Caitlin Clark is the latest WNBA player to call for an end to racist fan abuse.
‘It’s definitely upsetting,’ the WNBA Rookie of the Year said Friday morning following her Indiana Fever’s first-round playoff exit. ‘Nobody in our league should be facing any sort of racism, hurtful, disrespectful, hateful comments and threats. Those aren’t fans. Those are trolls and it’s a real disservice to the people in our league, the organization, the WNBA.’
WNBA players say the surging popularity of the women’s basketball league has opened the door for harassment, and the league’s veterans are calling for officials to do more to address racist and sexist abuse.
The addition of Clark, an unrivalled media sensation, helped drive record viewership and attendance, and the league found itself more firmly embedded in mainstream U.S. sports culture, where racism and misogyny remain prevalent.
The issue has come to a head during the ongoing WNBA playoffs.
‘I don’t appreciate the new fans that sit there and yell racial slurs at myself, my teammates and the people that I play against,’ Brittney Griner said on Thursday evening, a day after her Phoenix Mercury were eliminated from the postseason by the Minnesota Lynx.
‘I do appreciate the new fans that respect the game that are here to grow our league.’
The Connecticut Sun’s five-time All-Star Alyssa Thomas said the abuse she received from Indiana Fever fans during the playoffs was like nothing she had experienced before in her 11 years with the WNBA.
‘It’s unacceptable, honestly,’ Thomas told reporters on Wednesday, after the Sun swept Clark’s Fever in the best-of-three series. ‘There’s no place for it.’
The Sun will next play the Lynx in the semi-finals.
The WNBA issued a statement on Wednesday night condemning racist abuse by fans.
‘While we welcome a growing fan base, the WNBA will not tolerate racist, derogatory, or threatening comments,’ the league said in a statement.
‘League security is actively monitoring threat-related activity and will work directly with teams and arenas to take appropriate measures, to include involving law enforcement as necessary.’
Griner called the statement ‘way overdue.’
‘We all deserve to play in a safe environment,’ she told reporters. ‘I deserve to be here and play and not have to worry about racial and sexist comments.’
Jason Whitlock added fuel to the simmering racial tensions in the WNBA by equating Clark to an African-American slave.
‘Caitlin Clark is ‘Kunta Clark,’ the sports podcaster said, likening the WNBA’s Rookie of the Year to the enslaved protagonist of Alex Haley’s 1976 bestseller, Roots. ‘She’s the actual slave that everybody else is exploiting for their benefit.’
Whitlock’s comparison followed a series of attacks on African-American players, whom he painted as ‘angry Black feminists.’ He specifically called out Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese and Thomas, both of whom have been vocal about the racist comments directed at players by fans.
Whitlock also accused the Sun’s Dijonai Carrington of intentionally poking Clark in the eye during a recent game – something the Indiana Fever guard has rejected.
‘Caitlin Clark got poked in the eye and injured, black eye, you can still see the black eye,’ Whitlock said Friday, as quoted by Fox Sports Radio 790.
Meanwhile, FOX Sports analyst Nick Wright is insisting that racists used Clark’s popularity to spread hate towards black WNBA players.
Over the 2024 WNBA season, the No 1 overall pick sent the league’s attendance and viewership numbers to new heights following her collegiate career at the University of Iowa.
‘You’ve got this boatload of new fans because Caitlin Clark is box office,’ the FS1 host said on his What’s Wright program. ‘But unfortunately, an inevitably, and the league should have seen this train coming down the tracks, on that bandwagon were folks that weren’t fans of basketball, that weren’t even actual fans of Caitlin Clark.’
