Michael Porter Jr. hasn’t heard the last of the criticism over his misinformed comments about the WNBA, as Los Angeles Sparks point guard Lexie Brown took aim at Porter for being “wrong” and “tired” with his opinions.
Last week, Denver Nuggets forward Porter Jr. came under fire over misinformed comments he made on The Pivot podcast about WNBA athletes’ efforts to negotiate for greater television and sponsorship revenue. On Tuesday on the Gil’s Arena podcast with host Gilbert Arenas, Brown called out Porter’s perspective and challenged Pivot hosts Ryan Clark, Fred Taylor and Channing Crowder for the way they run their show.
“My issue with The Pivot is they allow these guys to say things that they know is wrong, and they’re just like, ‘OK, OK, keep going,'” Brown explained. “Or they’ll feed them more information to allow them to double down on what they just said.”
Porter compared WNBA athletes wanting higher pay to ping-pong players. He repeatedly called them “females” in a way many found belittling. And he continually commented that the only way women hoopers will get paid more is to lower the rims to allow for more dunks.
Going further, Brown explained why Porter’s comments were ignorant on top of incorrect.
“He doesn’t dunk. He wants us to dunk, you dunk. Like, what are we talking about?” Brown added. “It’s a tired conversation, and I’m very annoyed with men who continue to create these spaces to discuss these things when they don’t watch our games, they don’t know us. They don’t ask us about our opinions on anything, ever.
“You don’t have to watch us play, that’s fine. But for you to just sit there and just constantly s*** on our product and our craft and everything without really being tuned in, it’s just not right. You don’t have to watch anything, but if you always want to talk about us, you might as well watch us.”
After listeners criticized Clark, Taylor and Crowder for not pushing back on Porter with facts, Clark reposted a video he made last year defending Angel Reese and LSU against racial attacks.
In the full context of the interview, Porter initially expresses his support for the women’s game. Brown celebrated him for doing so on Gil’s Arena this week.
Still, this is not the first time The Pivot has been challenged for how it frames conversations and fishes for drama. Especially because Clark works for ESPN, he is in line for more scrutiny over how he handles interviews on the podcast compared with someone outside mainstream media.
Brown didn’t go all-out attacking Porter or The Pivot‘s hosts here, but her point is valid. Any podcast that aims to be free-flowing and loose also inevitably needs to check its guests when they make specific claims or give factually incorrect takes.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.