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Fever G Caitlin Clark on Friday was asked about those leveling abuse at players and said, “those aren’t fans, those are trolls,” according to Matthew Glenesk of INDIANAPOLIS STAR. Clark added “nobody really should be facing any sort of racism, hurtful, disrespectful, hateful comments and threats,” and called them a “disservice to the people” across the WNBA. Clark: “Continuing to uplift and represent this league in a positive way is the best thing that we can do” (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 9/27). USA TODAY’s Nancy Armour had previously called on Clark “to publicly call out the racist and homophobic trash purporting to be her fans and tell them, in no uncertain terms, that she neither approves of nor condones their bigotry.” While Clark “disavowed the toxic discourse” in June, that was “in response to a question, not a statement of her own initiative.” And it has “gotten much, much worse since then.” Clark “did not ask for this, any of it” — she “just wants to play basketball.” But “so do the other 143 women of the WNBA” and, right now, some of Clark’s fans are “making that impossible.” It “might not be fair” to put this kind of burden on Clark, who has “done nothing to encourage the bigoted behavior.” But the “burden the Black women in the league have been carrying for months isn’t fair, either,” and Clark is “the one person who might be able to quash the hate.” Armour: “She at least needs to try” (USA TODAY, 9/26).
IGNORED PLEAS: Sky F Angel Reese says that the media “should have done more to combat the ongoing issue of racism in women’s basketball before it reached a boiling point,” according to Cydney Henderson of USA TODAY. While the WNBA on Wednesday “condemned all ‘racist, derogatory or threatening comments’” directed toward players, Reese says that this has been a “long-standing issue” and that she has been “the subject of racially motivated hate for some time.” Reese also says that her “pleas for accountability and action have been repeatedly ignored.” Reese wrote on X, “The media has benefited from my pain & me being villainized to create a narrative.” Reese says that she has been “going through this for the last 2 years but was told ‘save the tears’ & ‘stop playing victim'” (USA TODAY, 9/27).
IN THIS TOGETHER: In Indianapolis, Gregg Doyel wrote the “racist losers” have “co-opted another symbol for their own purposes, adding their hostile takeover of the WNBA to that blue checkmark and flag they use to prop themselves up.” These “loathsome creatures” have “co-opted the WNBA franchise in Indianapolis, and its most popular player [Clark], as a cause to rally behind.” And because these people are “poisonous to the core, they know only one way to rally: Not with support for their side, because that would be positive, but with poison for the other side.” Twitter/X is “part of the problem here, as are politics.” It is “going to take all of us” to “fix the abuse heading toward WNBA players like” Reese, Sun F Alyssa Thomas and Sun G DiJonai Carrington. Doyel wrote it includes “me on this keyboard, speaking out against it. You in the crowd, and your friends online, speaking out.” It will take “every player, coach and franchise in the WNBA — those who object to what’s happening, anyway — speaking out” (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 9/27).
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER? In Hartford, Dom Amoore wrote the WNBA’s sentiment was “fine, but it’s too little, and a little late.” Clark’s entry into the league “brought millions of new fans to the WNBA,” but the league “failed to adequately prepare itself or its players for this maelstrom, political and social in nature, and get out in front of it when necessary.” Clark, like some “generational players, seems averse to speaking on hot-button political and social issues, and it’s hard to blame her.” But in “this time and place, that is hard to avoid.” Clark can “use a break from all this, and so can The W, to reflect on its mishandling of a lustrous opportunity to grow in national sports awareness, and how to do it better going forward” (HARTFORD COURANT, 9/26).
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