The WNBA has never been this big.
More people are watching. They invest more. Many players’ salaries are higher than ever. But growing unrest and strife were part of this period of transformation, which was characterized landmark collective agreementexpansion of the league and rapid recognition of players.
It appears to have reached a new flash point as discussions about race, gender and sexuality hit the headlines ahead of Saturday’s event. WNBA All-Star Game. Talk about race resumed after incident between Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark and Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas, as players continued to express disappointment over WNBA Commissioner Katie Engelbert and the leadership in what they say is a lack of protection from social media harassment and divisive speech.
“This is certainly a point worth celebrating,” said Ketra Armstrong, a professor of sport management and director of the Center on Race and Ethnicity in Sports at the University of Michigan. “We want to celebrate what is great. But sometimes progress can overshadow the dangers that still exist.”
Issues of race, gender and representation have been latent throughout the league’s history. Debate on these issues has intensified as women’s sports have boomed. And they remain an issue that shapes the public and online discourse of the WNBA (and most other professional sports leagues, for that matter).
“That’s what a sports league is,” said David Berry, a sports economist and economics professor at Southern Utah University. He quoted NFL Rooney Rule as an example. “If a sports league is going to get attention, you’re going to get attention for these things.”
Growth has intensified broader cultural debates
Controversial conversations have also spilled over to issues of transgender athletes and harassment.
WNBA veteran Brianna Turner said: on social networks This week, her former team, the Fever, fired a male employee for sexual harassment last season. Turner, who played for Indiana last season and now plays for Las Vegas, said Indiana players were advised not to discuss the firing.
Turner’s comments came as she defended transgender athletes days after Indiana forward Sophie Cunningham spoke out about transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.
“I got a lot of negative comments about how I hate trans people. And I was like, ‘I never said that,'” Cunningham was quoted as saying in an article published by ESPN. “I think I’m here to spread love. But I also think that love is truth and honesty. And I want to protect young girls in the locker room or young girls in sports who don’t have to go up against biological males.”
Conversations in the WNBA about race are back in the spotlight after Toronto Tempo coach Sandy Brondello suspended for one game for calling Atlanta Dream forward Angel Reese a “protected species.”
The comment, which came after Reese fouled Toronto’s Nyara Sabally, quickly drew criticism.
Brondello, a former player who won two WNBA titles, is Australian. The phrase “protected species” is used in Australian sport to express disappointment that a player has not been charged. However, in the US, the phrase implies that someone is not human and can be seen as derogatory towards black people. Brondello later apologized. Reese agreed, saying she appreciated the league’s quick action.
“It’s a much bigger platform now. Everything that happens is news,” Berry said. “There were bad fouls 10 years ago. Nobody paid attention to it. As a result, because of the coverage now, everything is exaggerated… and that’s good. I mean, that’s what we wanted.”
‘Much to celebrate’, but race still matters
Clarke has repeatedly tried to quiet the noise around her, but she has become a springboard for predictions that go far beyond the game itself.
“It’s basketball,” she said in a recent interview with ESPN. “When I walk out of the locker room, I shouldn’t be afraid of what the conversation is going to be about. It’s emotionally draining. It’s draining. It makes the shoulders tense because people don’t want to talk about basketball. They just want to stir things up and come up with something else.”
The WNBA retroactively deemed Thomas a flagrant violation and suspended her for one game after the veteran made put your fist on Clark’s throat in the match on June 24.
The play, which Thomas said was an accident, drew widespread attention and sparked a debate over officiating, with coaches, pundits and lawmakers weighing whether the league should take action on the physical play involving Clark.
Thomas, who is Black and in her 12th WNBA season, said she has received death threats since the incident and is part of the online gamers who have faced more and more angry players in recent years. Chelsea Gray of the Las Vegas Aces recently posted a message from a man that contained racial slurs. And Engelbert this week met with a couple of player committees to discuss what more can be done to protect players from online harassment.
Since she entered the league, Clark and her WNBA colleagues have become spokespeople for long-standing American issues – from race, gender and sexual orientation to who gets attention and who doesn’t.
“There’s a lot to celebrate,” Armstrong said, “but race still matters. Race will always matter. It just depends on how we make it matter.”
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