Revolutions are not possible to foretell — the required components should occur at simply the precise time to spark change. The world isn’t prepared for a revolution, but it surely’s greatest if the people who find themselves part of it hop on board. Within the WNBA’s case, it appears the league cannot get out of its personal method as the game rises to uncharted territory, because of Caitlin Clark.
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert appeared on CNBC’s “Energy Launch” Monday with anchor Tyler Mathisen. When requested by Mathisen concerning the “darker…extra menacing” tone followers have adopted on social media concerning the Clark-Angel Reese rivalry, together with conversations on race and/or sexuality, Engelbert’s response centered on the rivalry however failed to handle the bigger issues at hand.
“There is not any extra apathy. All people cares,” she mentioned, according to an ESPN report. “It’s a little of that [Larry] Hen-Magic [Johnson] second in case you recall from 1979 when these two rookies got here in from an enormous school rivalry, one white, one Black. And so now we have that second with these two.
“However the one factor I learn about sports activities, you want rivalry. That is what makes individuals watch. They wish to watch video games of consequence between rivals. They do not need everyone being good to 1 one other.”
Engelbert continued by saying she tells gamers, “If somebody’s typing one thing and also you would not ask their recommendation, ignore it.”
Girls’s Nationwide Basketball Gamers Affiliation government director Terri Jackson rebuked Engelbert’s feedback in a press release Tuesday evening.
“Right here is the reply that the Commissioner ought to have offered to the very clear query concerning the racism, misogyny and harassment skilled by the Gamers,” the assertion mentioned. “There’s completely no place in sport — or in life — for the vile hate, racist language, homophobic feedback and the misogynistic assaults our gamers are going through on social media.
“This isn’t about rivalries or iconic personalities fueling a enterprise mannequin. This type of poisonous fandom ought to by no means be tolerated or left unchecked. It calls for fast motion, and admittedly, ought to have been addressed way back.”
A Assertion from the Government Director pic.twitter.com/CDRAgnwa5y
— WNBPA (@TheWNBPA) September 11, 2024
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Fame will be crushing. The media and followers dissect each transfer and remark. For a lot of within the WNBA, this was not a actuality a yr in the past, however it’s now, and it seems many have been unprepared to satisfy the second. The season started with some ugly displays of physical play from veterans directed in direction of Clark. Reese was issued a controversial double technical in June that introduced WNBA officiating beneath scrutiny. Not too long ago, WNBA legend Sheryl Swoopes and her former broadcast companion Nancy Lieberman have engaged in a public feud centered on Swoopes’s feedback about Clark. Engelbert’s feedback have produced the most recent detrimental press for the league.
Not all controversies above are unique to the WNBA, however collectively, they paint an image of a league that is not ready for the bigger media presence honing in on each transfer and remark. Whereas this season has had many positives for the WNBA and girls’s basketball, the league continues to make detrimental headlines as a result of numerous individuals could not meet the second.
Veterans may have dealt with Clark’s arrival higher. Swoopes may have apologized for inaccuracies in her feedback about Clark. Lieberman did not have to blast Swoopes on the Stephen A. Smith Present. Engelbert may have answered Mathisen’s query higher.
Rising pains are anticipated — that is a part of a revolution. However shifting ahead, it might behoove the WNBA and its stakeholders to rise to a different degree to satisfy this second — one that may change the league and sport for many years to come back.
