INDIANAPOLIS — Dear Scoop,
I read your article in the paper, “The WNBA wasn’t ready for the downpour of drama,” and left a little confused.
I’ll admit the Bone Thugs-N-Harmony reference went over my head. I didn’t quite catch your overall point, either.
But it’s clear you want to talk about the W! That’s great. You’ve even taken a few laps around Twitter, documenting the hot topics and trends.
Maybe you’re even curious to hear from a WNBA beat reporter — someone who’s at All-Star weekend right now and covers the league every day.
I can confirm: There’s a lot going on this season. Some players are complaining about the refs and/or stuck in shooting slumps. Many are fighting for better pay. One particular Fever player has lamented that the WNBA is expanding to cities she, personally, would not have picked.
It’s almost as if the WNBA has turned into … a regular American pro sports league?
Has it figured out how to stop the toxic, racist, and sexist commentary online?
Nope.
Has any other league?
Also nope.
But look, Scoop — I’ll concede the broader point.
In some ways, the league wasn’t ready for an explosion of popularity. And really, how could it have been? When you’re told over and over that you’re not worth the investment, at some point, you start to believe it.
Cheryl Reeve, who’s coaching Team Collier this weekend, put it like this:
“Our franchises that are affiliated with NBA teams — there’s been this long undertone that yeah, the WNBA is nice and everything, but it’ll never become mainstream. I was told that 10 years ago. I think that sort of undertone put us in a position that maybe when it was time to capitalize, we missed on some things.”
Missed some things, definitely. Still missing some things.
I’m often sitting in the Sky media room, about to interview one of the most famous athletes in America, eating pizza off a napkin — because apparently the organization that employs her still can’t afford to give us plates.
Legacies of underinvestment don’t disappear overnight.
But it’s not like the league is sitting around. They got private jets. Expanded into new cities. Flipped this growth era into more than $1 billion in expansion fees and a $2.2 billion media rights deal.
And still, there’s this whole cottage industry of observers insisting the W wasn’t ready — and is now on the verge of collapse if the ladies don’t start hitting their threes.
There’s a double standard running through all this. Another dark undertone.
Back then, it was: The W will never be mainstream.
Now? It’s: Maybe it got there, but it won’t last.
That’s the shift. From “they’ll never make it” to “they’re bound to blow it.”
But here’s the thing about undertones: they say more about the people whispering them than the ones being whispered about.
So, next time you stop by on your discourse tourism, I just have one little request.
Instead of just listing off what players and fans are saying, how about just asking yourself how this all makes you feel?
Like really, on a deeper level: How does the WNBA’s ascent make you feel?
That part, the outsiders never seem ready to talk about.
Sincerely,
A WNBA Beat Reporter
