Handling With Kid Gloves

Does the WNBA protect the players too much?

After the WNBA Finals concluded I wanted to talk about this. After Game 4 ended with the injury-riddled Las Vegas Aces pulling off the upset on New York’s home court, the Liberty organization did not allow media to speak with their players after the game.

Per league policy, each team must provide at least two players to speak to the media after the game in a conference room. But they are also required to allow media access to other players by request as long as it is outside of the locker room. The latter point is what the Liberty failed to comply with and created quite a stir with all the media outlets who were in attendance to cover the game.

For professional media, one of the main reasons to cover the game in person is to have access to all the players in order to create as many unique stories surrounding the WNBA as possible. Otherwise, the media could just stay at home, save some gas money, watch the game on TV, write a one-or-two-paragraph summary of the game, and be done with it. But that doesn’t help anyone. It certainly doesn’t help grow the game.

The Professional Basketball Writers Association released this statement after the media was blocked from covering the athletes they were there to write about.

The league also announced that same day that they would be fining the New York Liberty.

This isn’t the first time the Liberty have gone against the league's rules. In 2021, they gave their players a competitive advantage by providing charter planes to the team for several of their away games.

It would be revealed in March of 2022, that the WNBA fined the Liberty owners $500,000—the largest fine in WNBA history. There was consideration to punish them even further but ultimately the league did not.

And while that fine was extreme in the WNBA world, it’s hard to say it wasn’t money well spent. It helped build a reputation around the league that the Liberty were willing to do whatever they could to give their WNBA players the absolute best. It’s probably not a coincidence that a year later, superstar Jonquel Jones demanded a trade to New York, and both Breanna Stewart and Courtney Vandersloot chose New York as their preferred destination in Free Agency.

Joseph and Clara Tsai, the Liberty’s owners, are reportedly worth $7.5 Billion. The $25,000 fine for limiting media access after the Finals is nothing but chump change to them. But it’s another negative precedent being set.

LOCKER ROOM ACCESS CONTROVERSY

Prior to the WNBA season kicking off in 2023 it was announced that the WNBA Player’s Association had requested and been granted a complete ban of all media members in locker rooms across the league.

This obviously didn’t sit well with many seasoned professional journalists who have been working in sports locker rooms for years and years, if not decades. For media, access is everything. You can’t do your job properly if you are denied access.

In general, the locker room has been a place to build a rapport with athletes of all types of sports. The better relationships media can build with athletes, the better stories they can write. It’s a place where some may even be able to get “off the record” information that can later turn into a big story. It’s also a way for media members to avoid having the same cookie-cutter quotes that everyone else has.

I pride myself on the questions that I ask players and coaches and the responses I’m able to get. But in the more formal interview settings, anyone from other reporters to the PR team themselves can take those questions and answers and use them. I’ve even done it with my stories if someone like Percy Allen gets to ask a question I was going to ask anyway. But ultimately, that leads to readers and fans getting the same information from multiple sources.

I can only speak on my behalf with my own experience but 2023 wasn’t the first time the WNBA had removed locker room access for the media. The Storm organization stopped allowing locker room access back in 2019 I believe.

At the time, it wasn’t a drastic change for me for a few reasons. When I did have locker room access to players back in 2015, 2016, etc. it still felt extremely structured and monitored. We were told when we could go into the locker room. We were watched the entire time by PR and ushered out of the locker rooms after just a few minutes.

Back then, I was just getting into reporting and journalism work so I wasn’t yet super comfortable taking advantage of locker room access as more seasoned professionals might.

When they switched to a more formal press conference setting, it generally worked out better for me because I was still given access to the coach and two to three players and I felt like they gave us more time to ask questions. It didn’t feel nearly as rushed as when we were in the locker room.

In the WNBA, where the majority of sports reporters are still men, I certainly understand players wanting their privacy in the locker rooms. But I also acknowledge the negative drawback of limiting access to the media in general; especially, when it goes from media members no longer having locker room access to media members no longer being able to even request additional players for comments.

It’s a slippery slope. Removing access is going to decrease coverage. Coverage is 100% necessary for the product to grow. If players want to start earning million-dollar salaries it’s not going to happen if the people that are trying to build up the league and grow the game are shut out.

MENTAL HEALTH FACTORS

It is very important that we acknowledge mental health, its impact on this world, and where it factors in the sports/media relationship. Mental Health affects everyone whether you’re a lonely person down on their luck or a professional athlete who makes good money to play a game and appears (from the outside) to have everything anyone could ever want in this life.

There have been numerous athletes who have committed suicide over the years throughout all types of sports - basketball, football, hockey, pro wrestling, olympic sports, etc.

Professional athletes have immense pressure to live up to certain standards. They are in the limelight and can often be targeted by online harassment. Just imagine having hundreds of people every day or every week tell you how terrible you are, how much you suck, or what type of failure you’ve become. That’s draining and damaging no matter who you are.

People who engage in or defend that behavior will state that this comes with the territory of being a professional athlete.

“They make all that money, they can handle it.”

But it doesn’t make it right and it doesn’t mean that behavior should be accepted.

South Carolina WBB fans took major exception to ESPN’s TV camera crew who kept focusing on Aliyah Boston who was crying her eyes out uncontrollably after missing the game-winning shot in the 2021 NCAA Final Four against Stanford.

The TV cameras put extra emphasis on her lowest moment. Fortunately for Boston, she was able to redeem herself where she led South Carolina to a National Championship victory during the very next season. The TV Cameras then captured that moment, as Boston beamed with a bright smile and tears of joy. For better or for worse, it did make for an incredible story and audiences that witnessed the low-point were able to watch her overcome adversity and capture the ultimate success. Everyone loves a great comeback story!

I make that point because there is a delicate balance to play with here. In sports and in life, everything is not always rainbows and sunshine. As much as we wish it was. And while athletes should never be harassed, I do think it’s imperative to talk about and write about their failures, because that also leads to lessons learned, it leads to changes made, and in the best-case scenarios, it leads to the ultimate happy ending.

Media is not the same as PR. It can’t be. We can’t only tell the scenarios of the good things and the positive stories. We have to write about the downfall, the struggles, the challenges, and the failures. Because that’s real life. And it’s important to be real with our audiences.

COMPARING TO OTHER SPORTS

The WNBA is noticeably more protective of its players than in other leagues. All players are given at least a 10-minute cooling down period after games before being asked to meet with the media. Often it’s closer to 15-20 minutes. Usually, if a star player has a disappointing performance they are not brought out to speak with the media. Sometimes this happens even if they are requested to be one of the two players to attend the press conference.

The other week, I was watching a UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) PPV where the men’s 145lb Featherweight Champion was challenging the 155lb Lightweight Champion for his belt. Alexander Volkanovski (145lb champ) is one of the world’s best fighters. But in this matchup, he was brutally knocked out by a head kick and several punches to the face roughly three minutes into a 25-minute championship fight. Less than five minutes after he was KO’d, Volkanovski was being interviewed inside the cage and asked what went wrong in his fight and why he didn’t have more success.

It’s not just the men though. Back in September, Valentina Shevchenko had a rematch with the woman who took her title earlier in 2023. Shevchenko was winning their first fight before being caught in a submission late in the 4th round. In the rematch, Shevchenko was performing even better. The fight lasted the full 25 minutes. It appeared that the former champion had done enough to get her belt back, but when the judges’ scorecard was read off the fight was deemed a split-decision draw; meaning, the current champion got to keep her belt. Valentina was interviewed immediately after the fight and once again asked her thoughts on the fight, what went wrong, and why she wasn’t leaving with the belt.

Both winners and losers are interviewed because people are interested in hearing both sides of the story. People are often curious about what an athlete has to say when things go well and even when they don’t.

Even if you believe the UFC shouldn’t be the standard for when to interview athletes, the way they are interviewed isn’t uncommon in the sports world.

One of the best examples of why it’s important for media to be able to interview athletes even after losses/negative events, we have this example of Giannis Antetokounmpo being interviewed after the Milwaukee Bucks were disappointingly eliminated in the playoffs.

Giannis, one of the NBA’s biggest superstars was asked if his team’s season was a failure because they didn’t win the championship. I recommend watching the full two-minute video above, but a quick summary of what Antetokounmpo said.

“Every year that you work, do you get a promotion? No? Then are you a failure? Every year that you work, you work towards something, a goal. To get a promotion, to provide for your family, take care of your parents, you work towards a goal. You are not a failure. There are steps to success…. there are no failures in sports. There are good days and there are bad days. Some days you’re able to be successful and some days you aren’t. That is what sports are about. You don’t always win…” Giannis stated.

This was a great answer. It was real and it provided a fantastic perspective on life in general. Even if you don’t have ultimate success; that does not automatically mean you have failed.

If the Milwaukee Bucks refused to meet with the media after this game, we wouldn’t have heard that important message from Giannis.

GROWING THE GAME

What is the ultimate goal for the WNBA and the WNBAPA? I would believe some of these items would be a part of their goals.

• Viewership of games near or above 1 million people

• Significant increase in TV revenue

• Player salaries up to at least $1 Million for top players per season

• Charter Planes for traveling

• Team/Roster expansion

The next question is, how do they get there?

They need fans. They need lots of fans. They need more fans than they currently have. They need exposure. They need to get more national TV coverage. Their games need to be made easily accessible to not just the hardcore fans (League Pass) but to the general public.

Despite some rhetoric out there. I believe Commissioner Engelbert has done an admirable job of getting the WNBA out to more markets. Initially by putting some games on Facebook Live and Twitter; then by selling TV rights to Amazon Prime streaming service and ION television.

While some fans have complained that ION wasn’t a popular enough channel, it is a channel that is available to more than 60% of American households and more than 100 million homes.

Others had issues with some games going exclusive to Amazon Prime. But do you know how many people have Amazon Prime accounts? Approximately 200 million people across the world. People who aren’t normally WNBA fans may be scrolling through Amazon Prime Video and see that WNBA games are playing. Whenever I’ve gone to watch games on Prime, they are always highlighted on the home page and given good exposure for anyone using their streaming service.

The league needs to continue to gain exposure. But it can’t just be on regular TV. It needs to be in print media, it needs to be on social media, online websites, YouTube, podcasts, and more.

That’s where WNBA media comes in. They are the ones that have created the groundswell of support for the league. WNBA media works really hard to bring more fans to the league. Many members cover the league as a part-time gig. Several members spend hours covering the league without receiving any compensation at all.

I spent around five years covering the team, approximately 25-40 hours a week during the seasons before turning to Substack.

Knowing how much hard work WNBA media puts in to help grow the game it is disappointing to see the league and the player’s association look for ways to avoid talking to the media. Closing their doors. Closing their locker rooms. And limiting how and when their stories are told.

In order for fans to want to be heavily invested in the league, there needs to be large amounts of coverage. I’ve grown my following by offering more than a paragraph or two about the WNBA when I write my articles. People appreciate in-depth reporting and we need access in order to provide that.

We must continue to build a mutual relationship between players and media that benefits all parties. Certain privacy is understandable. Mental Health is also incredibly important. But the more the media can talk with and work with the players, the more work they can do to build and grow the fanbase which will ultimately benefit the players and the league.

Feel free to drop any thoughts or comments below!