The Game is Growing, but at What Cost?

We. Are. Tired.

If you had asked me a year ago how I’d feel about constant national coverage about the WNBA, I would have been thrilled. Now that it’s a reality, though, I almost miss the days when it seemed like guys like Stephen A. Smith and Pat McAfee hadn’t even heard of the W. Since big media companies such as ESPN and Fox Sports have decided to take a sudden interest in the almost 30-year old league, WNBA fans who have been watching before this season have been met with nothing but false narratives, erasure of the sport’s best, and the crowning of Caitlin Clark as the league’s sole savior.

Now, don’t get me wrong; Caitlin Clark is a phenomenal player. There is no way you can—in good faith, at least—discredit her contribution to the game. Let’s face it; a lot of people are tuning in for the first time because of her. Her three-point shooting ability is topped by very few and she controlled the college game in a way many of us younger fans hadn’t seen before. I loved watching her play at Iowa, and was excited to watch her alongside Aliyah Boston and NaLyssa Smith when she was drafted #1 to the Indiana Fever.

What I do take issue with, however, is the pure unprofessionalism that has followed her entry into the league. Just yesterday, Fox News’ Clay Travis said that “Caitlin Clark is a white heterosexual woman in a Black lesbian league and they resent and are jealous of all of the attention and the shoe deal that she got.” This sentiment has more or less been echoed by the likes of Charles Barkley, LeBron James, and Gilbert Arenas, the bottom line being that Clark is the reason the WNBA is bringing in any of its money this season, and therefore everyone in the league should be thanking her. The fouls Clark has received so far this season, the most prominent of which being the Chennedy Carter hip-check that was upgraded to a Flagrant 1 after the Chicago Sky’s matchup with the Fever, in tandem with her team’s record of 2-9, have only amplified this line of thinking. The fans that were so sure that Caitlin would come into the league and dominate the likes of A’ja Wilson, Alyssa Thomas, and Breanna Stewart are now scrambling for any excuse as to why she’s losing, and losing a lot.

It’s not just the media, either. A’ja Wilson, 2-time WNBA MVP and 2-time WNBA Champion, has been in the league since 2018, and she received a shoe deal after Caitlin Clark, who got hers before she ever stepped on the floor. This pattern of increased opportunities for the WNBA’s white players is one that fans have pointed out for a while: other than Wilson and Clark, the only other two active players with signature shoes are Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu, the two (white) star players of the New York Liberty. When veterans pointed out the unfairness of an unproven rookie getting a shoe before the best the W has to offer, they were, again, called jealous and bitter.

The conversation about veterans being jealous of and trying to humble the young talent coming into the league has gotten old fast, and even the other members of the 2024 Draft Class seem to agree. When Angel Reese, the Sky’s 7th pick, was brought to the ground by her neck at the hands of Alyssa Thomas, one of the W’s great forwards and one of Reese’s inspirations, she thanked Thomas for the message and stressed that she “want[ed] [other players] to come at [her] every day” and that “they’re not supposed to be nice to [her] or lay down because [she’s] Angel Reese or cause [she’s] a rookie.” In an interview published today, Los Angeles Sparks’ rookie Cameron Brink—the 2nd pick out of my current school, Stanford—said that the narrative that it’s somehow “vets versus rookies” is the most tired narrative around women’s sports. Other players have made their stance on the matter very clear: no, they are not jealous of Caitlin Clark, and no, they will not bow down and thank her for the increased opportunities headed to the W this season.

Besides, there are so many narratives we should be focusing on this season in the WNBA. Seattle Storm’s Skylar Diggins-Smith played the Phoenix Mercury for the first time since her messy departure from the team yesterday, and let’s just say her and Diana Taurasi didn’t leave things on good terms. What about DeWanna Bonner passing her ex-wife on the all-time scoring list on an assist from her current fiancée? Or the interestingly familiar interactions between NaLyssa Smith and Dijonai Carrington, former Baylor teammates and recent ex-girlfriends? This Sunday, June 9th, Dearica Hamby and the Sparks take on her former team, the Las Vegas Aces, for the first time this season; last season, Hamby accused the Aces and its head coach Becky Hammon of gender discrimination, claiming they retaliated after finding out she was pregnant. These are just a glimpse into the amazingly messy and entertaining league that is the WNBA, and if the media spent just a fraction of the time they spend giving Caitlin Clark credit for the house that Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Swoopes, and Candace Parker built on these stories, the league could grow in a way that doesn’t alienate fans that have been watching for years.