Running 2026 WNBA Thread

[MarkWatney]

I'd be rather doubtful that Jemele Hill can speak authoritatively for any significant percentage of WNBA players.

 

[sgreenwell]

A'ja Wilson, hell of a player.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

A'ja Wilson, hell of a player.

She is. And that was a hell of a finish just now.

 

[Alma]

I'd be rather doubtful that Jemele Hill can speak authoritatively for any significant percentage of WNBA players.

Hill seems like a nice, kind person. Sincerely. She's engaged in the discourse as an advocate. She's not fascinated with the tension at hand, the way a more sophisticated sports thinker would be, because she wants the WNBA to be forever ascendant. A real commentator could live either result because she or he are more interested in the dynamics at play. That person also knows these last three years have been a pain point.

The reality (IMO) is that Caitlin Clark's on-court persona is legitimately annoying - was in college, is now - and that many other WNBA players are legitimately jealous were initially ****ty toward her.

Would they be less so if Clark had the personality of Paige Bueckers? Yes.

I'm sure, if the league really thought about it, somebody'd take Bueckers into a time machine and teach her to shoot logo 3s when she was 10 so that she, and not Clark, were the face of the WNBA's much-needed strategic revolution. But Bueckers was raised to play in the Geno/Dawn/Kim/Muffet/Tara-driven era of college WBB and the WNBA. That league has shown it has a ceiling.

A Clark-forward league has a higher ceiling. Her style is the right style for the league to go in, but it means the league calling more fouls (which, in Clark's case, that's happening) and getting rid of rampant physicality.

And she does bring a whole new group of fans - some of whom are right-leaning, or even hard right. The WNBA, being an entertainment product, is open for consumption. The decades-long conservative habit of hard avoiding left-coded culture (the WNBA certainly applies!) is over. Now, right-leaning folks want to transform culture.

Clark is indeed in the middle of that.

And it's fascinating.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

Lots of Bird-Magic-era parallels going on in WBB right now, never mind that there were numerous other stars besides those two in the sport. Kareem, Dr. J, the Iceman, etc. that the WNBA had and has already.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

Lots of Bird-Magic-era parallels going on in WBB right now, never mind that there were numerous other stars besides those two in the sport. Kareem, Dr. J, the Iceman, etc. that the WNBA had and has already.

And worth noting: if someone were to make a case that the WNBA has its Bird and Magic, it’s Paige Bueckers and Olivia Miles. But they don’t have the State Farm ads.

 

[Della9250]

 

[DanOregon]

I find the Sophie Cunningham stuff fascinating. Yes, another Outkick-fueled controversy for sure. But also interesting because there is a bit of 'tension' in the LGBT world itself about where the Trans community fits in, which is mirrored in the WNBA. Obviously the league is LGBT-friendly, but there are people within the community that feel orientation and gender shouldn't be conflated. That while same-sex orientation are widely accepted by society, trans isn't - whether they want to play on sports teams or not. And by including the "T" - it may "help" the Ts, LGBs feel it undermines their own overall acceptance.
Can you be accepting of trans, but not think they should play on sports teams other than their birth gender, or is it all or nothing?
Do I think people are transitioning to steal a college scholarship or gain another advantage? No way. Do I think leagues should be able to establish rules to ensure fair competition? Yes. I feel the same way about eligibility rules for Little League, the NCAA etc.
Do I think there are entities using this for their own particular political gain? Absolutely yes given the handful of actual trans athletes competing in minor sports.

 

[BTExpress]

The Sophie stuff is so predictable. What's odd is seeing someone consistently being called "brave" for voicing an opinion 75-80% of people agree with.

And despite its "wokeness," I doubt WNBA players would be happy about a dominant trans player entering the league.

Fair or not, Fever well on its way to becoming team MAGA. League has to have some mixed feelings about that (boffo ratings but a polarizing team with many of its fans adoring two players while holding the rest of the league in utter contempt).

 

[DanielSimpsonDay]

having reached the apex of my passion for and expertise about women's swimming i have become heavily invested in women's basketball which i feel had long been underappreciated and i think it's because transition defense was never really emphasized until now