WNBA
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
What happened now?
I think it is kind of a joke. The pay us what you us us crap was not very smart.
Source for the league blaming Sophie?
Huh? The player who fouled her was ejected from the game. Seems like the league is blaming the player who committed the foul.
For dubious reasons the WNBA has become a target for a certain political movement and Sophie Cunningham has become the favorite daughter of said movement. The whole thing is laughable. The Attorney General of Florida even threatened to bring criminal charges against players who commit hard fouls. Doubly ridiculous as Florida is a state that doesn't have a WNBA team and therefore does not host WNBA games.
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
So wait, Carrington dropped this intentional foul:
Then tweeted “White Privilege” from the locker room a few minutes later and tagged the opposing team.
Then tweeted the next day that her white privilege tweet had nothing to do with the foul:
I wonder what it was about?
The most important question is:
Maybe the white privilege is that in a league where fouls happen in every game they seem to be newsworthy events to a group of people who doesn't even watch the league when they happen to certain players.
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lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
Are there racist remarks from the locker room after those fouls too?The most important question is:
Maybe the white privilege is that in a league where fouls happen in every game they seem to be newsworthy events to a group of people who doesn't even watch the league when they happen to certain players.
Why is tweeting the word "white privilege" inherently racist? Probably a dumb thing to tweet out, but racist? How?
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
Let’s do a thought exercise:
Pretend Sophie Cunningham, a white woman, intentionally fouled Carrington, a black woman. The foul is deemed a flagrant 2 and she’s ejected from the game. From the locker room, Cunningham tweets “Black Power”. Would you view this as a dumb tweet or a racist tweet?
Battle89
- Cary-Grove, the better Trojan team
Oh @Mr. Tibbs look what you started 
I am torn between wanting to keep this site free of political discussion, but also finding the topic interesting. Especially that we have former NBA players proclaiming themselves women and declaring for the next WNBA draft, but it is the dirty foul and tweet causing the ruckus here.
Seems to strike a nerve with some here, and that is their prerogative. But I guess some here do care about it, to whatever degree (even as just an off-season discussion filler), and if folks don't see the inherent racism in 'white privilege' then I doubt I could convince them otherwise. It's in the name...
I am torn between wanting to keep this site free of political discussion, but also finding the topic interesting. Especially that we have former NBA players proclaiming themselves women and declaring for the next WNBA draft, but it is the dirty foul and tweet causing the ruckus here.
Seems to strike a nerve with some here, and that is their prerogative. But I guess some here do care about it, to whatever degree (even as just an off-season discussion filler), and if folks don't see the inherent racism in 'white privilege' then I doubt I could convince them otherwise. It's in the name...
Yeah, Carrington was stirring the pot. And yeah, Sophie's been stirring the pot. It's attracting a lot of weirdos who aren't there for basketball.
This issue shouldn't be a big deal. Carrington was rightfully ejected for her foul. She then said a dumb thing that shouldn't be cause for some nonsense like "this league’s credibility is seriously at risk." That's also stirring the pot.
Dumb tweet. Racism is usually a contextual thing, and Black Power is not an inherently racist term. Not sure what context would elevate that hypothetical to racist.
White privilege is, likewise, not an inherently racist term. It is a term that has its origins in academia to describe a real phenomenon. A concept to refer to the unconscious and subtle advantages white Americans have enjoyed.
I'm not saying white people (of which I am one) should be made to feel guilty for having advantages in society, but if you don't think they exist, you're delusional. Of course the idea raises complex feelings in people, and this has unfortunately been weaponized politically to the point where some people treat the mere word as a thought crime.
In fact, I don't know how Sophie Cunningham, very shrewdly and effectively monetizing the fact that she is an attractive white woman who has caught the attention of a certain segment of political discourse, is not a prime example of "white privilege." Would anyone care about an 8th year bench player in the WNBA if she were not white?
The whole Sophie Cunningham nonsense is just the latest example of the use of a certain segment of our country's populace of the "white woman who needs to be defended," against the out-group. This has been a justification for any manner of sins over the course of American history, including the lynching of Emmett Till. In this instance, it's been used to demonize the WNBA, a league that is approximately 2/3 black and approximately 1/3 gay. Pretty obvious what's going on here and it is to the detriment of all WNBA players, though Sophie has managed to find a way to make it to her personal financial gain. So good on her.
chiefini
- Rockford, Illinois
As a former Illini basketball player myself before Title IX who fought for Title IX, and as the mother of the three athletic daughters and grandmother of three athletic granddaughters, I find this whole situation to be absolutely abhorrent. The issue that’s a big deal is not that Carrington said a dumb thing. The issue that is causing “this league’s credibility is seriously at risk” is that it seems that star white players (Cunningham and Clark) are being targeted for increasingly dirty fouls by black players while these targeted players’ coaches are not supporting their own star players. Referees have most often been ignoring these “hard” fouls. This time it actually got called. It seems to me that a racial component does exit, that maybe there’s some jealousy over star players’ popularity involved, and that these white players are eventually going to get injured so badly that they’ll no longer be able to play. Furthermore, some of the owners, coaches, and players are promoting that the league advocate for males in the form of transgendered women being allowed to compete against women. It’s the WNBA, a league women like me fought for to be separate from the male NBA to give equal opportunity to and for women. The extra piece of males in women’s lockerrooms makes it even more despicable. I fear for my granddaughters’ futures. I am thrilled that two actual male former NBA players are going to fight for and challenge the league into supporting real women, (gay or not).
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lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
In other words, “here’s why the player who committed the violent foul and then immediately tweeted out a post with racial undertones is actually the victim”.
I would suggest you actually watch the games.
First of all, Cunningham is not a star. She's a solid role player off the bench, sure, but she's not a star. The only reason she's popular is because weirdos latch onto her as some "victim." She's not a victim.
Second, yeah, Clark's been hard fouled a fair few times. It wouldn't even be wrong to say it's happened to her more than others. But it does also happen to others, if you actually care to look. And some of the hard fouls against Clark have been from white players, so the narrative breaks down even more. There are so many people trying to capitalize on Clark's popularity, and unfortunately, most of them are just trying to stoke flames. So many clickbait headlines and video titles. It's all nonsense.
And finally, I don't think you need to fear for your granddaughters' futures. Research indicates that trans women who take gender-affirming hormone therapy approach the levels of cisgendered women within a couple years. As technology advances, that gap will shrink and take less time to reach.
Does that mean there won't be bad actors out there trying to take advantage of a leak in the process? No, there will always be bad actors. The goal should be to punish them, not everyone else acting in good faith. Furthermore, don't listen to people trying to fearmonger. There's a lot of that going around, and all it's doing is stoking the flames.
Not at all what I said, and the sad thing is I think you actually know that's not what I said.
There is no victim here. A foul was committed and a penalty for that foul was assessed. The player who committed the foul was frustrated and tweeted out a dumb tweet. A lot of people who have nothing to do with any of those events got offended and those are the people playing the victim card here.
KBLEE
- Montgomery, IL
The bigger issue is that she gets officiated differently than any other player in the league.
Yeah, refs are bad. Common problem in all sports. Clark's tech was rescinded very quickly after the game because it was obviously not tech worthy. Clark might have it the worst, but this is a league-wide problem.
But this is also part of what I was talking about with people trying to capitalize on Clark's fame. There are so many people out there microanalyzing every foul, call, or non-call against Clark. So while she might have the worst whistle in the league, these weirdos magnify it to such a degree that it looks a lot worse than it actually is. They flood social media with stuff like this, and it's so easy to be sucked in.
C'mon, dude. You're better than this. This is PleaseMakeABowlGame levels of reading comprehension. Nothing in juiceman's comment suggests Carrington is a victim here.
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
Fair. He simply excused Carrington's racially motivated tweet because it was true after all.
Then compared the people who are upset with the foul and racial remarks to lynching.
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And here we have it, the thing where you strip my post of every bit of detail, nuance, and context, and incorrectly paraphrase it to make it appear absurd.
Why don't you actually engage with my post and the points I'm actually making instead of arguing with a caricature?
Or better yet, tell us plainly, what is the WNBA's problem as you see it? Don't be coy.
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
1. That type of foul is uncalled for.
2. Carrington's tweet afterwards was racist.
3. The WNBA should put a stop to both: that type of foul and that type of tweet.
Are any of these opinions controversial?
And just so we're clear, the only reason we're arguing about this is because Mr. Tibbs made the unsubstantiated claim that the league was blaming Sophie.
This is the kind of nonsense that's the root of many problems with the WNBA: People who don't care about the actual game being played stirring up trouble for no reason. Just so we're on the same page here.
On a more positive note, the games are actually pretty fun to watch. Lots of good players and lots of cool storylines. Really enjoyed how the Fever nearly made the finals last year despite so many players with season-ending injuries. The Valkyries immediately being pretty good as an expansion team is also a lot of fun.
This is the kind of nonsense that's the root of many problems with the WNBA: People who don't care about the actual game being played stirring up trouble for no reason. Just so we're on the same page here.
On a more positive note, the games are actually pretty fun to watch. Lots of good players and lots of cool storylines. Really enjoyed how the Fever nearly made the finals last year despite so many players with season-ending injuries. The Valkyries immediately being pretty good as an expansion team is also a lot of fun.