Will The Angel Reese Vs. Caitlin Clark Debate Ever Remain On The Court?

When it comes to this year’s WNBA season, I believe that the word progression is akin to transition. The league is in transition this year. Naturally, there are thoughts, ideas and language that need to be adjusted in kind. Cathy Engelbert serves as the WNBA’s commissioner, and it was she who was interviewed by CNBC that began a new conversation in the league. The player’s association of the WNBA is the WNBPA. They took exception to what they saw as Engelbert being dismissive of the very real threats that Caitlin Clark’s “supporters” have been sending Angel Reese.

In Engelbert’s remarks, she stated: “It’s a little of that [Larry] Bird-Magic [Johnson] moment if you recall from 1979, when those two rookies came in from a big college rivalry, one white, one black. And so we have that moment with these two. But the one thing I know about sports, you need rivalry. That’s what makes people watch. They want to watch games of consequence between rivals. They don’t want everybody being nice to one another.”

In those remarks, you can see that Engelbert is aware of the biggest rivalry in the game. But it’s also glaring that she neglects to admonish those who take their comments toward these athletes outside of the realm of entertainment. Seemingly highlighting profits over the safety of the league’s players rubbed the WNBPA wrong.

This moment that we’re in — a golden era burgeoning within the WNBA — must be treated with care. Some of these waters are uncharted for the league’s brass, but they have to be cognizant of what’s necessary of them, as they become a more premier commodity. When players come out, of their own volition, to speak out on hate that they receive, they should be advocated for.

Engelbert and others should understand not only this moment but the optics of it. We can’t have women be so outwardly disrespected, especially on a platform that growing as rapidly as the WNBA. The debates between Clark and Reese will continue. As Engelbert hinted, it’s good for business. However, I do believe as time goes along, the game of basketball will truly be the storyline.

Comparisons to the Magic and Bird rivalry are fitting since it birthed the NBA’s golden era, but racism existed early on as well. There were clear racial undertones that existed with Magic and Bird. And being barely 10 years after the era of Jim Crow, the country’s sensitivities were nothing like what they are today. But ultimately, the play of those men and the respect they showed for one another hushed all the noise.

So, ultimately, when it comes to Clark and Reese, that’s how I envision things panning out. But a great conduit in us getting to that point will be those with influence vehemently speaking out against hate speech. It isn’t necessary, and it takes away from the great contributions the women of the WNBA are making.

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