Five Out: The WNBA's Professionalism Problem, Allyship is a Verb and Someone's Scaring the Hoes

The WNBA regular season awards rollout has been an absolute mess, discourse has overshadowed amazing hoops and Becky Hammon is scaring the hoes.

If you’re reading this it’s too late, we’ve already sucked you in, so while you’re here you might as well subscribe so you don’t miss any of the exciting pieces of content we have dropping this week. 

Tuesday we have an interview with Kansas State forward Ayoka Lee dropping. She retells the legend of dropping 61 points on our own Tyler’s Oklahoma Sooners and by the time I’m done telling the story it’ll be 100. 

Just a reminder as the college season quickly approaches, everyone needs to visit Homefield and use promo code NOCAP15 to get 15% off your first order of your favorite team’s classic merch. Merry Christmas.

But we have much to discuss from this week so let’s dive into it, shall we?

 

THE WNBA HAS A PROFESSIONALISM PROBLEM

I’m trying to keep this space safe for Christians and children, but I don’t know any other way to say this; the WNBA awards announcements were a complete s——— show. We got MVP what seems a decade ago and the league has been working backwards, but not really? 

In a statement addressing hate speech and the heckling that players spoke on in their exit interviews, the WNBA player’s union inadvertently revealed Napheesa Collier won Defensive Player of the Year and Caitlin Clark Rookie of the Year. From there, Shams Charania went with the sexier piece of news and amplified that Clark was indeed the ROY. Sunday morning we got official confirmation from the WNBA social media account about Collier securing DPOY and then the first and second defensive teams. But then no ROY. 

The very obvious issue is the way in which the players union completely undercut the league and broke news in a very clumsy manner. The second, and equally pressing matter, is how unfair it is to both Collier and Clark to have their moment ruined in that manner. Collier is currently in the semifinals and was able to get the fanfare of being presented her award by the Commissioner Cathy Englebert in front of her home crowd. Clark was eliminated last week and while she’s been outside seemingly enjoying her life we still haven’t heard anything officially from the league and it’s absolutely baffling. There has been no rhyme or reason to why the league presented the awards this way but it just makes the whole operation look amateur in the same way that embarrassing All-Star MVP trophy did in 2022. The league has got to do better. 

THE WNBA AND ITS FANS HAVE A FOCUS PROBLEM 

Ok so let me first begin by telling a little bit about myself. I am a journalist by trade. Went to school for it and got the degree and student loan debt to prove it. Over my nearly 15 year professional career I’ve covered everything from prep sports to Power 5 football and have been one of the only, if not the only, black female beat writers along the way. So when I speak on dealing with racism, misogyny and the like, it’s through lived experiences, not just wild online speculation. One of the first things we learn in J-School is do NOT look in the comments section. It does not serve you in any way. This was something I had to make sure my mother understood as I, a young journalist writing for a paper in South Georgia, wrote weekly sports columns. Several of which defended Colin Kaepernick at the time he was making national headlines for kneeling during the National Anthem. As you can imagine, given the subject matter and location, I would receive some unsettling feedback to say the least. My biggest concern during that time was my personal safety. Now, I didn’t receive any actual threats, thankfully. My hate mail was just that, hate. So with that in mind, I could simply go about my day. Did I post some particularly egregious messages on my Instagram story? Sure. But it was more so to point out how the bigotry mixed with the illiteracy and made a hot mess in my inbox. I didn’t let it knock me off my square to the point where I couldn’t talk about anything else. 

Which brings me to the W. We have spent the entire season allowing known bigots to completely dominate the conversation and overshadow some great basketball being played. Was Fox News, Outkick and Barstool being antagonistic towards black people? Yes, but that’s the principles their companies are founded on and at a certain point you have to at least try to starve them. 

As a South Carolina Gamecock fan, I see ESPN routinely make clickbait headlines meant to spark outrage because—wait for it — they know there’s a lot of us and we’re all going to click on it if one person posts it. So I made a concerted effort to not give those stories oxygen because you will not profit off my outrage. I expand this line of thinking out to mainstream media sites that try to profit off of black pain in general and circulate uncensored police brutality videos and such. 

When the WNBPA put out that statement it felt like an admission of defeat because 1. It should’ve been issued at the start of the season when players FIRST started mentioning a problem to at least try and establish a tone, and 2. That became the story. Not Napheesa Collier’s 40-point explosion, not Diana Taurasi’s final game ever, not the Aces vs. Liberty finals rematch, but internet bigots posting from sketchy accounts. There are so many accounts made in March or April or of this year or last year chiming on these conversations and that’s what everyone has chosen to hyperfixate on. 

And the reason I’m not really moved by the gripes of what’s happening online (emphasis on online) is because of my aforementioned story and the fact that I know players enjoy searching their name and finding something negative to upset themselves. I’m blocked on Twitter by a number of WNBA players because they used the search feature and discovered me talking about them as a fan. I never @’d them, never said anything out of pocket, just typical disgruntled fan ranting about an anonymous player putting a dent in the backboard with their shooting. That’s not harassment and they have to stop labeling everything they don’t like or could ignore as such because I’m starting to see fatigue set in. People are pointing out how male athletes deal with this at a much higher rate and while I agree they shouldn’t have to, the reality is it is an unfortunate side effect of social media.

I’m not asking everyone to act as though the problems don’t exist, I’m asking people to focus on if the LA Times is doing a racism and not Twitter user IPFreely2984321. Let’s try to gut the big fish, not the minnows swimming in a polluted pond. 

ALLYSHIP IS A VERB NOT A NOUN — YOU GOTTA DO SOMETHING

This is an extension of the previous point because I do believe some reputable publications have tried to join the outrage party and they should be hit right in the pockets with a boycott. The problem is everyone is so busy trying to make it a league versus Caitlin Clark/her fans issue when there should’ve been a unified front and the perpetrators called to carpet and a clear plan of attack executed. 

To me, this looks like the league revoking credentials and encouraging fans to pull their subscriptions. In order to pull this off, everyone has to be on the same page and willing to press their respective teams in order to get a consistent standard across the league. This is what the player’s union should’ve been doing at the start of the season when they first realized the boom was here. Media members dedicated to supporting the cause should’ve worked in conjunction with them to amplify this message. 

Instead we got one side writing salacious headlines involving Clark and another side spending an entire work week reacting with this bizarre trend of praising white women for acknowledging white privilege and doing nothing else. 

Now to be abundantly clear, I do no fault these young women for using their platforms to spread a positive message that they believe in. I’m once again asking, what comes next? 

This weekend a video of Indiana Fever president and COO Allison Barber telling how Caitlin Clark asked behind the scenes if players could receive spot bonuses for the increased attendance scene when the Fever came to town. That’s how you use your privilege. Get some tangible results that will benefit the people you’re standing up for. Not take up another media appearance reiterating something that’s common knowledge amongst the underserved. 

I’m willing to chalk this year up to growing pains as it was all very, very new to everyone involved. Next year I expect everyone to act like they know and go for results and not lip service. 

BECKY HAMMON IS SCARING THE HOES 

Becky Hammon has been brash and unapologetic since she set foot in the WNBA three years ago and up until recently, I’ve loved every minute of it. The drunken speech at last year’s championship parade was a highlight of my sports fandom and I still want to know what was in her Stanley Cup. Hammon won two titles in her first two years as head coach in the league and has earned the right to talk that talk. 

But lately it’s ventured into a different territory. One of a perpetual victim with an ax to grind and to quote Nene Leakes, “it’s getting weird.” 

Most recently, she’s been going back and forth via media with Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve on who’s the real DPOY. Hammon made the initial comments and, to be frank, she crapped all over the year Phee had and it rubbed me the wrong way. One of the most common phrase used this year in the W space is “you don’t have to tear down a player to uplift another” and I just wondered why Hammon couldn’t adhere to this loose code of conduct. I love that she rides for A’ja Wilson and is willing to set the world on fire to make sure she gets what she deserves, but there has to be a line to the victim narrative, especially when was recently crowned unanimous MVP and appears to be enjoying the fruits of her labor via numerous brand deals and commercials. 

There was also her chiming in on the recent coaching changes happening in the league. With Curt Miller it was “you have to win ball games” but with Teresa Weatherspoon she couldn’t wrap her brain around it with a 13-27 record and a number of small fires throughout the locker room that have recently come to light.

In a vacuum this looks like Hammon is just riding for her former Liberty teammate and to be honest I thought it was silly she was even asked to comment in the first place. 

But I can’t ignore the crack she made about “we did our part, we let them have two wins,” knowing how emotional those two games were given the status of Dearica Hamby’s lawsuit. This is a sensitive matter and I just think it’s in poor taste to joke about it. And don’t get me started on how she spoke on the Hamby lawsuit. I’m still not over her saying she gave her “over the top care, actually,” and I never will be. Overall as a fan I would just appreciate it if she could stop scaring the hoes in press conferences, because right now it's me. I’m hoes and I’m terrified. 

THIS POSTSEASON WILL BE ONE FOR THE BOOKS

I gotta end this with some actual hoops talks. Folks if you’re still reading this I applaud you and encourage you to really talk in the high level playoff basketball being played. 

We have a semifinals for the ages as the Aces vs. Liberty series stakes are higher than Seth Rogan and the Lynx vs. Suns features an in-game chess match between two of the best coaches in the game right now. 

And don’t even get me started on the player storylines. I’ll probably expand on that in a few days from a pure basketball fan perspective and not that of a hater…and yes that includes New York, I guess. Don’t ever say I can’t be objective. 

With the college season right around the corner, get ready to hate in style with Homefield! Use promo code NOCAP15 for 15% off your first purchase here!