Politicalization and Bigotry From Fans Hurt WNBA
Yes, viewership is up. Yes, sponsorship is up. Yes, media coverage is up. Yes, revenue is expected to be up. But morale in covering this league is down, way down and in the end, it’s going to hurt the league. Why? Because of fans; a short-term for fanatics, who are ruining everyone’s experience with bad takes, political rhetoric, racism, bigotry, ignorance and trying to tell professional journalists how to do their job.
People threatening violence directed towards WNBA reporters this year are setting a dangerous precedent. This message was sent to Annie Costabile.
Annie Costabile is one of the best WNBA beat reporters in the industry. She has been excellent for a number of years without any incidents, covering the Chicago Sky, Chicago Red Stars (women’s soccer) and giving coverage to women’s sports in general when it wasn’t popular to do so. But this year, she has been on the end of threats of violence, idiots denigrating her work and people questioning her morals and character all because she has had the gall to be an objective reporter.
She has not deserved any of this and neither are any of the other reporters out there trying to cover a league that has been stuck on stupid for over 20 years. The problems with the WNBA didn’t happen in the past year, it’s been going on since its inception. Terrible leadership, public relations people who aren’t media friendly or savvy, bad owners, lackluster marketing of WNBA products, you name it the WNBA has done it. If it had not been for the NBA subsidizing the league for the past two decades it would have been folded.
God gave the WNBA not one, but two “Golden Gooses” so to speak this year in Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. Both are terrific young players who have large followings and will become the faces of the WNBA in the future. Instead of using this blessing as a chance to save the league and take it to another level like the NBA did with Larry Bird and Dr. J, the two have become the victims of online attacks, resulting in people who mostly hadn’t watched a WNBA game before in their life, to insert uninformed opinions on their game, the motives for them being promoted and spewing just hatred in general in public platforms.
For its part, the WNBA should have done more from the beginning to protect both players and the league in general. They were woefully unprepared for either. It took Clark getting harassed through an airport for the league to realize she probably needed an increase in security and all teams should have charter flights. Charter flights should have been mandatory from the beginning of the season because you could see the increased interest along with the venom some had towards some players. Instead, the WNBA put players and coaches at risk from the nutcases out here in the world, who hate Reese because she is Black and Clark because she is White. The bigotry being shown towards two 22-year-olds tells you about the world we live in and how bigotry is not race-exclusive, but rather comes in many forms from every racial demographic.
Chicago Sun-Times reporter Annie Costabile was unfairly targeted by WNBA fans for this headline and photo for a story she wrote. Costabile did not choose the photo or write the headline. Hard fouls on Clark and Reese this season, and physical play in general is something the WNBA needs to address right away.
The play on the court has been just as harmful due to the allowance of violent play. Yes, the league has always been physical, but this year it has taken it to an unprecedented level. The NBA and NFL figured it out years ago, that the over-physical style of play hurts the game in the long-run. The NBA adjusted its rules and how the sport is officiated across the board to allow for more free movement. This has increased scoring, lessened the likelihood of injury to elite players and allows the star players to shine.
The WNBA’s unwritten code of bullying rookies is one of the dumbest sub-cultures in the sport. Especially when this rookie class is going to get you more money and opportunities than ever before. Angel Reese got mugged three times by Alyssa Thompson during a game earlier in the season on three consecutive possessions. The officials finally called a flagrant foul on the third one and ejected Thompson from the contest. Men all over would have been pissed and tuned out the WNBA had Reese suffered a season-ending injury, which was possible due to the violence on the plays.
Let us also not forget what former WNBA player Candace Wiggins said about the league seven years ago. She said the league was “toxic and harmful” towards her for no other reason than her being a heterosexual woman. The WNBA never did anything about her claims but deny them.
Los Angeles Sparks forward Dearica Hamby with her two beautiful children all wearing the Travis Scott x Air Jordan 1 Low before a game earlier this year. Photo courtesty of L.A. Sparks.
If you don’t want to believe the double-standards in the WNBA Wiggins spoke about, then look at what happened to current players Skylar Diggins-Smith and Dearica Hamby. Both are married to men, Blackmen at that. Diggins-Smith went public about how the Phoenix Mercury mistreated her by not allowing her to use the team’s practice facility while she was on maternity leave. She had to use a local gym to try and get back in basketball shape. Hamby has filed a federal lawsuit against the Las Vegas Aces in which she alleges that after the Aces found out she was pregnant:
“She was subject to repeated acts of intimidation, discrimination and retaliation from the Aces, leading to her January 2023 trade to the Sparks. Hamby also alleges the WNBA failed to ‘properly investigate’ the issue,” according to an article by ESPN’s Michael Voepel. “The league gave Aces coach Becky Hammon a two-game suspension for what it deemed ‘a violation of league and team 'respect in the workplace' policies.’"
Compare these incidents to gay player Riquna Williams, who should be banned from the league for life, after she was arrested for a second time on felony domestic assault charges in July of 2023, after allegedly strangling her wife. In the first incident in 2019, Williams and a girlfriend were involved in a fight that took over 10 minutes to diffuse with Williams allegedly pulling a firearm and threatening people with it. It is the dirty little secret the league does not want to acknowledge, but should an NBA player do any of this, it would be on the news non-stop and domestic violence advocates would be calling for his job.
The over aggressive fouls given to both Reese and Clark this season are perfect examples of the jealousy other players in the league have shown towards them. Both Clark and Reese happen to like men and men seem to like them, along with fellow rookies Cameron Brink and Rickea Jackson, with three of the four having boyfriends they have claimed publicly. In fact, I’ll take it further and say because this rookie class is full of talent and women that men find very attractive, it is one of the reasons the popularity of the league exploded this year. Instead of cultivating this to bring in more male viewership, some have chosen to attack this new demographic and see them as a threat to “longtime WNBA supporters.”
Stupid is as stupid does.