Your Morning in Women’s Basketball, June 1: Speaking Out
Key figures in the WNBA are not sitting silent at this moment
After a sobering weekend, women’s basketball has once again risen to the challenge of making this a fairer, stronger country.
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As Bela Kirpalani writes: “A month before Colin Kaepernick famously took a knee during the national anthem before an NFL game in late August 2016, members of the Minnesota Lynx held a pre-game press conference to address police violence following the separate deaths of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling. At the press conference, Maya Moore, Seimone Augustus, Lindsay Whalen and Rebekkah Brunson wore black t-shirts with the phrase, “Change Starts With Us: Justice & Accountability” printed on them along with Castile and Sterling’s names. In response to the press conference, four Minneapolis police officers working the game walked off and left their posts. In the days that followed, players from the New York Liberty, Phoenix Mercury and Indiana Fever wore black t-shirts during warm-ups (and were consequently fined by the league, although the WNBA’s stance and relationship with its players has since changed).”
Accordingly, it should be no surprise that people like Natasha Cloud of the Washington Mystics are leading the national conversation we’re now having.
As Cloud told Jenn Hatfield: “It’s important for me not only to be present here in my community and where I grew up … in Philly, but DC is a second home for me.”
Women’s basketball had brighter news, too: Maryland landed a significant 2021 recruit, Swiss forward Emma Chardon.