Off-Court Issues: The WNBA’s Failings with Racism and Player Safety

Now that the WNBA season has been over for a few weeks, it is impossible to deny the on-court success that the league had this year.  This season consisted of historic performances, record viewers, several players who appear to be future stars in the league, current stars putting up insane performances, and a 5-game Finals between the two best teams in the league.  That said, there are two things that the league (especially from the commissioner’s side) majorly failed at and likely aren’t going to make any adjustments regarding going forward since nobody is discussing it anymore, which are racial issues involving players and player safety.  I initially was not going to write about either of these since there was a lot of discussion about both, especially from people who were not the most well-versed in either matter, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to contribute to this, but after much consideration, I believe I have input regarding these topics that are valuable and are not being discussed enough.

On the court, this year’s rookie class was one of the most exciting that we’ve seen in a few years.  In particular, the class was led by 2024 draftees Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Rickea Jackson, Cameron Brink (prior to her injury), Kamilla Cardosa, and Aaliyah Edwards, and international rookies Leonie Fiebich and Julie Vanloo.  Already, several of these players have shown star potential, and I expect all of them to be good players in the WNBA.  However, the race aspect was already brewing for the last couple years, especially as people fed into cheap narratives regarding Clark being heroic and Reese being a villain.  The most overt of these were when people claimed that Reese and LSU (who had more black players than Iowa) were braggadocios and cocky while Clark was humbler and demurer (which clearly shows that these people never watched Clark, who I would consider one of the most overtly cocky basketball players I have watched); even there, I don’t consider cockiness to be bad among greats, even finding it fun (think back to how fun it was to watch Usain Bolt during his prime), but a lot of people don’t like seeing athletes show emotion, especially when they are black.  The racist rhetoric followed to the WNBA where people acted like Clark had a historic year and did no wrong (while she had a great year, her defense, recklessness, and first 10 games were bad enough that I question if she should have been All-WNBA, something I wouldn’t have voted her for) and Reese couldn’t do anything because her shooting efficiency was poor (she was also a strong defender, rebounder, and demonstrated a high IQ for a rookie) while propagating a false narrative that all her rebounds were off her own misses (all you had to do to disprove this was watch her play; clearly these people didn’t).  Many compared it to Larry Bird and Magic Johnson in the 80’s, which boosted the NBA’s ratings through an attempted race war, but I don’t think that is something that we should be striving for.  Even commissioner Cathy Engelbert ignored a question about this and focused on rivalries instead of discussing the hate speech that she was asked about (she did apologies for her comments and denounced hate speech).

Unfortunately, the WNBA missing the mark dealing with racism is not a new topic.  Prior to Clark being drafted and becoming the face of the league for many new fans, the W tried to find a face for several years.  In particular, in recent years they have consistently tried having different white players be the face of the league (while players such as Candace Parker, Maya Moore, and Brittney Griner were clearly a superstar immediately, the league wasn’t quite big enough in the public consciousness to make a point of what I am discussing).  While there is also a case to be made that there was also more of a focus towards players who were either straight or dating a male, I speculate that the lack of push for Breanna Stewart to immediately be the face of the league was partially due to her career at UConn and the mindset that UConn fans would follow her career like those of other stars, including Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird.  The first instance I felt like the WNBA was trying to force a player as the face of the league was Kelsey Plum after she was drafted in 2017 (ironically one year after Stewart), but they quickly bailed on her after her rookie year wasn’t what they were hoping.  The next player I recall them pushing to be the face of the league was Sabrina Ionescu, though they seemed to bail on her after getting hurt 2 games into her rookie year (ironically, she looked like a promising player by year 2 and a star by year 3, so it seemed a bit premature to bail).  What is interesting was that I never felt like there was this level of push for two WNBA ready top picks in A’ja Wilson and Aaliyah Boston, both of whom projected to be great players (at worst) and were immediately All-Star level players; that said, both of them are black.  A counter argument to my argument is that the league might be trying to highlight scoring guards who thrived in college, which makes sense given that these types of players usually get a lot of attention.  My rebuttal to this is that there were black players who were high-scoring guards and were top picks who appeared to be great players, including top-picks Rhyne Howard and Jackie Young, and other top-5 picks in Kelsey Mitchell and Arike Ogunbowale.  While Clark is the next progression of this type of player, all I could think was that this is the WNBA trying the next high-scoring white player after Plum and Ionescu, which isn’t fair to any of these players since they are all so talented, but the WNBA is clearly forcing a narrative that isn’t necessary.

The more pressing issue is that of player safety.  While there have been several instances that I noticed as the league continued to grow in popularity, there were two that stand out to me over the last two seasons.  The first came in June 2023 when Britney Griner was confronted by a man at a Dallas airport.  The second came recently after Breanna Stewart’s wife, retired professional basketball player Marta Xargay Casademot, received an email containing threats and homophobic messages.  It is worth noting that the WNBA allowed Griner to fly charter during that season (charter flights were not something the WNBA allowed at that point in time), but Griner was not flying charter during that trip.  It is also worth noting that Stewart never received any direct emails that were reported.

While there is a case to be made that there is are limits regarding what the WNBA can do, I think it is clear that they are reactive regarding player safety.  Prior to the 2023 season, it should have been obvious that Griner was going to face threats given the nature of her release from a Russian penal colony (not that she had any control over her release, but for some reason nobody considers that part); I opted not to write about my concerns prior to the season as to hold out hope that nothing like this would happen, but I feared she would be attacked.  The league realized this by allowing her to fly charter, but there still needed to be a plan for when she was not going to do so (even if the expectation is that she will fly charter every game, there needs to be a plan in place in case something falls through).  While the league should approve this plan in any situation, the league should have been more involved since Mat Ishbia was in his first season as the owner of the Mercury.  Someone being able to get to Griner as easily as they did suggests to me that there was no plan in place, which suggests failure from both the Phoenix Mercury and the WNBA.  As for the second case, it was obvious that there would be security issues with the increase to the league caused by Caitlin Clark’s debut.  While the league allowed for charter flights (something that personally seemed somewhat reluctant from the league, but I’m not going to harp on this since I don’t know with certainty), there needs to be a plan to minimize threats, not just react to and report them.  While Xargay Casademot is not an active WNBA and should not be a security focus of the WNBA, the fact that someone was able to easily communicate with a spouse of an active star has to suggest that something more could happen.  Unfortunately, my first thought upon hearing this was wondering what is stopping someone from finding their address and attacking them at their home.  Even though it is not the WNBA’s responsibility to protect all their players outside of a WNBA facility or trip, the fact that one of the league’s biggest stars could be accessible for threats is an indication that the league is failing horribly with player safety off the court.

The good news with the WNBA is that the on-court product has been absolutely amazing over the last few seasons.  The league is growing in popularity and is in an exciting era, as there are huge stars and an amazing product on the court.  Unfortunately, the league has failed with matters of hate speech (especially racism) and player safety.  What does this mean for the league going forward?  For a couple years, I have wondered how the next collective bargaining agreement would go with the potential for more money, something that usually ends up being messy if the owners and players are on different pages (I’d be shocked if they aren’t).  With the added issue of the league’s shortcomings in the matters mentioned prior, I would keep an eye on a potential lockout.  In general, players can often make a comparable amount of money playing internationally (especially the stars).  Additionally, if the new Unrivaled league finds some success and projects to be a promising long-term option (it would be a surprise if the league is profitable in year 1, but it just needs to project to be sustainable), then the players will have much more leverage than the league would hope for.  If this is what it takes for the league to recognize just how far they need to go off the court, then I look forward to seeing the WNBA squirm.