I saw something this week I haven’t seen before. Its not unheard of, but it happens less when those trips around the sun accumulate.
As a college sportswriter for four decades, I remain in tune with that world, for better or worse. The games are still good, the fall Saturdays colorful and alive.
It’s the non-game days where we’re seeing the most change, much of it socially driven.
As a wee lad thrilled by touchdowns and home runs, attracted to college and pro stadiums like a moth to light, most of these changes I couldn’t predict. Atop that lengthy list would be the discussion of whether biological males should play competitive sports with girls.
The discussion isn’t new. I was writing about it in the early 2020s before I migrated — legally — from the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal to American Family Association.
The discussion’s new twist came Wednesday when the majority owner of the Seattle Storm, the city’s Women’s NBA franchise, apologized for the behavior of another member of the ownership group.
Two teenage girls attended a game wearing XX-XY Athletics shirts and holding a sign thanking Sophie Cunningham, a guard with the visiting Indiana Fever, for "speaking up for girls." Cunningham had recently said she opposes allowing biological males to compete in women's and girls' sports and said her position was intended to protect female athletes.
According to accounts of the incident, Celeste Keaton, a co-owner of the Seattle team, approached the young girls in attendance and verbally confronted them, using profanity. At least one of the girls broke out in tears.
Keaton wasn’t welcoming, the attitude the Left says it has for all people at all times regardless of context. She let her politics guide her actions. Just as crazy, she willingly accosted paying customers for a team whose policy — made clearly evident by the majority owner’s apology — is to welcome all fans. Success by the Storm lines Keaton’s pockets. She’s invested in the Seattle Storm. When they do well, she benefits. That means wins and losses are important, but just as important is fan experience.
In short, when fans of any team pay money and walk through your doors, they need to feel like the club is glad they’re there. They need to feel welcome.
Ginny Gilder, the Storm’s majority owner, said so right here. A key leftist buzz word is included, but the central theme is that fans should feel appreciated.
"We are aware one of our co-owners made comments to two fans in attendance at last night's game," Gilder said in a statement. "We apologize that this happened. Everyone who attends a Storm game deserves to feel welcome, and we remain committed to creating an inclusive environment where every fan is treated with respect."
The W’s response
The WNBA has since suspended Keaton, who will be unable to attend the Storm’s next five home games. She was fined an undisclosed amount.
Whatever it was, it wasn’t enough.
Keaton’s comics were just another act in the long-running image problem for the WNBA.
Cunningham appears to be the league’s only player to publicly oppose men in women’s sports. Others are content to advocate for inclusion of men which, if the WNBA begins to practice what it's preaching, could lead to the league’s extinction.
Lia Thomas was an NCAA champion swimmer for the University of Pennsylvania. William Thomas was not.
A Dallas boys’ soccer team of 15-year-olds defeated the U.S. Women’s National Team in an exhibition during the national team’s World Cup preparation.
Though Cunningham’s notoriety has skyrocketed since her public stance on men in women’s sports, she was already exceedingly popular as the protector of Caitlin Clark.
Clark’s 3-point bombs, drives through traffic and deft passing have made her the league’s most recognizable player. She’s a record-setter. People who have never watched the WNBA are watching Caitlin Clark, who happens to be white, a minority in the league.
Clark is physically abused with regularity by opponents who are often not held accountable by the officiating crew.
But they’ve been held accountable by Cunningham, who has dished out what Clark has taken.
Where does the WNBA fit?
I’m a fan of women’s sports. Not everyone is. But often at the high school and college level the girls offer the purest play in terms of fundamentals. If they’re not quite as fast as the guys, if they can’t jump quite as high, they’re more prone to be successful through hustle, hard defense and free throws.
There’s a lot on the plate for American sports fans. If you didn’t grow up with an appreciation for the women’s game, you might have to decide what you’re moving off the plate to make time — and money — for the WNBA.
Clark is helping the WNBA compete in the marketplace, and now Cunningham, in her own way, is too.
The league has a chance to carve its own niche if it stops stepping on rakes in the meantime … like having a team executive accost and embarrass young fans in their home arenas.
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