Players, coaches, teams, and leagues regularly have issues with how they’re covered in the media. Individuals complain about it on X/Twitter, and institutions privately bring it up with editors all the time.
What does not usually happen, though, is a players’ union blasting a reporter by name as the WNBPA did with USA Today columnist Christine Brennan on Friday.
The union went after Brennan in a notably personal and aggressive statement on Instagram, calling the veteran journalist “unprofessional” and “indecent” and accusing her of fanning the flames of the racist fan behavior that has plagued the league this year. The statement said Brennan should have her credentials to cover the league revoked.
On Sunday, Connecticut Sun forward DiJonai Carrington poked Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark in the eye in a play during Game 1 of the teams’ first-round series that Clark said was obviously unintentional. On Tuesday, Brennan posted a short clip of her interview with Carrington, in which she asked the 26-year-old whether she meant to hit Clark in the eye, and then followed up by asking whether Carrington had laughed about the play later in the game.
The question was, at best, inartful, and in the video, you can see Carrington roll her eyes at the question. But she hung around and answered. “I don’t even know why I would intend to hit anybody in the eye,” she responded. “That doesn’t even make sense to me.”
Fans immediately blasted Brennan online for posting the clip, with even New York Knicks guard Josh Hart saying, “They need to start taking media credentials away for stupid questions like this.”
Carrington and her teammates were targets of intense racial abuse online and in person during their series against Indiana, as a subset of white fans have attacked any Black player who is physical with Clark. Carrington posted on Instagram an email she got in which someone called her the n-word, which also read, “I hope someone rapes you and cuts your head off.” Her teammate Alyssa Thomas said, “I think in my 11-year career I’ve never experienced the racial comments from the Indiana Fever fan base.”
That’s the context in which Brennan asked Carrington about how she defended Clark. “You are not fooling anyone,” read the union’s statement, headlined “A Message on Behalf of the 144,” referring to the total number of players in the league. “That so-called interview in the name of journalism was a blatant attempt to bait a professional athlete into participating in a narrative that is false and designed to fuel racist, homophobic, and misogynistic vitriol on social media.” (Clark is white and straight, while Carrington is Black and gay; her partner, NaLyssa Smith, is Clark’s teammate on the Fever.)
The statement continued for five slides on Instagram.
“You have abused your privileges and do not deserve the credentials issued to you,” it reads. “USA Today Sports should explain why a reporter with clear bias and ulterior motives was assigned to cover the league.” Carrington reposted the union statement on Instagram, calling Brennan “goofy.”
The “clear bias” is a reference to the fact that Brennan is writing a book about Clark, a common arrangement in sports journalism and one that USA Today has begun disclosing on Brennan’s columns about Clark and the WNBA. Brennan admonished USA Basketball when they omitted Clark from the Olympics, calling it the worst decision she’d seen in 40 years of covering the Games.
Brennan has said little about the controversy publicly, and she did not respond to a message from Front Office Sports. She reposted a statement from USA Today sports editor Roxanna Scott on Friday. “We reject the notion that the interview perpetuated any narrative other than to get the player’s perspective directly,” Scott said. “Christine Brennan is well regarded as an advocate for women and athletes, but first and foremost, she’s a journalist.”
Representatives for the Sun, Fever, WNBA, and WNBPA did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Among the open questions: Will they continue to credential Brennan? Did the union attempt to approach Brennan or her editors first? Will Brennan continue to cover the WNBA playoffs, or is she headed for the golf course with Clark?
As the WNBA has exploded in popularity, it’s had some serious growing pains as it gets used to being covered as a big-time professional sport. The New York Liberty refused to talk to reporters after losing in Game 5 of last year’s Finals, which resulted in a $25,000 fine from the league. (It was the second time in three years that an identical incident happened at the Finals.) And as leagues have reopened access post-pandemic, the WNBA closed its locker rooms to media starting in 2023. In its statement the union said Friday it is aware “the media is essential to growing the game. No one knows that better than we do.”
The media, too, has had some bumps as the WNBA becomes big-time fodder. A veteran like Brennan should have known the context in which she was grilling Carrington, and, at the start of the season, Brennan’s Gannett colleague Gregg Doyel awkwardly made the heart symbol at Clark in a press conference at the beginning of the season, asking her “You like that?”
Doyel was suspended for two weeks and, Gannett claimed at the time, barred from covering the Fever. But Doyel has continued to write columns about Clark and the Fever for The Indianapolis Star, including his most recent one. The column blamed racists for “co-opting” Clark and women’s basketball.
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