Five Out: Fever Rising, The Joys of Capitalism and The Gut Check Coming to Women's Basketball

Andrew prepares for a wedding so Chauny steps in with her five biggest thoughts on the week that was in women's basketball.

Courtesy: Indiana Fever

Happy Labor Day good people. Andrew is out celebrating the wonder that is love so I will be you guest columnist for a little while.

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FEVER PITCH 

In case you haven’t noticed, the Indiana Fever are legit. After beating the Dallas Wings 100-93 Sunday, the Fever improved to 17-16, and are 6-1 since returning from the Olympic break. 

Now anybody who watched the start of the season and knows ball saw a team that had no chemistry, questionable lineups, a handful of bad habits but were still competing with some of the top teams in the league. Rest, relaxation and possible Zoobilation have transformed this young squad into a legitimate post-season threat.

Kelsey Mitchell has been on an absolute tear and it’s not shocking as real ones have always known she was a bucket. What real ones wanted to know was could she play winning basketball and be the anchor this team needed as they tried to return to the playoffs for the first time since the legend Tamika Catchings retired. Mitchell has since bought in and become the vet the team needs as her timely baskets and assists down the stretch have steadied the Fever when they needed it most. 

Aliyah Boston has emerged as arguably the most versatile big in the league, flirting with a triple double in several contests after the Olympics. Her adjustment to playing alongside Clark has had some growing pains, but still been nothing short of incredible as Boston shows she can truly do it all.

Caitlin Clark is First Team All-WNBA this year and I need everyone to get comfortable saying it. Yes, I know there has been a lot of unproductive dialogue surrounding her and calling her the GOAT of this and the best at that but I’m telling you what my own raw eyeballs have seen and she is undeniably First Team this year and the noise shouldn’t deter media for making that decision. 

A lot of people (me) have been very critical of head coach Christie Sides and questioned her lineups, her coaching philosophy, late game execution, etc. At this point she’s gotten the team to buy in and I give everyone permission to use my tweets in the future Fever documentary as proof she did have haters. Please mention that I’m now less of a skeptic. The biggest testament to Sides’ coaching is the team chemistry that was on full display against Chicago. I watched Clark risk picking up a 7th technical and ensuing suspension to tell a ref he had Aliyah Boston f—ed up. I saw the team take turns babysitting Clark to make sure she didn’t pick up that crucial tech as she continued to advocate for herself as well as her teammates. If the team wasn’t really feeling each other as speculated at the beginning of the season, we wouldn’t see anything like that. They would simply let Clark crash out and joyfully play without her. The girls are vibing at the right time and whoever they face in the first round better be ready. 

THE IT GIRLS DIDN’T DISAPPOINT 

We got our fourth and final installment of Indiana vs. Chicago for the year and folks it did not disappoint. While I don’t have the official ratings, I can say just off the eye test, this is a rivalry. Sorry folks, it’s here to stay. There was an intensity surrounding this game that made you forget that it’s between the 6th and 8th seed respectively. That’s a testament to the star power of Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark, who will now be tethered as competitors until they link up to play together in 2028. But enough of my fan fiction. 

One thing I’ve really seen from the duo that I would like to see continue is the emergence of their college personalities and antics. For me, Reese popped up at Maryland for telling a player “you’re not cut like that.” We’ve since seen a couple “too small” celebrations against vets in the league and I need more of that, especially as she continues to break every rebounding record available. Clark was seen hyping the away crowd up and engaging in some light trash talking during the rivalry matchup and I need so much more of that. 

The two of them could turn the league upside down if they both committed to irritating millennials with extreme Gen Z antics. I would be even more locked in than I already am. 

THE GANG LEARNS ABOUT CAPITALISM 

With added hype and excitement, the IT Girls have also taught fans the joys of capitalism through increased season ticket prices. Capitalism doesn’t care about what you love, hands up, cash out. 

I’ve found the online reactions from season ticket holders to be a little naive and a tad bit entitled, but I think it’s because we’ve lost the plot. In fighting for equity in female sports, we’re tacitly admitting that one of the primary goals is making these women millionaires. Somebody’s gotta foot the bill for that and it’s not going to be the broke W owners. This was a natural progression of things as everyone is trying to capitalize on the boom that’s hit women’s basketball. The WNBA cannot be treated as a mom and pop shop if it hopes to reach mainstream popularity. The other year Natasha Cloud, who was with the Mystics at the time, decided to sit courtside at a fellow W game on her day off and took to Twitter to vent about the price of the seats. I could not for the life of me understand why a professional athlete would complain about ticket prices of their league as though it’s not worth it when the whole fight has been about paying these women more because they’re worth it. Same goes to season ticket holders. If you can’t afford your summer activity, sorry. The W’s a business and the game favors the highest bidder, not the one with the most memories. To quote an anonymous former LSU forward, “get your money up.”

SPEAKING OF A LUXURY NOT A NECESSITY, SOCIAL MEDIA 

The IT Girls have also brought in an influx of new fans on social media; some good, some bad, some bots. W dialogue revisited an oldie but goodie as Dijonai Carrington took to Twitter after the Sun’s 84-80 loss to the Fever to voice her opinion on the Indiana crowd. 

“The Indiana Fever have the nastiest fans in the W. ew,” she tweeted. 

Fans then chimed in once again lamenting how Caitlin Clark fans have ruined their WNBA experience and is actively destroying the mental health and self-esteem of WNBA players. This conversation has irritated me since it first started not because I don’t deny any racism or any other type of prejudice exists in their mentions, but because I’ve seen how these players operate and this could all be solved by logging off and touching grass for a bit. 

One of the unfortunate and uncomfortable truths I’ve learned in my years on social media is internet harassment is now a staple on the apps. As someone who is chronically online myself, I’ve learned to enjoy my social media team by avoiding the Barbz, Swifties, BeyHive etc. simply by understanding the situation at hand. Those people are completely unhinged so I can either avoid saying anything that might be considered inflammatory by any party, OR fight back. I typically choose peace, but in the rare instance I feel like unsheathing my sword and battling the swarm of stans, I’m ten toes down and understand there will be verbal degradation. 

Now is any of this right? Of course not, but it’s the nature of the beast and I’m watching W fans amplify and or antagonize bots, obvious right wing trolls and the like to further this narrative that you can't exist online in peace anymore because of Clark when in actuality you really just can’t exist online in peace anymore. Do yourself a favor and just log off.  

SO REMEMBER THAT TALK ABOUT CAPITALISM? 

The newfound buzz around the women’s game has led to some incredibly hot takes, none more incendiary than the assertion that the WNBA is an “activist league” 

So going back to previous points on how the WNBA is a business and the goal is to help these women make a lot of money. Which part of that says activism? 

To be clear, I don’t mind athletes clocking in and clocking out while abstaining from sharing their worldly views. I can also acknowledge how the WNBA has leveraged their celebrity status to aid in national movements better than any professional league in America. This does not, however, make them an activist league. 

This point becomes unavoidable when popular teams are in the crosshairs for wrongdoing. 

Reporters were generally silent last year on Skylar Diggins-Smith’s claims that the Phoenix Mercury were retaliating against her while she was pregnant because it would’ve interfered with Diana Taurasi’s fanfare as she scored her 10,000th point. Aces fans let Dearica Hamby know how they felt about her filing a lawsuit against the Las Vegas franchise when the Sparks came to Vegas right after the Olympic break. Players have been silent on both instances.

At this point public perception matters because the outcomes of Hamby’s lawsuit could have long-lasting effects for future players. The Aces and Mercury were stressing out pregnant black women in a country where black maternal mortality rates are already higher than other groups. If the behavior goes unchecked, it could have fatal outcomes in the name of sports and I don’t think that’s being taken into consideration. Hamby was in a privileged position and had enough status to shine a light on this situation, but what if she hadn’t?

That brings us to another alarming situation found in the college game w in violence perpetuated by players. 

Andrew has written about troubled TCU star Sedona Prince and how Mark Campbell’s actions going forward in pivotal. Dawn Staley could possibly find herself in a similar situation as South Carolina forward Ashlyn Watkins was arrested this weekend for assault and kidnapping, but Watkins’ lawyer Todd Rutherford told News19 “we believe that once everybody has a full grasp of what happened, this will end up being a misunderstanding.” 

With that statement in mind, we have no choice but to wait for everything in that situation play out before commenting on next moves. 

Going back to Campbell, he has a choice to make. He can play by the same rules male sports play by and let a problematic player back on after a slap on the wrist suspension, or he can send a message that that type of behavior will not be tolerated. There is a third option of an attempt redemption, but there would need to be serious restitution involved, otherwise, it’s just lip service. However you slice it, the coming days are going to be a true test of character for the women’s basketball community as a whole.