NBA
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Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever, right, drives to the basket versus Sydney Taylor of the Chicago Sky on Aug. 23. Michael Reaves/Getty Images
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Michael Reaves/Getty Images
The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) is having a landmark year. Viewership and presence are up, group appraisals are skyrocketing and the league simply signed a huge$ 3.1 billion media rights offer
Reporter Sabreena Merchant, who covers the WNBA for The Athletic, states in numerous methods the league remains in a much better location than ever: “There’s so much talent. The quality of play in the league is better than it ever has been. The playoff field is really exciting and it’s kind of open. So no one really knows who’s gonna win the title in 2026.”
Merchant likewise acknowledges that the league has actually ended up being involved in debate and culture wars. According to Media Matters, considering that June 25, Fox News has actually committed a minimum of 206 sections to the WNBA, mostly focused on stiring stress connected to race and trans professional athletes.
“Everything in the WNBA seems to take on a political lens far beyond what is actually happening on the court,” Merchant states. “And I think it’s because people see an opportunity to use the league as a political prop.”
The management of the Chicago Sky has actually divulged that it is getting aid from nationwide security professionals in an effort to safeguard its gamers off the court. League commissioner Cathy Engelbert just recently revealed her strategies to step down at the end of the calendar year.
“There is just a lack of control of the narrative of the WNBA, and I don’t think the commissioner is entirely to blame,” Merchant states. She includes, “I think they want a commissioner who is better able to control the story around the WNBA and prevent it from being a political prop in all of these culture wars.”
Interview highlights
On why physicality in the WNBA has actually ended up being a talking point
I believe part of it is an aspect of misogyny. There’s a section of the population that believes that it’s safeguarding ladies by avoiding them from remaining in any areas where they might be, I do not understand, like battered a bit, like on a basketball court. There’s a great deal of individuals who do not believe that ladies ought to be taking part in physical labor, which sports quite are. Which is the undercurrent to me of any objections towards physicality in females’s pro-athletics due to the fact that a great deal of individuals do not think females must be playing expert sports as is.
On claims that Indiana Fever gamer Caitlin Clarkwho is white, gets unique treatment from the league and from the NBA
Caitlin is sort of the golden goose that was available in 2024 and developed this space rocket of appeal that the league has actually experienced since. When we speak about viewership records, those tend to include video games that consist of the Indiana Fever. Her WNBA draft was the most seen. When she took part in the All-Star video game, that was the one that triggered record participation. Sort of an understanding that this is where our bread is buttered, let’s make certain to look after this, which’s something that [NBA Commissioner] Adam Silver has at least openly explained that he is stressed over the treatment that Caitlin Clark gets– that’s not a belief that Cathy Engelbert has actually openly revealed, however based upon the method gamers’ relationships are with the commissioner, there appears to be a belief that particular gamers have much better access to things than others.
On the understanding that Black gamers on opposing groups disproportionately protect Clark
There is an understanding that I see online and get in my e-mail inbox from fans that Clark is safeguarded more securely by Black gamers due to the fact that they feel bitter the attention that she manages WNBA online marketers and all of the fandom that she has actually generated. … The information does not recommend that at all. Caitlin Clark draws more fouls than any other guard in the league. And yes, she has more use. She has the ball in her hands more frequently. She is still getting to the line and drawing fouls at a greater rate than other gamers at her position. To recommend that she is getting played more physically, possibly that’s the case. She’s likewise getting the fouls since of that and making the complimentary tosses as an outcome. …
The WNBA has actually traditionally been constructed on the back of Black females. The majority of the fantastic gamers in the league have actually been Black females and the fandom has actually been a safe area for marginalized neighborhoods like Black females, like LGBTQ females. And things began to alter when Caitlin Clark entered into the league and generated a brand-new fandom that didn’t have those identities. She is a directly, white lady from middle America. And it’s not as if the WNBA hasn’t had white super stars before. … But Caitlin still is sort of distinct in the grand plan of the WNBA due to the fact that she has a fandom that didn’t relate with her since of those marginalized identities. … The bulk of gamers in the WNBA are Black, so she is going to be protected by a great deal of Black gamers.
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Demonstrators object outside the United Center in Chicago prior to the video game in between the Chicago Sky and the Indiana Fever on Aug. 8, 2026. Michael Reaves/Getty Images North America
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Michael Reaves/Getty Images North America
On Sophie Cunningham’s declaration on trans females in WNBA
In July of this year, ESPN launched a profile of Sophie Cunninghama professional athlete on the Indiana Fever, who has actually generated income from being Caitlin Clark’s colleague much better than anyone else. … She has actually made the most of every chance to increase her appeal by being on the Indiana Fever. … In this profile that was discussed her, she has a line in the middle of it where she states that she does not think that trans ladies belong in ladies sports. And she was inquired about that after the profile came out and doubled down on her declaration stating that she wishes to safeguard girls in sports.
In doing so, Sophie ended up being the very first active expert females’s professional athlete to reveal these beliefs about limiting transgender ladies from females’s sports. And a great deal of individuals acquired her as this avatar of this specific perspective of keeping females’s sports specifically for cisgender females. … As of now, the WNBA does not have actually a revealed policy about transgender professional athletes in their league. In the CBA [collective bargaining agreement]it states that you need to be a lady to play in the WNBA, however it does not go on to specify what a lady is.
The WNBA has never ever had a transgender gamer in its history. They’ve had a number of non-binary gamers, both of whom were appointed woman at birth. There have actually never ever been any eligibility issues about transgender ladies wishing to go into the league. The NCAA does not even presently enable transgender professional athletes to play, so it’s difficult to see where the pipeline would originate from. It’s a concern it’s actually never ever needed to challenge. It’s a theoretical problem at this point, one that the WNBA is not presently provided with.
On issues about the quality of the officiating in the WNBA
It is widely acknowledged by white gamers, Black gamers, directly gamers, gay gamers alike that WNBA officiating is not as excellent as the quality of play in the league. They do not have full-time authorities. The training procedure is such that the excellent ones from the G League wind up going to the NBA, and the less great ones wind up go to the WNBA. For a very long time, it was even composed that when authorities went from the WNBA to the NBA, they were being promoted. They are not even getting the finest quality authorities in this league. A great deal of them need to referee college basketball also throughout their offseason. They’re sort of selecting up 2 various sports at the exact same time, since college guidelines are a little bit various than the WNBA guidelines.
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A’ja Wilson and Jackie Young of the Las Vegas Aces use t-shirts stating “Pay us what you owe us” prior to the 2025 WNBA All-Star Game in Indianapolis, Indiana. Steph Chambers/Getty Images
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<p>Steph Chambers/Getty Images
On WNBA gamers supplementing their wages overseas
Prior to the cumulative bargaining contract that was set up throughout the 2026 offseason, the typical income for a WNBA gamer was a little over$100,000 … which demanded a great deal of gamers to play overseas throughout their WNBA offseasons. … And that implies that gamers are completing year-round, not providing a great deal of time to rest, recuperate their bodies, deal with their video games even, or hang around with their households and enjoyed ones throughout their break from their WNBA season.
For most of the WNBA’s history, gamers made more cash on their abroad agreements, whether that was playing in Russia or Turkey or France or Italy or Australia, compared to their WNBA agreements. I imply, it got so ludicrous at points that a gamer like Diana Taurasi, after winning a WNBA title in 2014, goes to play in Russia throughout that offseason and after that her group states, we’re going to pay you a million dollars not to use the WNBA this year, so you can rest and be all set for our next season. Therefore she remains rather of safeguarding her title and makes 10 times as much cash as she would for not playing as she would by playing.
The brand-new cumulative bargaining contract has actually produced a typical wage of about $600,000 now for WNBA gamers. … And there is a revenue-sharing part in the CBA such that as the WNBAs earnings increases, whether that’s more media cash, more ticket cash, any sort of income that the league generates, that would produce a matching modification in the WNBA incomes.
Monique Nazareth and Susan Nyakundi produced and modified this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adjusted it for the web.
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