Rick Welts Career Retrospectives Omit the WNBA from His Resume

Rick Welts Career Retrospectives Omit the WNBA from His Resume

By Tamryn Spruill When long-time sports executive Rick Welts announced his decision last week to step down as president and chief operating officer of the Golden State Warriors, media entities were quick to publish retrospectives of his illustrious career. And they appropriately praised his efforts to foster inclusion of LGBTQ+ individuals by coming out as gay and being visible in a powerful position in the world of sports, with one of the most successful NBA franchises of the last decade, no less. His work in the late-90s to help launch the WNBA? Never mentioned, at least not by ESPN's The Undefeated. The Associated Press, meanwhile, went so far as to mention Welts' humble beginnings 46 years ago as a locker room attendant for the Seattle SuperSonics. No harsh feelings toward the writers or media outlets that omitted Welts' contributions to the WNBA's early success, but it is unacceptable that his award-winning efforts were not deemed important enough to write about. We resoundingly...

Why America Doesn’t Deserve Sports Right Now

Why America Doesn’t Deserve Sports Right Now

By Tamryn Spruill “Come back, Maya!” Imani McGee-Stafford exclaimed during a call with me on Saturday, June 13. “Come back, Maya!” She was referring, of course, to Maya Moore: the WNBA star who called a temporary pause on her basketball career at the basketball-prime age of 29, just off the heels of winning her fourth WNBA championship in 2017 with the Minnesota Lynx. The future first-ballot Hall of Famer vowed to throw all of her energy into freeing Jonathan Irons: an African-American man from her home state of Missouri whom she believes was wrongly convicted. McGee-Stafford, like most WNBA fans, misses seeing Moore on the court. She also understands and respects the sacrifice Moore is making for a greater good. Her own decision to step away from basketball for two years to attend law...