WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert had a chance to do something that should have been done a long time ago — condemn the people who have used Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese‘s names to further their own agendas. Instead, she sidestepped the opportunity to use her platform, opting for the dollars instead.
Since the 2023 National Championship and into their rookie WNBA seasons, Clark and Reese have been at the center of some of the wildest vitriol women’s sports have seen in recent years. Their stardom has galvanized an extremist movement of “fans” whose only goal is to find the opportunities — the cracks — in the foundation of women’s basketball and fill them with racial, sexist and bigoted sludge.
The narratives driven by “supporters” (and perpetuated by media personalities like Charles Barkley) have grown so loud and dangerous that Clark and Reese were forced to respond and reveal unhinged behavior like death threats and stalking. But the league has been publicly silent about what’s happening. Recently, Engelbert gave a corporate, safe non-answer when allowed to denounce the rhetoric and refocus the conversation on basketball. Here’s what she told CNBC:
“Well, one thing that’s great about the league right now, we do sit at this intersection of culture and sports and fashion and music — like the WNBA players are kind of looked at now as cultural icons. And when you have that, you have a lot of attention on you. There’s no more apathy. Everybody cares.”
“It’s a little bid of that [Larry] Bird-Magic[Johnson] moment…we have that moment with these two. The one thing I know about sports, you need rivalry. That’s what makes people watch. They want to watch games of consequence between rivals. They don’t want everybody being nice to one another.” Social media is different today than it was in 1979 when it didn’t exist.”
“But…I always tell the players — I was told a long time ago if someone is typing something in and you wouldn’t ask their advice, ignore it. It’s a balance. But certainly, from a marketing dollars — corporate partners are stepping up to endorse these players more so than they were five years ago because they see the benefit of having women and diverse women representing their brand.”
The problem with that answer is that it ignores the elephant in the room.
It minimizes the ugly truth that a small but extremely loud and rapidly growing contingent of WNBA “fans” is dramatically shifting what the conversations should be about. Engelbert’s answer also comes off as dismissive of the gravity of what is being spewed directly to both players, in the names of Caitlin and Angel and other WNBA players.
Earlier this season, Aliyah Boston had to delete her social media because the things said to her were well past basketball. A man tracked down Chennedy Carter and the Chicago Sky to reportedly hurl racist and misogynist marks after a hip-check foul. And those are only two examples.
Dozens more instances involve players, which only worsens when social media is involved. The internet has become a cesspool for people to operate unchecked, all behind the mask of WNBA fandom and free speech. Finding the right words to say on such topics is never easy, and it often requires more profound thought before speaking. But how much longer is this supposed to go on? How bad does it have to get before the league says something?
The WNBA has always been a socially-conscious league focused on being aware of things larger than basketball. However, it cannot turn a blind eye now because its bank account says it’s not worth the fuss. Doing so is disingenuous to every player who has ever played in the league and any future athlete who will wear a WNBA jersey.
The plot has officially been lost when money trumps humanity, and the WNBA is dangerously close to completely fumbling Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese’s impact.
