the night WNBA fans broke my heart
when a women's basketball game feels like a Trump rally
Hi! There are considerably more of you here than there were when I sent my last newsletter out and I know that’s because of my viral tweet from the Connecticut Sun/Indiana Fever playoff game Wednesday night. Thanks for being here! Just a disclaimer that I don’t tolerate harassment or bigotry here and will tighten any commenting and reply settings I need to if that’s something that people decide to bring to this platform.
As promised, my dispatch from the game is below. I have an extended introduction for newsletter subscribers, with the full story available to read on Andscape. I am also working on some original reporting from the game that I hope will be ready to send out this weekend before the semi-final games begin, but that remains to be seen.
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I attended my first WNBA game in 2018.
I had never been to a women’s basketball game before but I had been growing discontented with Major League Baseball and the male athletes I’d been covering. I couldn’t shake the feeling that these men were people that I wouldn’t have liked in real life—or who wouldn’t have liked me or the things that I stood for. I’d watched as the WNBA became the first league to protest police violence against Black Americans in 2016 and had written in 2017 about how the players didn’t get the credit they deserved for their activism. I wanted to follow a league of players I felt like I could really root for.
I drove down by myself to the Mohegan Sun Arena from my home in Boston. It was a Wednesday morning, one of those “camp games” that new fans got so up in arms about this summer, and the stands were filled with kids in the upper bowl. In my section in the lower bowl, I squeezed in alongside a group of older lesbians who good naturedly heckled the refs. I’d never had more fun at a sporting event. I felt safe, like I’d found a version of home.
I pivoted my career immediately, profiling Williams ahead of her breakout 2019 season and covering the Sun’s appearance in the 2019 WNBA Finals for both Boston newspapers. In the years since, I have continued to write about the league nearly full-time as part of my beat, even receiving recognition for my work.
I say all of this to say—I am familiar with the WNBA. I have attended games as both a fan and as a media member for six seasons. I have been to multiple arenas, I have gone as a fan of the home team and other times as a fan of the away team. The Mohegan Sun Arena, where the Sun play, is the closest venue to my home and the one I have visited most frequently. I have never felt anything but safe, welcomed, and celebrated at a WNBA game—until Wednesday night.
The crowd that showed up in Connecticut for Game 2 of the first round matchup between the Connecticut Sun and the Indiana Fever felt different, and not in a good way.
Ugh. I’m so sorry you, Chanda and everyone experienced that. This is heartbreaking. I hope Clark speaks up and out more effectively and immediately. In Euro soccer, players walk off the pitch when fans are racist towards their teammates. That’s what the she and the Fever should do next time. Address their fans.
There is no excuse for Clark's relative quietness on the matter. She needs to make a clear and authoritative statement on all her social media accounts ASAP (and not via stories that disappear!). And that's just the bare minimum.