haterade: men can ruin anything
on the WNBA's all-male practice squads
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Housekeeping
I was interviewed by for her newsletter and I was so tickled about it. Kira’s newsletter is one of my favorites, and you can read my interview with her here.
The OOYL Bracket Pool for the Women’s March Madness tournament starts tomorrow. There’s a really dope prize package for the winner and we’ll be doing some live watch parties on Zoom. To find out more and register to join us, you can go here.
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On April 9th, I’ll be doing an event at a new local book cafe in my neighborhood, JustBook-ish.
men can ruin anything
One of the most annoying things about the WNBA becoming more popular is that people (read: men) who know nothing about the league now feel like they have an authority to comment on things. It’s truly wild how quickly ignorant men can ruin pretty much anything.
In related news, the Los Angeles Sparks announced that they were recruiting new players for their all-male practice squad. The response from men has been so intense and so creepy that Sparks player Cameron Brink says she’s completely “icked out” by the idea of these new practice squad players and the Sparks had to issue a statement promising they’ll do background checks on the men. The post advertising the tryouts has also been removed from the team’s Instagram account, though it remains up on X.
On her “Straight to Cam” podcast this week, Brink said, “Lynne [Roberts], our new coach, is going to be screaming at me for not rebounding, but I'm not boxing out anyone,” referring to any of the potential new male practice squad players.
Female athletes truly can’t win—if they’re masculine-of-center they’re put down and dismissed, with men lamenting that they don’t want to watch a bunch of women who look like dudes. But if they’re conventionally feminine, they get sexualized to an extreme degree while they’re just trying to do their jobs.
The worst part about this is that WNBA teams and D1 college WBB teams have been using male practice squads for years. It’s a well-established practice, usually pulling from pools of collegiate (or former collegiate) men’s players (in 2007, the NCAA unsuccessfully tried to ban women’s teams from having male practice squads on the grounds that it took away opportunities from women athletes).
Often these squads are unpaid. In 2019, for example,
wrote for SB Nation that men trying out for the Connecticut Sun practice squad were “competing for the opportunity to be beaten by WNBA players, for free… If they make the squad, they get a pair of shoes.” Registration for the tryout cost $20, and came with lunch and a ticket voucher.
These men have the utmost respect for the athletes they’re helping to train, and women’s teams utilize men because of the way their strength and speed helps the women level up their game. “We need their athleticism and size so they can really battle with our women,” Brandi Poole, the Sun’s assistant coach at the time, told SB Nation. “Guys can do some things athletically that most women can’t do — like, if a point guard is skying in for a rebound, there’s not many women that can do that,” Shekinna Stricklen, then a member of the Sun, added. “It makes you have to be better in that way.”
Different players have taken different approaches in their responses to the disgusting comments directed their way. Brink chose to call a spade a spade, rightfully naming the comments as creepy and saying they impact her ability to feel safe at work. Dearica Hamby, on the other hand, chose the “they go low, we go lower,” route, which I also deeply respect.
Extras
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