Do the people constantly criticizing the WNBA actually care about women's basketball, or are they just trying to capitalize on the moment and get clicks, views, etc.?
ESPN WNBA analyst Andraya Carter believes that on many occasions, it's the latter. We're seeing a lot of people, especially those in political circles, popping off on social media, talking about the WNBA.
But do these people actually care about the WNBA?
Carter says no.
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Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White made a similar point.
“This isn’t necessarily for those people that are in this room; this is more for an online community that’s trying to create narratives that simply don’t exist,” White said. “Trying to create a fabrication or distortion of who I am, of what I’m about. Our players’ success, our players’ health and wellness, our players’ safety is always a top priority for me. One of the things I pride myself on is my relationships with players.”
“For those who have anything to say about the play in the last game, I didn’t see the play in real time,” White continued. “I went straight to a press conference. I thought the play got called right. Thankfully, Sophie is OK. Was it egregious? Absolutely. When you have a chance to watch that over and over and over on replay, you can see that. I didn’t have that in real time.”
Carter agrees with White, others
Carter is getting fed up with the WNBA critics.
“All those people that were piling on and calling for Steph White’s job in this most recent week, how many Indiana Fever games have you actually watched?” Carter asked. “Are you calling for Steph White’s job because of who she is as a coach? Or are you calling for her job because you watched one clip and you’re piling on and you’re fueled by hatred and you’re finding a space to exercise something that’s not related to basketball at all.
“And that’s where we are right now in the W, and that’s why it’s so frustrating. You can’t just talk about basketball. And I look forward to the day, like Steph White said, when this is a space where basketball fans come to pick apart the game and the performances and come to celebrate the talent we have.”
