As women’s basketball has blown up into a bona fide national sports story, the vast majority of commentary has centered on Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, dating back to their rivalry in college.
The league continues to grow, and its television viewership regularly rivals the NBA’s. When the league and its fans and media aren’t forced to wrangle a culture war or address controversy, there is tons to debate about the basketball on the court.
Yet, as ESPN WNBA announcer Ryan Ruocco pointed out during an appearance on the Girls Tripp podcast this week, commentators are often hesitant to be critical — at least beyond the familiar narratives around Clark and Reese.
“For this league to grow, people have to feel comfortable being critical and it not being a personal attack or hating,” he said.
“And people have to be critical of more than just Caitlin Clark, quite frankly. In my opinion, most of the ecosystem feels comfortable being critical about one player, maybe two. Angel (Reese) would be the other. Everybody else, people are very afraid to say anything bad about, even if it’s a very small, micro thing. And that’s not real sports.”
As Ruocco noted, this is a similar point to one made by Hall of Famer Candace Parker, who now hosts a women’s basketball podcast with Indiana Fever star Aliyah Boston and calls games for Prime Video.
“I think for so long, women in sports that are covering it in media have had to uplift the game and sell it in so many ways,” Parker said in March. “And now the product is speaking and holding its own.”
On her podcast, fellow Hall of Famer Sue Bird echoed a similar sentiment recently, reminding players that they can let the basketball do the talking in ways they couldn’t always.
Of course, it can probably feel unseemly for even longtime WNBA commentators to add even more negativity to a league that has faced tons of it this season. The WNBA has been undermined and taken advantage of by outside agitators and political actors since Clark and Reese arrived; pouring more gasoline into that fire may not be everybody’s preference.
But as Ruocco notes, media and fans’ familiarity with Clark and Reese may come from the broader narratives around their rivalry, but it has also resulted in the two being more of a part of the everyday basketball conversation. If commentators applied a similar sensibility to other familiar stars, the discourse around the sport would be more balanced. And as the WNBA attempts to navigate the absurd chatter around it, more nuanced analysis of players and coaches could help to drown out the noise.
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