commentary + critique

from tamryn spruill

Connecticut Sun star Alyssa Thomas deserves a damn chair

Connecticut Sun star Alyssa Thomas deserves a damn chair

By Tamryn Spruill Against the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday, the Boston Celtics unraveled before a booing hometown crowd. While analysts, pundits, and brokenhearted (infuriated?) fans debate the particulars of the C’s 115–103 collapse — from Jayson Tatum’s shooting and Joe Mazzulla’s coaching to the silliness of James Harden’s flop-centric play — it was worth remembering that the last time the Celtics won inside TD Garden, Alyssa Thomas was in the building. Yes, that Alyssa Thomas: the Connecticut Sun forward who has competed for years at an All-Star level despite torn labrum in each shoulder, missed the 2021 WNBA season following an Achilles injury, and returned the next year to power the Sun to the 2022 finals, where she became the first player in WNBA history to record a triple-double in the finals. https://twitter.com/NBCSCeltics/status/1653909064634757120?s=20 It was Wednesday, May 3, and Thomas joined Brian Scalabrine and Tom Giles on the set of NBC Sports Boston’s Celtics Pregame Live ahead of tipoff to Game 2. Dressed in black jeans, white t-shirt, and army-green jacket, Thomas stood as one of the crowd behind the seated Scalabrine and Giles. At 6’2”, she also towered over the majority of the cheering Celtics fans gathered around her. Thomas appeared for less than two minutes, during which Scalabrine hit all the requisites: Thomas’s history-making WNBA Finals, the start of the 2023 season on May 19, and that fans can watch Sun games on NBC Sports Boston. Sure, the three-time WNBA All-Star had to share airtime with the felt-capped season ticket holder who goes by the name “Black Leprechaun,” but her appearance was a win for women’s sports (and an apparent lucky charm for the C’s, who snagged a series-tying 121–87 win in Game 2) — at least on its face. Women’s sports still receive just 4% of all sports media coverage in the U.S. Thus, it was a boon to see Thomas there at all. But the quality of the niggardly 4% of coverage that producers, editors,...

Ali Wong, ‘Beef’: A Stark Reminder of the Violence of Silence

Ali Wong, ‘Beef’: A Stark Reminder of the Violence of Silence

By Tamryn Spruill TRIGGER WARNING: This article discusses rape, sexual assault, complicity, silence, and other forms of violence in frank and unflinching terms. In the hit Netflix series Beef, Amy Lau (Ali Wong) and Danny Cho (Steven Yeun) are fed up with their respective personal and professional frustrations, which teeter into violence during a road-rage incident between them. Refreshing for its centering of the Korean-American community of Los Angeles, and debuting just months after Asian actors and filmmakers had a historic run at the 2023 Oscars, Beef was on track for unparalleled success — but not just on the strength of its diversity both in front of and behind the camera. Beef stood on the merits of its masterful, artful storytelling. But after four episodes, I’m out — resigned to never witness the evolution of Amy’s and Danny’s respective and shared crises — because the violence of Beef leaped from my television screen, penetrated my psyche, and infused it with swirling feelings of violation, horror, and anger. Violation Beef forced art-loving viewers to engage with works potentially unfamiliar to them, and it nudged the uninitiated into taking notice. Show creator Lee Sung Jin accomplished this by slamming an art piece into the viewer’s face at the start of each episode and using it as the title card background. As a lover of art, who also has a side hustle as a painter and collagist, the images piqued my interest and I vowed to look up the artist after the show. Like others, I Googled the words Beef and “art,” and was delivered to a rash of articles about the “rapey” behavior of costar David Choe, who inhabits the role of Isaac Cho, the criminal-minded cousin of Danny. Article after article detailed the 2014 podcast episode in which Choe admitted to, and bragged about, forcing a young masseuse to have sex with him, despite her repeated objections. Asa Akira, an adult film actress and cohost of the podcast, confronted Choe, albeit jokingly, about raping...

NCAA Uses Racially-Biased Image of Aliyah Boston in Naismith POY Voting Graphic

NCAA Uses Racially-Biased Image of Aliyah Boston in Naismith POY Voting Graphic

By Tamryn Spruill When NCAA Women's Basketball announced on Tuesday that fan voting had opened for the Naismith Player of the Year Award, one image of the four finalists did not look like the others. At the top left of the graphic, Elizabeth Kitley of Virginia Tech is featured in the act of shooting and Caitlin Clark of Iowa (top right) is depicted raising a celebratory arm. But the bottom half of the graphic goes disturbingly awry in its presentation of the remaining two finalists, with one of those images sparking accusations of racial bias. The Naismith trophy rewards game-time achievements, but the NCAA saw fit to showcase Maddy Siegrist of Villanova (bottom left) in an ambiguous state: wearing what appears to be a long-sleeved t-shirt and performing a warmup drill. If this not an image from warmups, then the onus was on the NCAA's media team to find one more befitting of Siegrist's basketball acumen, which led to her candidacy for this award in the first place. By portraying Siegrist in this manner, though, the NCAA is shouting to viewers that she should not be considered a favorite to win the trophy.   Benching Aliyah Boston? Aliyah Boston of South Carolina, the reigning Naismith Player of the Year, is shown riding the bench. The disparity between the image of Boston, who is Black, sitting on the bench among the three other Naismith finalists, who are white, is striking in its blatant racist overtones. Fans took notice (mostly Black women) and expressed their discontent, with user $tonefaced $werve writing: "Imm let y'all close out this year but let's talk about how racist this entire POY convo has been at a later date." Kristin M. Claiborne, meanwhile, questioned the intent behind showing Boston sitting and the other players competing or otherwise standing. "[I]t must be because she's on the best, solely undefeated team in the country & can rest during games & still win," Claiborne wrote. "[T]hat or implicit bias." It would be for the latter...

Home-Court Advantage? WNBA Teams Still Booted from Arenas During Playoffs

Home-Court Advantage? WNBA Teams Still Booted from Arenas During Playoffs

By Tamryn Spruill Every year, a WNBA team or two loses its home arena during the playoffs: the time of year a team needs familiarity and consistency most. This season, the No. 5 Phoenix Mercury will play their first-round single-elimination game against the No. 8 New York Liberty at Grand Canyon University (GCU) Arena because of what the team is calling a "scheduling conflict" at the team's home arena. But WNBA teams getting booted from their home courts is nothing new. A university arena is not the same as a professional one, especially for the Mercury, who pride themselves on the facilities they’ve installed for the team’s myriad working mothers. GCU is only a 20-minute drive from the Mercury’s usual home court, at the Footprint Center, so their X-Factor fan base is likely to turn out in droves. But close proximity to a substitute arena isn’t always the case. In 2018, the Washington Mystics were booted from Capital One Arena and forced to play three playoff games at Charles E. Smith Center at George Washington University, a roughly 20-minute haul from the Mystics’ usual home floor. Just days after their last playoff game, the arena’s jumbotron collapsed onto the floor. Only maintenance workers were in the building at the time and, thankfully, nobody was hurt. But the accident would have been catastrophic had it occurred during a game. And it woke the WNBA-loving world to some of the inappropriate, unsafe conditions in which their favorite basketball players are forced to compete. But it got worse for the Mystics that year.   They had to travel even farther during their Finals series with the Seattle Storm -- some 40-60 minutes westward (depending on traffic) to George Mason University’s EagleBank Arena in Fairfax, Va., to play their critical win-or-go-home Game 3. They were swept in the Finals, in Monique Currie’s last WNBA season, and she did not appreciate the disadvantage the arena move created. “I think it’s ridiculous that teams have to move arenas at...

Announcing ‘The W25’ and Determining the WNBA’s All-time GOAT

Announcing ‘The W25’ and Determining the WNBA’s All-time GOAT

By Tamryn Spruill In celebrating the WNBA's 25th season, the league on Sunday (Sept. 5) revealed during halftime of the hotly-awaited matchup between the Las Vegas Aces and the Chicago Sky (ABC) "The W25" -- or the 25 best players in the league's storied history. The depths of talent across the league's quarter-century history made choosing the top 25 players a difficult task. To make it easier, the league compiled a list of athletes who played at least two seasons in the WNBA and met at least four of seven criteria. From that list of 72 candidates, the WNBA employed the help of voters from the world of women's hoops, including players and media members, who were instructed to shave the list to 25. The league tallied the numbers on the Official "W25" Ballot to reveal the top 25 players in league history. Tamika Catchings, the WNBA's all-time leader in steals (with no former or current player in the stratosphere of her 1,074 steals) and vice president/general manager of the Indiana Fever, made the coveted list. "I'm extremely honored to be included in such an amazing group of 25 trailblazers,” Catchings said, of the recognition. “And I’m thankful to have had an opportunity to be a part of the growth and strength of our league from both sides – as a player and as an executive. The momentum continues to grow because of those players who came before us and the players of today who continue to push this league to greater heights, paving the road for future generations." Among the current players to be named among "The W25" is Nneka Ogwumike, whose greatness has long been overlooked. "I am so grateful to have my name listed amongst past and present legends who’ve pioneered the W over these amazing 25 years," Ogwumike said. "As an athlete on the court, I'm proud of my career and hope to continue to leave a legacy of greatness. What I've been able to contribute to the game along with the phenomenal women of this league through generations is one of my greatest...

More Trash Graphics in a WNBA Broadcast

More Trash Graphics in a WNBA Broadcast

By Tamryn Spruill Accurately naming the two teams playing against each other is as basic as it gets in terms of duties related to televising a basketball game. When it comes to coverage of the WNBA, however, the task apparently isn't so simple. On Sunday, a screen-sized graphic advertised a nonexistent contest between the Las Vegas Aces and the Indiana Fever. The Aces were hosting the Washington Mystics, not the Fever. Olympic gold medalists A'ja Wilson and Chelsea Gray (of the USA Basketball 5x5 team) and Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young (of the USA Basketball 3x3 team) reunited with Liz Cambage, Riquna Williams and the Aces' other difference-makers to force an 84-83 come-from-behind win. But, sadly, no matter what great things happen on the court, pedestrian mistakes such as listing the incorrect team on a graphic, mispronouncing players' names or bungling graphics featuring starting lineups are gallingly common in coverage of the WNBA. Multiple times during the 2021 season, starting lineups have been presented with neither rhyme nor reason for the player pairings. In a contest between the Sparks and Phoenix Mercury earlier this season, center Amanda Zahui B was listed next to Kia Nurse, a guard, and Karlie Samuelson, a forward, was listed next to Brittney Griner, a center. Other broadcasts have done an even worse job and listed players in ways only the creator of the graphic could discern: not by position, not in alphabetical order and not by jersey number. We NEVER see these mistakes in broadcasts of NBA, NFL or MLB games. And we should not be seeing them in coverage of the WNBA, a major professional sports league with big-dollar sponsors, high-profile players and an engaged fan base that is increasing in size. That we see them repeatedly suggests that the people hired to make these graphics either don't know which positions the players play or don't care, and neither scenario is acceptable. In the case of the Fever logo being mistaken for the Mystics', it comes...

Caitlin Clark Is the Rightful Winner of the 2021 ESPY Award for Best College Female Athlete

Caitlin Clark Is the Rightful Winner of the 2021 ESPY Award for Best College Female Athlete

By Tamryn Spruill When Paige Bueckers accepted her 2021 ESPY Award for Best College Female Athlete, she notably dedicated the honor to Black women in sports and beyond who systematically and routinely face unprecedented levels of discrimination and erasure.  But it was Bueckers, not another female athlete, who brought the award home that night.  Even before the 2020-21 NCAA season, Bueckers had been pegged as the next big phenom to play for the storied UConn Huskies. The No. 1 overall recruit out of Hopkins, Minn., Bueckers was expected to be Breanna Stewart incarnate, only in guard form. So, with the storyline decided, ESPN as the primary leader of sports conversations, focused on Bueckers to the exclusion of all others, just as they did with Sabrina Ionescu in 2019-20.  Bueckers is an immensely talented basketball player, but she is young, unseasoned and not WNBA-ready despite last season’s chatter indicating otherwise. Beyond that, she did not dominate for the Huskies or outperform the rest of Division I women’s basketball,  but she received all of the attention bestowed on the anointed anyway.  A look at a few key statistical categories shows where Bueckers stood in 2020-21 in relation to her Division I counterparts.  It also underscores why, if ESPN was keen to honor a white freshman at the ESPYs, that player should have been Midwest rival Caitlin Clark (Iowa), not Bueckers. Points Per Game 1 Caitlin Clark (Iowa), 26.6  5 Ashley Joens (Iowa St.), 24.2  7 Naz Hillmon (Michigan), 23.9  13 Chelsea Dungee (Arkansas), 22.3  29 Paige Bueckers (UConn), 20.0  Assists Per Game 1 Tiana Mangakahia (Syracuse), 7.2  2 Caitlin Clark (Iowa), 7.1  8 DiDi Richards (Baylor), 6.3  10 Ashley Owusu (Maryland), 5.9  14 Paige Bueckers (UConn), 5.8  Rebounds Per Game 1 Natalie Kucowkski (Lafayette), 13.3  2 Unique Thompson (Auburn), 12.8  8 Natasha Mack (Oklahoma St.), 12.4  13 Aliyah Boston (S. Carolina), 11.5  * Paige Bueckers (UConn), 4.9  Steals Per Game 1 Veronica Burton...

Simone Biles Models Team Spirit That USA Basketball Needs to Embrace

Simone Biles Models Team Spirit That USA Basketball Needs to Embrace

By Tamryn Spruill By now, gymnast Simone Biles has received enough praise and condemnation over her withdrawal from USA Olympic Team events in Tokyo to last a lifetime. In human history, there is no stage for athletic competition greater than the Olympic Games, and Biles defied norms by bowing out, to protect her health and safety and to give her teammates a chance to win medals. Naysayers, however, call her a quitter, or say she cost other gymnasts a shot at their dreams (because gymnasts who did not qualify in the preliminary rounds are not permitted to fill in for someone who did). But in Biles’ line of work, in contrast to basketball, beach volleyball, ping pong and myriad other events, anything other than piercing focus and peak health can be a matter of life and death, or life and lifelong health challenges. Even bigger, Biles entered these Games as the lone active Olympic gymnast who survived Larry Nassar, the disgraced physician employed by USA Gymnastics who was sentenced to 125 years in prison for his serial abuse of young women. In Biles’ eyes, however, Nassar’s imprisonment does not abscond USA Gymnastics of its (potentially criminal) failings and full accountability has not been achieved. In spite of her own pain, Biles knew she had to be there to keep the storyline in the news and to renew the demand for a full accounting of who knew what, and when. “If there weren’t a remaining survivor in the sport, they would’ve just brushed it aside,” Biles said in an interview with NBC prior to the start of competition. So, in addition to meeting GOAT-level expectations on the floor, beam, vault and uneven bars, Biles was expected to do so while carrying the trauma of what Nassar did to her, the trauma of USA Basketball’s betrayal in not protecting her, the trauma of the reckless indifference shown to her and the other victims by all who looked the other way, and she was the was expected to execute this forbearance alone. In other words, she carried the weight...

Digging into USA Basketball’s and the WNBA’s Blind Loyalty to a Bird and a Bull

Digging into USA Basketball’s and the WNBA’s Blind Loyalty to a Bird and a Bull

By Tamryn Spruill USA Basketball’s announcement of the roster heading to the Tokyo Olympics next month set off a firestorm on social media and beyond about decisions many consider to be dripping in favoritism towards players who came out of the Geno Auriemma’s Connecticut program; Auriemma served as head coach of the USA Basketball women’s national team until 2018, when Dawn Staley took over. And now, with Sue Bird, 40, and Diana Taurasi, 39, chasing their fifth gold medals dating back to the 2000 Sydney Olympics, USA Basketball and the WNBA are eagerly pushing this narrative while choosing to gloss over the facts of: a) Bird’s and Taurasi’s beat-up, aging bodies and the liabilities they potentially pose for Team USA’s quest for a seventh consecutive gold medal and b) the players not named Bird and Taurasi who yet again have been edged out of an opportunity to represent the U.S. on the world stage. The complaints are not just about age. Sylvia Fowles, for example, is 35 and playing some of the best basketball of her career. While she physically is ready to compete for gold in Tokyo, she already has won three Olympic gold medals and her pursuit of a fourth denies another player the chance to pursue even one.  It will be the third Olympic Games for Tina Charles (32). Breanna Stewart (26) and Brittney Griner (30) are in pursuit of their second Olympic gold medals to match their two World Cup victories. It will be the first Olympic Games for Jewell Loyd (27) and A’ja Wilson (24), who both helped Team USA win the FIBA World Cup in 2018. Stepping into international competition for the first time are Ariel Atkins (24), Napheesa Collier (24), Skylar Diggins-Smith (30) and Chelsea Gray (28). But there is the equally-pertinent topic of injuries. Elena Delle Donne (31) helped the U.S. win gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics. But offseason back surgery has kept her sidelined thus far in the 2021 season and she was not chosen for the Olympic team. So, what about Nneka Ogwumike (31),...

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