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.
Sport
ESPN brazenly favors University of Connecticut Huskies women's basketball players for its Best College Female Athlete ESPY. The blind devotion to UConn sent Caitlin Clark (University of Iowa) home without the award in 2021 even though she outperformed Paige Bueckers: the anointed Husky du jour who received it. UConn has dominated the category so egregiously in the 20-year history of the ESPYS that only two players from other other programs -- Candace Parker (University of Tennessee) and Brittney...
Watching Diana Taurasi engaged in war with her own body is as painful a sight to watch as the look of USA Basketball no longer dominating on the world stage, and putting its gold medal potential at risk because of loyalty to a few individuals over the good of the team. It is long past time for USA women's basketball to ensure that more players get the chance to realize their Olympic dreams.
USA Basketball and the WNBA have worked hard for years to ensure the individual legacies of Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi. Such unbridled devotion, however, has come at increasingly steeper costs in recent years -- putting at risk the success of the teams they play for and denying other players the opportunity to chase their dreams. Seimone Augustus held this awareness of other players in mind when considering retirement. By putting "we" over "me," she surrendered ego and greed, and humbly stepped ...
Emerging as a force to be reckoned with against gender identity discrimination, Layshia Clarendon, the WNBA’s first openly trans and non-binary player, has been nominated for the Muhammad Ali Sports Humanitarian Award. Yet, in the same breath that we celebrate the joy of gender euphoria for countless people challenging the gender binary, we must band together and fight the intentional harms caused to our transgender, non-binary and gender non-conforming siblings. In short, we are at a time wh...
And Candace Parker -- 2016 WNBA champion, Finals MVP, two-time league MVP (2008, 2013), reigning Defensive Player of the Year, 2008 Rookie of the Year and five-time All Star -- is the perfect case in point. Parker recently returned from an ankle injury and, in just 17 minutes, helped the Chicago Sky snap a seven-game losing streak. The impact of her presence off the court may be even greater.
The WNBA features a logjam of talent that has pushed some of the country's best players out of the league, and expansion is the only solution. Yet, history illustrates the need to proceed with caution when growing a women's professional sports league. Of the four teams the WNBA added on this day in 2000, just two remain.
Like Lindsey Whalen and Rebekkah Brunson before her, Seimone Augustus was a key figure in helping the Minnesota Lynx win four championships in seven seasons. She deserved to retire in Minnesota, where she built her legacy and helped turn the struggling Lynx franchise into a dynasty. Her retirement press conference was filled with wisdom. And on her way off the basketball court, she showed uncommon selfishness toward younger players seeking to become one of the 144 lucky women to claim a roster s...
One-hundred and forty-four WNBA players entered a bubble in the coronavirus hotspot of Florida in 2020 engaged in a collective fight for social justice. Finally, we see the gravity of their sacrifices. From executive producer Chiney Ogwumike, ESPN Films and three other women filmmakers, "144" is a triumph of artistic and journalistic achievement.
Jennifer Rizzotti is celebrated for her accomplishments at all levels of the game, from AP National Player of the Year for the UConn Huskies in 1996 to president of the WNBA's Connecticut Sun in 2021. But her professional journey with the Mohegan Tribe's Sun had chillier beginnings.
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