It’s been a recording-breaking season for the WNBA. We’ve seen attendance records, statistical records, and viewership records—all of which have risen in recent years.
But something is different about this season.
A high-profile rookie, Caitlin Clark, with a stout fanbase, entered the league and put more eyes on the game than ever before. But with that popularity came a lot more opinions, and some have proven to be very ugly.
Unfortunately, a lot of these ugly opinions are rooted in racism and misogyny. In a league that has predominantly black women, there’s no luxury of “not making it about race.”
And that’s very simply because it is.
Although, that’s not exactly unique to this season. In a study completed by Sports Business Journal in 2021, among more than 550 articles from popular media outlets such as ESPN and CBS Sports, there was an average of 52 media mentions for black players, compared to 118 for white players. That math doesn’t check out when you consider how many more black players there are in the league.
We’re now at a point where black players are being headlined more, but not for how many points they scored or how many rebounds they secured.
Fan Feud
It’s been a point of contention since the 2023 NCAA Women’s National Championship Game, when Angel Reese, of LSU, went viral for pointing to her ring finger in the face of Clark as time expired and LSU defeated Iowa to win it all.
Since then, Reese has been subjected to despicable abuse online. That abuse includes AI-generated explicit photos of her that were sent to her family and more death threats than you can count.
This year, Clark and Reese both entered as rookies. Both had record-breaking seasons. But the discourse from the fans, not including Reese’s stout fanbase of her own, was different. Anytime Reese would play physical or talk trash, she’s a “thug” or she’s “too aggressive.” When Clark does the same, she’s “tough” and a “competitor.”
Clark Doesn’t Need Protecting
Caitlin Clark has dominated media headlines for almost a year, dating back to her senior season. Most of these headlines are warranted, as she’s thrived in her rookie season and broken numerous records. The issue lies within the media discourse of her being pitted against her black counterparts, in a way that we have never seen before to this extent.
Clark is not some damsel in distress who needs to be protected from the “mean” and “aggressive” black women of the league. And yet, seemingly any time she hits the floor, fans get an ESPN push notification about it. Articles are written about it, many times villainizing the other player involved.
Carrington Receives Hate
Most recently, Connecticut Sun starter and 2024 Most Improved Player, DiJonai Carrington was on the receiving end of the vitriol, not just from fans online, but from the media. This followed a play in Game 1 of the First Round in which Carrington unintentionally poked Clark in the eye while trying to contest a pass.
It was a missed call by the officials. Clark was down for a minute, got up, and played the rest of the game.
A day later, an article was published by the LA Times with the headline: Caitlin Clark suffers black eye. It was caused by a player who mocked and called her out in June (the headline was later changed following backlash).
Clark was asked her thoughts on whether or not the play was intentional and she scoffed at the idea that it was. Stating, “You just watched the play.. it wasn’t intentional.” She knows what’s true, so why can’t the fans recognize that?
The following day, Carrington was asked in a media scrum not only if it was intentional, but if she and her teammate, Marina Mabrey, were laughing about the incident later in the game (they were doing Carmelo Anthony’s very famous three-point celebration following a Carrington three).
Not only that, but a tweet from an Indiana Fever fan went viral for stating that if Carrington wasn’t punished, they “support an Indiana player slamming Carrington’s skull into the floor.”
This Ain’t the NBA
Some people might respond to that and say it’s just par for the course in professional sports.
You see people talking similarly in NBA circles all the time. It’s the price you pay when more people start watching, right? Well, the WNBA is not the NBA. The players of the league take that sisterhood of 144 women seriously. The WNBA and its players shouldn’t have to sacrifice their integrity for a few more fans.
And that’s why these unfair — and frankly, dangerous — media headlines and attacks on certain players must be called out. Had Indiana brought the series back home, could anyone paying attention confidently say Carrington would be safe walking around downtown Indianapolis if the team went out for dinner?
The media has a responsibility not to stoke the flames and direct these dangerous narratives at players who deserve better. It doesn’t matter what happens online in regards to other professional sports. Especially when you consider how much more likely black women are to be subject to this sort of behavior, as opposed to any other demographic.
The Hate Keeps Coming
In Game 2 of that same series, Fever fans were in full force at Mohegan Sun Arena.
You could hear scattered boos for Carrington anytime she missed a shot, and even when she was introduced. One Fever fan showed up with faux, long nails, made from what looked like tape, while also wearing a shirt that said, “BAN NAILS.”
This fan decided to say the quiet part out loud. She deliberately mocked Carrington, which is funny because Carrington’s nails were not remotely long during this series.
Fans like these don’t want the black women of the WNBA to be able to wear fake nails, eyelashes, or makeup during games.
They don’t want these players to be able to express themselves, which the WNBA has predicated itself on. Fans who just arrived ten minutes ago suddenly think these players, who have been around for years, should confirm what THEY want to see.
Before Game 2, Carrington shared a screenshot of an email sent to her. The sender called Carrington a slur, followed by saying they hope someone r*pes her and cuts her head off.
This is the reality of the situation we’re talking about.
Thomas Speaks Out
After securing the series win, Alyssa Thomas spoke on the abuse and harassment players in the league have dealt with from the Fever fanbase.
“In my 11-year career, I’ve never experienced the racial comments from the Indiana Fever fanbase… Basketball is headed in a great direction, but we don’t want fans who are gonna degrade us and call us racial names… Something needs to be done, whether it’s them checking their fans or this league checking it. There’s no time for it anymore.”
The WNBA released a statement immediately following these words from Thomas. For many fans of the league, it’s too little too late. Any time over the last four months would have been a more appropriate time for this statement.
Not an hour after Indiana’s last game of the season.
A League That Didn’t Need Saving
Before she even entered the league, Clark was anointed as the “savior” of the WNBA, which as a reminder, didn’t need saving.
She’s being used as a puppet by “fans,” who don’t actually care about the basketball, to stick it to the players they decided they don’t like. They need a successful white player to spearhead their campaign against the black players in the league who don’t fit their idea of basketball players.
That’s not all the new fans, though. Some genuinely like watching Caitlin Clark hoop, and who can blame them for that? But while it’s not all, it’s far too many.
For fans who have been around the league, it’s become increasingly frustrating seeing every ounce of the league’s success attributed to Clark’s arrival. It’s a slap in the face to the women who built the league from the ground up.
If you haven’t been paying attention this whole time and didn’t realize how good the basketball was before Caitlin, that’s on you. Clark has brought in droves of viewers and that’s something to be thankful for.
But the WNBA isn’t suddenly worth watching now because of Caitlin— it was always this good.
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