As the WNBA faces manufactured controversies meant to cause political alarm, Stephen A. Smith is accusing it of running from its issues.<\/p>\n
The latest issue to receive national attention stems from a flagrant foul. DiJonai Carrington of the Chicago Sky committed a flagrant foul when she elbowed Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham in the face while attempting a chase-down block last weekend. The foul has been met with rampant overreaction from fans and media<\/a> who have attempted to turn Carrington\u2019s foul on Cunningham into part of a culture war. And those same people took significant issue with Fever head coach Stephanie White when she refused to view the foul as some sort of attack<\/a> on Cunningham. The response has led people to call for White to be fired, with even Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith joining in.<\/p>\n In the wake of a lieutenant governor calling for a WNBA head coach to be fired over her response to an attempted chase-down block, Smith believes it\u2019s too late for the league and its media to just get back to basketball. According to Smith, the WNBA needs to start addressing its critics, regardless of their motives<\/a>.<\/p>\n \ufeff<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s important that the WNBA wakes up and acknowledges something. There\u2019s a lot of people that don\u2019t like you,\u201d Smith ranted on his Wednesday afternoon SiriusXM Radio show. \u201cWe gotta stop playing games, and we gotta get down to the nitty-gritty of this all. I see my girl Chiney Ogwumike, who is a sensational basketball analyst, and yesterday, Andraya Carter, another basketball analyst. I think they\u2019re two of the best basketball analysts in America. They are doing everything they can, trying to get everybody and their mother, \u2018let\u2019s talk about basketball!<\/a>\u2019 Well, guess what? What she\u2019s not realizing is, people don\u2019t want to. It\u2019s not that they don\u2019t know any better. It\u2019s calculating. They don\u2019t want to! It\u2019s just that simple.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople do not like the WNBA. I\u2019ve got people walking up to me in the streets saying stuff like, \u2018It\u2019s a lesbian league.\u2019 I said, \u2018What the hell that got to do with anything?\u2019 Most people in America are supporters of the LGBTQ+ community,\u201d Smith claimed. \u201cAnd what do you got folks on the right doing? Yeah, I\u2019m calling them out. What do you got folks on the right doing? They\u2019re politicizing it<\/a>. What\u2019s the Lt. Gov of Indiana getting his ass involved in this incident for? He\u2019s trying to politicize it. Why? Because it\u2019s been politically expedient. Why? Because when you create that kind of divide in a binary political system, it forces one side against the other.\u201d<\/p>\n Which is exactly why the WNBA is trying to keep the focus on basketball. The WNBA shouldn\u2019t be forced to answer manufactured controversies that are fabricated for political gain. It\u2019s not Caitlin Clark\u2019s fault she\u2019s been dragged into a culture war and made into a political symbol. It\u2019s not the WNBA\u2019s fault that they\u2019re being disingenuously used in the discussion around transgender athletes. And it\u2019s not the WNBA\u2019s fault that the right is trying to make it seem like Enes Kanter or Royce White are making valid points on the conversation of transgender athletes by pretending to enter the 2027 WNBA Draft.<\/p>\n The WNBA and commissioner Cathy Engelbert have had enough of their own PR missteps, especially as they navigate the additional attention that came when Caitlin Clark entered the league. But outside attempts to push Enes Kanter into the draft or turn a flagrant foul into a criminal attack are not issues the WNBA should feel pressure to address.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the WNBA faces manufactured controversies meant to cause political alarm, Stephen A. 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