Elle Duncan has an extensive history covering the WNBA, beginning as the host of WNBA Countdown during her time at ESPN starting back in 2021, and she continues to cover the league in her current studio hosting role for USA Network’s coverage and will be involved in the network’s coverage of the WNBA Finals this fall.
That said, it sounds like Duncan is exhausted at the direction the league has gone recently, especially over the past several weeks, as Sophie Cunningham’s recent comments ignited a debate about trans women in women’s sports.
‘The most toxic space’
During an interview on WHYY’s Sports In America podcast released last week, Duncan opened up about just how much the discourse around the league has shifted recently.
“I remember how much passion, energy, and excitement there was for the attention that these women were finally getting, and the ratings, and this new crop of superstars that were going to come into the league and help elevate this game even more,” Duncan said via Awful Announcing. “And it would finally be all these women reaping everything that they had sewn all these years. And very quickly over the course of the last three years, it’s just turned into … a sticking point for sides to continue to politicize things that shouldn’t be, to be as divisive as possible.”
Duncan did not hold back as she had one word to describe the league: toxic.
“Right now, the WNBA is the most toxic space to cover, and that’s incredibly frustrating and sad,” she said.
“There was so much conversation … about, early on, ‘Hey this is maybe not such a bad thing, right? No such thing as bad publicity, right? It’s all good! Now we’re like the men’s sports! We’ve got stupid narratives and discourse and we’ve got, like, false things being said. Uh-oh, we’ve made it! We’re like the men!’ And I think, very quickly, that’s turned into, ‘Oh my goodness, everything that people revered and loved about this space is essentially being hijacked.’”
How to fix it
Unfortunately, there is no easy fix in this situation, but Duncan thinks it’s going to take everyone working together.
“It’s on absolutely everybody,” she said. “I know everybody that I work with is exhausted by this space right now, and I think the players included. But I do think that it’s not just the media to blame, just the league to blame, or just the players. I think, collectively, we’ve got to put our heads together and figure out how we right this ship.
“Because we have an opportunity here to celebrate this monumentous moment and this movement in the WNBA, and I think we are wasting it by muddying it down with everything else that’s bothering us in this country right now.”
We’ll have to see how the league progresses over the next few months and years, but it’s clear that the discourse surrounding the league has taken over and overshadowed the actual basketball being played.
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