Deep breaths, WNBA fans. We’re barely a week into the season and it’s already looking like it’ll be a long one.
Of course, you’ve heard about Caitlin Clark’s flagrant foul on Angel Reese. It’s all sports media has been able to talk about since Chicago lost to Indiana on Saturday (except maybe allegations of racial comments levied at Reese or Dave Portnoy’s parlay hit after Clark’s triple-double).
Unfortunately, it’s all reminiscent of last season’s WNBA coverage, which focused predominantly on Clark and Reese’s fabricated rivalry, featured speculation galore, and spent weeks of coverage on everything but the game itself and the incredible performances by the athletes.
Did you know, for instance, that both Clark and Reese made history in their matchup? Clark tied Candace Parker for third all-time in triple-doubles with her impressive 20-point, 10-assist, 10-rebound performance, and Reese became the fastest WNBA player to amass 450 points and 450 rebounds with her season-opening double-double.
Not only that, but New York is looking poised to defend its title after routing Las Vegas earlier that day. On the West Coast, Kelsey Plum made her Sparks debut in dominating fashion, throwing down a cool 37 points against Golden State, the most for a Sparks player in their debut and more than any player in a season opener. And Mystics Rookies Kiki Iriafen and Sonia Citron both had fantastic openers for a Washington squad that won their first two games of the year after losing their first 12 last season.
Of course, there’s also Paige Bueckers, whose solid rookie debuts have garnered a fraction of the attention that Clark’s did this time last season.
But unfortunately, this kind of coverage is becoming the new normal in the W.
The new norm
Last season’s coverage was hyper-fixated on Reese’s and Clark’s rivalry, which is more media fabrication than fact. Sports media dedicated an entire week of coverage to a hard foul on Clark from Reese’s then-teammate, Chennedy Carter. Overall, much of sports media’s discourse surrounding the W had to do with opinions about how to market the league from folks who never paid attention to women’s basketball prior to Clark’s rookie year.
For fans who saw this all play out last season, this year feels a lot like Groundhog Day.
But there’s a nefarious new shade to this year’s coverage so far. Now that the league has seen a season of Clark and Reese, fans and sports media seem emboldened in pitting the two against each other.
A different edge
Importantly, unlike last season, this season takes place during a Trump administration, which naturally heightens these kinds of tensions. Trump’s previous presidency proved that supporters of such racist vitriol feel more emboldened in their discourse and was associated with a statistically significant rise in hate crimes. This might help explain the catalyzing of such discourse so early in the WNBA season, especially in a league that is predominately Black and queer.
For instance, there’s Dave Portnoy, who sat courtside at Saturday’s Fever game decked out in Clark’s jersey and said the league “shit on” Clark with its ensuing ongoing investigation of fan behavior at the game (even though Clark herself supports the investigation).
Robert Griffin III (who doesn’t have a long history of WNBA interest) also chimed in with a (wildly speculative) tweet stating that Reese “hates” Clark given her reaction to Clark’s hard foul.
This prompted Ryan Clark to respond, launching a feud that did not look good for either individual and firmly burying the actual basketball that started it all. Clark’s point about the dynamics at play regarding Reese’s experiences as a Black woman experiencing racism got lost in his personal vendetta with RGIII.
Real issues still affect WNBA players and fans
The whole conversation is messy, and such commentary is troubling, to say the least. But for RGIII to insinuate that Reese hates Clark and put fuel on the media fire between them shows an apparent disregard for Reese’s experience in the league at the hands of Clark’s more diehard supporters.
To be clear, not all Clark or Fever supporters back the racism that’s circulated in Clark’s name. And Clark has called it out before. But when some of these vocal fans like Portnoy, who have been calling Reese “classless” (or, in the words of Keith Olbermann, a “fucking idiot”) since her college days, mock Clark’s opponents like Dijonai Carrington with tasteless “Ban Nails” signs, or drive veterans like Alyssa Thomas to make public statements about the lack of safety Black players now feel at Fever games, that means enough of these fans exist to constitute a serious problem and a threat to player safety.
Prominent figures in sports media who stoke these flames contribute to this problem and threaten player safety, whether they know it or not.
Dave Portnoy’s mere presence at Fever games in a Caitlin Clark jersey is also concerning. The Fever star has positioned herself as a role model to young girls everywhere, and she backs it up with her game. However, what does it say to those same girls when Portnoy, who has a long history of sexual misconduct allegations, rape jokes, and other sexist/racist language, and boasts about being “uncancelable” despite it all, reps her number?
Not only that, but Portnoy’s attendance in the front row raises questions about his motives. To say that he’s a supporter of the WNBA as a whole is a lot like saying the same about RGIII, or even Stephen A. Smith, who was called out by Monica McNutt in a viral showdown last year for his sudden interest in the league.
McNutt was right, not only about Stephen A. Smith but also about others who are following his lead of becoming bandwagon WNBA commentators who only use the league to boost their engagement, online or otherwise.
Like much of sports media, these pundits are jumping on the WNBA now that the league, in their eyes, can bolster their image by giving them the chance to do what they do best: generate baseless controversy, often at the expense of others.
The league seems to understand what’s at stake this year. Before the start of the season, the W launched a No Space For Hate platform dedicated to “combat hate and promote respect across all WNBA spaces — from online discourse to in-arena behavior.” The WNBA’s swift launch of its investigation last weekend also shows, at the very least, an awareness of the issues at hand.
Whether the league backs its commitment is yet to be seen. Given sports media’s already iffy WNBA coverage and what the first week has delivered, fans should buckle up for a bumpy ride this season.