Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu rip WNBA for not condemning racism sooner

The WNBA is having a moment.

Unfortunately, it was so busy enjoying that moment it failed many of its players. 

WNBA players have increasingly been targeted by racist bile, online hate and even death threats, much of the discourse reportedly coming from Indiana fans who support Caitlin Clark.

At the Fever’s season-ending press conference Friday, the league’s Rookie of the Year came out and condemned the online trolls’ behavior. 

“It’s definitely upsetting. Nobody in our league should be facing any sort of racism — hurtful, disrespectful, hateful comments and threats,” said Clark. “Those aren’t fans, those are trolls, and it’s a real disservice to the people in our league, the organization, the WNBA.” 

Clark’s popularity — and her rivalry with fellow rookie Angel Reese — has been a boon for the WNBA.

And the league has had a historic season with record-breaking TV numbers in the playoffs.

Unfortunately, that may have led to its inadvertently turning a blind eye to some ugly behavior. 

When asked about the increasingly racist rhetoric earlier this month, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert replied the Clark-Reese rivalry was “a little of that Bird-Magic moment,” adding “the one thing I know about sports, you need rivalry. That’s what makes people watch.” 

The problem is too many stopped watching and started crossing lines, including sending online hate messages, death threats, etc. Sun players Alyssa Thomas and DiJonai Carrington pulled the curtain back on the abuse — the latter posted an email on her Instagram that included racist slurs and the threat of sexual assault. 

The WNBA finally followed with a belated statement.

Liberty stars Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu condemned the behavior, but also asked what took the league so long to acknowledge it. 

“It’s a tough situation, what I’ve seen about DiJonai getting a lot of s–t. I feel for her because she’s going out and she’s competing every single night,” said Stewart. “When it gets to the point of hate and death threats, then yeah, there’s security that can look into that. … There’s not a space for that in this sport and really in any sport because at some point we’re talking about people’s lives here. … So Cathy, the league, the PA, all the players, need to make sure we send the message that it’s unacceptable, and we don’t want that type of fan in our league.” 

Ionescu, who has steadfastly avoided topics like this, agreed. 

“The league should’ve taken a stance a long time ago when this happened and not waited for it to get this deep and this far on what’s tolerated and what’s not in our league as a fan,” said Ionescu. “And obviously what’s been going around, racist remarks, things that have been happening, there should be a zero tolerance policy and it shouldn’t take for us to get into the playoffs on this platform to speak on it. 

“That should’ve been something that was addressed from the beginning by the commissioner, and done so every time that happened. So hopefully the right steps are going to be taken moving forward, because as the league grows we want our fanbase to grow as well in a safe space and have players feel like they can come to work not worried about what’s happening on the Internet. … It needs to be nipped in the bud and not tolerated. There needs to be an end to any type of racism.”