit there and yell racial slurs at myself, my teammates and the people that I play against” — though there’s been no report of such behavior at games. Except Clark having a fan removed during Game 2 of the series.
In response, the WNBA released an empty statement that basically said, “Don’t do racism.”
Naturally, the media questioned Clark and her teammates about the unspecified bad behavior of their “fans.” What do they have to say about Fever696969 writing mean, bigoted tweets?
“Those aren’t fans,” Clark said. “Those are trolls.” (Never mind that Clark’s own race is constantly invoked by other players and journalists to explain away her popularity.)
Meanwhile, Fever guard Erica Wheeler and head coach Christie Sides revealed a dose of reality: They too are the target of online abuse from faceless nobodies. The difference?
“We just don’t care about it,” said Wheeler. “Because what’s important is this organization and us winning games.”
Then USA Today sports columnist Christine Brennan, who is writing a book about Clark, asked Sun star Dijonai Carrington if that black eye she gave the rookie in Sept. 22’s Game 1 of the playoffs was intentional and if she was laughing after the fact. Carrington handled herself fine and said no both times.
And we move on. But no, the Players’ Association put out a pathetic, thin-skinned statement last Friday saying Brennan does not deserve her credentials.
“To unprofessional members of the media like Christine Brennan: You are not fooling anyone. That so-called interview in the name of journalism was a blatant attempt to bait a professional athlete into participating into a narrative that is false and designed to fuel racist, homophobic and misogynistic vitriol on social media. You cannot hide behind your tenure …,” the statement read. “You have chosen to be indecent and downright insincere.”
Brennan is a pioneering female journalist whose sharp elbows allowed her to navigate NFL lockers rooms during the Reagan administration, long before women were a regular presence there. Long before #MeToo. More than a decade before many of the current players walked this Earth.
She’s not looking for a cheap “gotcha” quote to go viral, but asking questions to write a nuanced story with original sourcing. Otherwise known as journalism.
Perhaps if she had been interrogating Clark and her teammates on anonymous X users, and not addressing something that actually occurred on the court, she would have been embraced. Cheered.
And then there is writer Frankie de la Cretaz, who wrote a?woke horror fantasy for Andscape, ESPN’s race and gender vertical. In it, de la Cretaz wrote about feeling “unsafe” at Game 2 of the Fever-Sun matchup.
“Every time the Fever scored, the crowd would erupt, but it didn’t feel like fans were rooting for their team,” de la Cretaz wrote. “It felt like a threat. There was an ominous feeling in the building.” A fan apparently told the writer that WNBA games used to feel like mini Pride events, but this was like a MAGA rally.
I’ve been to neither a Pride nor a MAGA rally, but I have been to Philadelphia Eagles games at the Vet in the ’80s and ’90s, so I know a thing or two about hostile environments.
I have a feeling that this game, which was filled with little girls in Clark jerseys, was probably “Romper Room” in comparison.
No player should be subjected to any kind of harassment. But it’s a sad reality that online abuse is now part of the fame game. The bigger the stage, the hotter the spotlight. This is a regular occurrence for male hoops stars — but you know what those guys don’t do? Give it any oxygen. Or use it for victimhood clout.
And let’s be real: WNBA twitter wasn’t exactly a utopia before Clark arrived.
The league begged for eyeballs. Now that they have arrived in full force, some fans, media members and players want to control who is allowed in the tent, and to police any and all discourse. There remains an obsession with race and privilege.
But sometimes I think they forget that the B in WNBA stands for basketball.
