If the WNBA wants to grow its game, it needs its players to be likeable, not political. That means it should push Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese to be more like Magic Johnson and Larry Bird and less like Hillary Clinton and Gloria Steinem.
The league is riding a wave of interest and excitement around women’s basketball after Clark completed a historic college career at the University of Iowa. The all-time leading scorer in women’s college basketball was the top draft pick in the WNBA draft last week. One of Clark’s rivals, Angel Reese, was the seventh pick. The former LSU star known as “the Bayou Barbie” lived up to her nickname on the draft night red carpet.
The greatest challenge the league faces, and likely its primary obstacle to cultivating a new fan base, is its over-the-top political posturing.
This is a dream scenario for a league that has never turned a profit since it was started in 1996. But this dream will quickly turn into a nightmare if the WNBA takes its marching orders from the least likeable people in American culture.
Joe Biden, Jemele Hill, and Nikole-Hannah Jones were just a few of the public figures who took to social media after Caitlin Clark’s four-year, $338,000 rookie contract went viral. The consensus on the left is that WNBA players “deserve” their “fair share,” which is code for being paid like their male counterparts.
The NBA generates about $10 billion in revenue annually, while the WNBA generates roughly $200 million. It’s no surprise that the people who have been lying about a “gender pay gap” for years would think that the basic rules of economics are sexist.
There are two ways to handle calls for higher WNBA salaries and pay “equity” compared to the men. One is for journalists, activists, and celebrities to complain, whine, and guilt-trip the league to give the players more money. The other is for the league to hope Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese do for the women’s game what Magic and Bird did for the NBA in the 1980s. Those two college stars continued their rivalry in a league that desperately needed an image makeover at a time when drug use was high and attendance was low.
The NBA used Magic and Bird to rebrand and revive the sport. The WNBA needs to do the same.
Unfortunately, there are several things working against the league. One is that the nature of the game is very different from what the casual basketball fan is used to seeing in NBA highlights. The men’s game is largely played above the rim, while the women’s game is played below it. In 2017, the WNBA released a video with every dunk in the league’s history (20 years) to that point. It lasted a little over one minute.
Another is that many players have a more masculine appearance, and the league is fully invested in the Pride agenda. In fact, one former player, Candice Wiggins, claimed the league’s “lesbian culture” contributed to her being bullied during her career.
But the greatest challenge the league faces, and likely its primary obstacle to cultivating a new fan base, is its over-the-top political posturing.
In the last decade, WNBA players have both knelt and walked off the court in protest during the national anthem, worn T-shirts supporting Jacob Blake, and promoted Raphael Warnock’s Senate run. The players and league, like most celebrities, seem to think they have more influence than they actually do. The truth is that no one wants to be lectured by ill-informed athletes in a sport that barely anyone watches. Many sports fans would have a hard time giving up the NFL or NBA because of politics. The same can’t be said for the WNBA.
The league needs every fan it can get. People need to like the game if they’re going to attend games. And they’re not going to like the game if they hate the players. And hatred for the players is guaranteed if the feminists who suck the joy out of every other area of life turn their attention to women’s sports.
The league should want players to compete hard on the court while sporting million-dollar smiles off it. The last thing it needs is to be branded as a league full of — or supported by — anti-America, bra-burning, septum ring-wearing radical feminists. The WNBA should stay as far away as possible from the types of people who blame sexism and misogyny for everything women don’t like about the world.
Not only is it annoying, but it also makes honest self-reflection and personal accountability nearly impossible. What man is going to spend money to take his kids to a game if he believes the athletes — and their “allies” — see him as a toxic male perpetuating the patriarchy? The league needs more femininity, not feminism.
There is no guarantee that a complete rebrand will ever be as popular and generate as much revenue as the men’s game. But the people who claim to care about the sport should stop trying to kill the golden Caitlin and Angel goose before it lays its first egg.
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