SEC women's basketball coaches address increased racism, harassment of players as WNBA grows
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The WNBA exploded this summer, the culmination of steady growth the past few years and a star-studded rookie class.
The league drew an all-time record of more than 54 million unique viewers across multiple channels during the 2024 regular season. A record 22 regular-season games averaged at least one million viewers. The league's total attendance of 2.35 million was its highest in 22 years.
But that spike in popularity has been accompanied by racism, homophobia and online abuse directed at players and their families. To South Carolina coach Dawn Staley, it's a sign that "we're a sport now," and the league is getting everything that comes with it.
Connecticut Sun forward Alyssa Thomas called out the racial abuse she and her teammates have suffered, attributing much of it to people within the Indiana Fever fan base. Multiple players have received death threats. An email that Sun guard DiJonai Carrington received included a racist slur and graphic threats of violence. The wife of New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart received a death threat, with homophobic language directed at the couple. Chicago Sky players were harassed at their hotel on a road trip.
Former LSU star Angel Reese, who was in the conversation for rookie of the year until she suffered a season-ending injury, has been subjected to racist attacks since she won a national championship in 2023. That continued during her first season in the WNBA, and Reese has publicly called it out more than once.
LSU coach Kim Mulkey said part of her job is preparing her players not only with the X's and O's, but also everything that comes with being in the spotlight. She's not on social media, but she ensures there are people on her staff who can help players learn how to handle it.
"Society just loves to sit behind those computers and anonymously write what they write," Mulkey said. "And when you are in the spotlight as much as Angel is and was, any athlete is or was, everybody just sits down and decides what they want to write. Whether it's the truth doesn't matter. Truth matters none anymore in this world."
Staley said people's delivery can be way off in how they express themselves — the more people bring racism into the league, the more they bring in division.
"We do feel like there's a certain group of new fans that are disrespecting our game, disrespecting the players that are in it . . . " she said. "They'll get theirs. Are they entitled to their opinion? They absolutely are.
"For me, I choose to ignore them. I choose to use our platforms to uplift all the things that are positive in our sport. But we do need our leaders to step out there and use their voice when harm is being done to our product."
Ole Miss coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin said she's "heartbroken" when she hears the stories about the increased harassment the players have faced. The league is in a growth stage, which brings good and bad, she said, but the league doesn't have to take the good with the bad.
McPhee-McCuin hopes new fans can be educated more about the league and what it has represented throughout its 27-year history. The WNBA has consistently been an activist league and has often been on the forefront of political movements, and McPhee-McCuin said she hopes the WNBA can be allowed to be different from men's basketball, but still be appreciated for the high-level sport it is.
"I think we'll get to the other side of it, because it's a beautiful sport," she said. "We have beautiful people in the sport that come from all different backgrounds and represent all facets of our world, right? And so I think that once we get over the shock of the negativity that comes with it, and we start to balance it out, it will continue to blossom."
First-year Kentucky coach Kenny Brooks, who previously coached at Virginia Tech, said he's a big fan of the WNBA, which he said is "growing the way that it should."
Brooks compared the moment the league is at, with Reese and Caitlin Clark as big-name stars, to when Larry Bird and Magic Johnson entered the NBA.
"It's something that if we as women's basketball people can embrace it and market it the right way, I think the boom can happen like it did back in the days," Brooks said. "I think we have a responsibility . . . (as) college coaches, to continue that growth. We can do that by the entertainment value . . . You have eyes on the game that really haven't been on the game. There is entertainment value to it."
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert also made the Bird-Magic comparison during a television interview in September, saying rivalries such as Reese and Clark's build interest. Engelbert didn't explicitly address abusive language that was being directed at players, and she later issued an apology after the WNBPA expressed disappointment in her answer. The WNBA released a statement condemning the racism, derogatory comments and threats during the playoffs.
Kentucky point guard Georgia Amoore, projected to be a first-round 2025 draft pick, became an avid fan of the league when she moved to the United States from Australia for college. The league wasn't accessible to watch back home, but when Australian players started joining the WNBA, Amoore started paying even more attention.
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Amoore called the increased racism and online harassment "disgusting." The fifth-year senior said she can't understand why people bring racism into discussions and attack players who are doing their jobs. Amoore said there's no place for any of it, and something needs to change.
"The more people speak out, and the more players speak out about it, I think the more the general fan will realize how bad it is," she said. "Because on Twitter, you can say anything you bloody want to. It's crazy, right? No face. You can hide behind any profile. But when you see the serious effects it has on people, that's when it humanizes it."
Cora Hall covers University of Tennessee women's athletics. Email her at and follow her on Twitter . If you enjoy Cora's coverage, consider a digital subscription that allows you to access all of it.
