The Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese rhetoric is getting handled way too timidly by the WNBA
This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Meg Hall on Cathy Engelbert's spectacular fumble.
WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert had a chance to do something that should have been done a long time ago — condemn the people who have used Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese's names to further their own agendas. Instead, she sidestepped the opportunity to use her platform, opting for the dollars instead.
Since the 2023 National Championship and into their rookie WNBA seasons, Clark and Reese have been at the center of some of the wildest vitriol women's sports have seen in recent years. Their stardom has galvanized an extremist movement of "fans" whose only goal is to find the opportunities — the cracks — in the foundation of women's basketball and fill them with racial, sexist and bigoted sludge.
The narratives driven by "supporters" (and perpetuated by media personalities like Charles Barkley) have grown so loud and dangerous that Clark and Reese were forced to respond and reveal unhinged behavior like death threats and stalking. But the league has been publicly silent about what's happening. Recently, Engelbert gave a corporate, safe non-answer when allowed to denounce the rhetoric and refocus the conversation on basketball. Here's what she told CNBC:
“Well, one thing that’s great about the league right now, we do sit at this intersection of culture and sports and fashion and music — like the WNBA players are kind of looked at now as cultural icons. And when you have that, you have a lot of attention on you. There’s no more apathy. Everybody cares.”
“It’s a little bid of that [Larry] Bird-Magic[Johnson] moment…we have that moment with these two. The one thing I know about sports, you need rivalry. That’s what makes people watch. They want to watch games of consequence between rivals. They don’t want everybody being nice to one another.” Social media is different today than it was in 1979 when it didn’t exist.”
“But…I always tell the players — I was told a long time ago if someone is typing something in and you wouldn’t ask their advice, ignore it. It’s a balance. But certainly, from a marketing dollars — corporate partners are stepping up to endorse these players more so than they were five years ago because they see the benefit of having women and diverse women representing their brand.”
That answer ignores the elephant in the room.
It minimizes the ugly truth that a small but extremely loud and rapidly growing contingent of WNBA "fans" is dramatically shifting what the conversations should be about. Engelbert's answer also comes off as dismissive of the gravity of what is being spewed directly to both players, in the names of Caitlin and Angel and other WNBA players.
Earlier this season, Aliyah Boston had to delete her social media because the things said to her were well past basketball. A man tracked down Chennedy Carter and the Chicago Sky to reportedly hurl racist and misogynist marks after a hip-check foul. And those are only two examples.
Dozens more instances involve players, which only worsens when social media is involved. The internet has become a cesspool for people to operate unchecked, all behind the mask of WNBA fandom and free speech. Finding the right words to say on such topics is never easy, and it often requires more profound thought before speaking. But how much longer is this supposed to go on? How bad does it have to get before the league says something?
The WNBA has always been a socially conscious league focused on being aware of things larger than basketball. However, it cannot turn a blind eye now because its bank account says it's not worth the fuss. Doing so is disingenuous to every player who has ever played in the league and any future athlete who will wear a WNBA jersey.
The plot has officially been lost when money trumps humanity, and the WNBA is dangerously close to completely fumbling Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese's impact.
More WNBA!
This Caitlin Clark corn maze designed by a farm in Indiana can only be described as breathtaking
Shaq dismantled Charles Barkley's rant about the WNBA being petty with Caitlin Clark
The NBA presses pause on expansion
NBA commissioner Adam Silver spoke to the media on Tuesday after the NBA's annual preseason Board of Governors meetings and one of the subjects that came up in his availability — but wasn't brought up in the actual meetings — was NBA expansion, Mike Sykes writes.
The NBA has had expansion on its checklist for years — particularly with Seattle (bring back the SuperSonics!) and Las Vegas.
READ MORE: Eight cities the NBA is likely to tap for expansion
With the NBA's new television deal almost crossing the finish line and plenty of new money coming in over the next few years, you'd think this would be a good time for the NBA to seriously consider the next steps to add a couple of new teams. However, according to Silver, the subject wasn't broached in this week's meetings.
The league isn't quite ready to have that talk yet. “There’s certainly interest in the process, (but) we’re not there yet in terms of having made any specific decisions about markets, or even frankly to expand," Silver told reporters.
"We've told interested parties, 'Thank you for your interest. We'll get back to you," he continued.
It sounds like the NBA is pressing the pause button on expansion for now. But you've got to wonder what the hold-up is here. The table is perfectly set. There's so much talent around the league. The cash is flowing. Now is the time. It's a peculiar decision not to at least begin to move forward.
Maybe it's because the NBA isn't quite settled with the television deal yet. With Warner Bros. Discovery suing the NBA, all the ducks aren't quite in a row with that just yet.
Or maybe the league is waiting on LeBron James to retire. He did say he wanted to own a franchise eventually and has been eyeing Las Vegas as his start. Could there be an under-the-table handshake to keep things paused while James finishes out his career? I have no idea.
Regardless, we're stuck here playing the waiting game. I guess we'll see when the time comes.
What's up with Christian McCaffrey?
Just a few days ago we weren't even thinking twice about Christian McCaffrey's availability for the 49ers. Today, it's fair to ask when we'll actually see him play again. Because, as of now, we have no idea.
McCaffrey playing against Minnesota this week doesn't sound like it's happening, according to the NFL Network's Ian Rapoport. It sounds like McCaffrey's injury is a lot more serious than the Niners initially thought:
"We talked a lot during the course of the preseason about Christian McCaffrey's calf injury. It's more than that — it is also Achilles tendinitis, which can really be troublesome. And, as Kyle Shanahan noted, that's actually the injury giving Christian McCaffrey more trouble right now."
Achilles tendinitis is far more serious than a calf injury, but they're both lingering things that take time to go away. It's wise to keep McCaffrey from playing until he feels healthy, but its hard to know when that'll be.
McCaffrey has been reportedly dealing with this for a few weeks now already, so hopefully, it won't be too long. But the Niners could be staring at playing a few games without their best offensive weapon available to them. That's not great.
Didn't seem to matter much in Week 1 against the Jets, though. So, hey. Maybe everything is going to be A-OK.
Quick hits: The Kirk Cousins conundrum ... WNBA players rip Cathy ... and more
— Here's Cory Woodroof on Kirk Cousins needing to be bad so he can be good again.
— Breanna Stewart and other WNBA players are letting Cathy Engelbert have it after her comments on the Caitlin Clark-Angel Reese toxicity.
— Charles Curtis as the 5 best memes from the Trump-Harris debate on Tuesday night.
— Caroline Darney has more on all the celebs you'll be seeing at the VMAs on Wednesday night.
— Christian D'Andrea has Week 2 QB rankings ready to go for you.
— Here's Cory again on Will Levis' surrender cobra. What a sad scene.
That's a wrap, folks! Thanks so much for reading. We appreciate you. Let's do this again tomorrow. Peace.
— Meg & Sykes ✌️