The WNBA has an image problem.
The problem is the league and its players want a bigger, better image — to be seen, to be respected, to be taken as seriously as other leagues — but not the occasional criticism and discomfort that inherently comes with it.
It’s not that teams and players don’t want to be covered by the media. They do, they should, and they deserve to be. But some of them just don’t know how to receive that coverage, not when it isn’t fawning.
Put the Sky at the very top of that list. The most recent example came Saturday and was a biggie, a contentious press conference that made the rounds after the team’s 71-70 loss to Caitlin Clark and the Fever in Indianapolis.
Sky guard Chennedy Carter had taken a cheap shot at Clark during the game that wasn’t the end of the world in and of itself but — here’s the key — definitely happened. We know this because we saw it, with our own eyes and everything. Asked about it after the game, though, Carter hid behind a “Next question” and a couple of other variations on the “No comment” theme before her coach, Teresa Weatherspoon, came unnecessarily to her rescue, saying, “That’s enough.”
It was fine if Carter didn’t care to explain herself in that moment — a no-comment is a comment in itself, any good journalist knows — but it was weak sauce. It was the sort of soft move we delightful folks in the media would rip another athlete in a different sport for without blinking. So, call things what they are — that’s kind of what we do around here.
Chennedy Carter, given a chance to explain herself postgame, says “next question.”
Then later, “I ain’t answering no Caitlin Clark questions.”
Coach Teresa Weatherspoon stepped in: “That’s enough. We’re good.”
Disappointing press conference. Accountability lacking. pic.twitter.com/yw45QUieRo
— Scott Agness (@ScottAgness) June 1, 2024
Even lamer was rookie Angel Reese ducking out altogether on her postgame obligations to the media that were negotiated with the league and apply to all players, even ones with extraordinary allure and gifts for self-promotion. One could only assume she did that because — as prominently as she’s on social media, and as desirous of fame as she has demonstrated herself to be (not that there’s anything wrong with it) — she had to know videos of her celebrating Carter’s body check on Clark were making the rounds and criticism of her was roiling. A player sensitive enough herself to have answered, “Next question” to a run-of-the-mill inquiry after her not-so-hot play in the second half of a recent game didn’t want to be called on a bit of controversial behavior. At least, that was the only way to read her absence.
Other recent Sky members have been, at times, extremely sensitive to questions construed as criticism, even when it was simply being asked about a lost game or a cold shooting stretch or an opponent who had the Sky’s number. Former coach and general manager James Wade could be quick to get salty. Former player Courtney Williams took a baffling, highly inappropriate stance with a reporter of, “Are you for us or against us?” completely misunderstanding the role of an unbiased press.
It’s easy to criticize the Sky, if that’s what one wants to do. Their practice facility, if one can call it that, is so embarrassingly small-time, it’s like something out of a Christopher Guest movie. Speaking of small-time, the Sky were, for far too long, the only WNBA team that didn’t separate its coach and GM positions. From a PR standpoint, the whole organization needs to go back to school and learn a thing or two. That goes double for the PR department itself.
It’s the nature of public discourse in 2024 that a lot of people seem to need to align themselves entirely on one side of any issue and then assume all others have done the same. In that childish, unrealistic way of thinking, a person is either for the Sky or against them, for Reese or against her, for Clark or against her. It’s really pretty stupid.
Look, the royal we are paying attention to the Sky, the WNBA and women’s basketball more than a year ago and in all the years before that. It’s just a fact. It’s a good thing, isn’t it?
Three-dot dash
• Anyone else able to remember the Cubs’ recent series against the Brewers? No, not that one. The one before it.
On May 5 at Wrigley Field, the Cubs beat the Brewers 5-0 to win a weekend series between the rivals two games to one. Since then? Good lord. The Cubs are 1-2 against the Padres, 3-4 against the Pirates, 2-4 against the Braves, 0-2 against the Cardinals, 1-3 against the very same Brewers and, after a mostly miserable weekend welcome to June on the North Side, 1-2 against the Reds. They’ve lost six series in a row and dropped 7½ games in the division standings.
When it rains, it pours. Will it ever stop?
“There’s absolutely paths to us playing good baseball,” manager Craig Counsell said, “but things have to change.”
See, that’s why he makes the big bucks.
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• Next up at Wrigley: Cubs-White Sox on Tuesday and Wednesday. That buzz you’re detecting must be the cicadas, because it sure isn’t about this series.
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• The Sox have lost 11 straight and 15 of their last 16, but the important thing is manager Pedro Grifol says owner Jerry Reinsdorf wants to win like nobody’s business. We all believe that, don’t we?
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• Back in spring training, Red Sox reliever Liam Hendricks was already looking forward to this week’s return to Guaranteed Rate Field. He could already taste the Velvet Taco and the Gino’s East. The one thing he couldn’t do is speed up his return from Tommy John surgery. But the old Sox friend threw fastballs and breaking pitches off the front of a mound late last week. It would be great to see him all the way back, though it might not happen until well after the All-Star break.
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• We all know you came here for an NBA Finals pick, so hear it is: Mavericks in six.
And print it.
Deal with it, people.
