As the WNBA faces manufactured controversies meant to cause political alarm, Stephen A. Smith is accusing it of running from its issues.
The latest issue to receive national attention stems from a flagrant foul. DiJonai Carrington of the Chicago Sky committed a flagrant foul when she elbowed Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham in the face while attempting a chase-down block last weekend. The foul has been met with rampant overreaction from fans and media who have attempted to turn Carrington’s foul on Cunningham into part of a culture war. And those same people took significant issue with Fever head coach Stephanie White when she refused to view the foul as some sort of attack on Cunningham. The response has led people to call for White to be fired, with even Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith joining in.
In the wake of a lieutenant governor calling for a WNBA head coach to be fired over her response to an attempted chase-down block, Smith believes it’s too late for the league and its media to just get back to basketball. According to Smith, the WNBA needs to start addressing its critics, regardless of their motives.
<span class="mce_SELRES_start" data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;"></span>
“It’s important that the WNBA wakes up and acknowledges something. There’s a lot of people that don’t like you,” Smith ranted on his Wednesday afternoon SiriusXM Radio show. “We gotta stop playing games, and we gotta get down to the nitty-gritty of this all. I see my girl Chiney Ogwumike, who is a sensational basketball analyst, and yesterday, Andraya Carter, another basketball analyst. I think they’re two of the best basketball analysts in America. They are doing everything they can, trying to get everybody and their mother, ‘let’s talk about basketball!’ Well, guess what? What she’s not realizing is, people don’t want to. It’s not that they don’t know any better. It’s calculating. They don’t want to! It’s just that simple.
“People do not like the WNBA. I’ve got people walking up to me in the streets saying stuff like, ‘It’s a lesbian league.’ I said, ‘What the hell that got to do with anything?’ Most people in America are supporters of the LGBTQ+ community,” Smith claimed. “And what do you got folks on the right doing? Yeah, I’m calling them out. What do you got folks on the right doing? They’re politicizing it. What’s the Lt. Gov of Indiana getting his ass involved in this incident for? He’s trying to politicize it. Why? Because it’s been politically expedient. Why? Because when you create that kind of divide in a binary political system, it forces one side against the other.”
Which is exactly why the WNBA is trying to keep the focus on basketball. The WNBA shouldn’t be forced to answer manufactured controversies that are fabricated for political gain. It’s not Caitlin Clark’s fault she’s been dragged into a culture war and made into a political symbol. It’s not the WNBA’s fault that they’re being disingenuously used in the discussion around transgender athletes. And it’s not the WNBA’s fault that the right is trying to make it seem like Enes Kanter or Royce White are making valid points on the conversation of transgender athletes by pretending to enter the 2027 WNBA Draft.
The WNBA and commissioner Cathy Engelbert have had enough of their own PR missteps, especially as they navigate the additional attention that came when Caitlin Clark entered the league. But outside attempts to push Enes Kanter into the draft or turn a flagrant foul into a criminal attack are not issues the WNBA should feel pressure to address.
The post Stephen A. Smith warns WNBA: ‘A lot of people don’t like you’ appeared first on Awful Announcing.