In recent years, the WNBA has been one of the most outspoken leagues in American professional sports on social issues. Last week, 17-year WNBA veteran and 11-time All-Star Sue Bird said female athletes tried to stick to sports, but “nobody would let us.”
There’s no question female athletes are judged differently than male athletes. Even the media has historically popularized women in sports based on their appearance more than performance. It’s rarely just about the game when the WNBA or female athletes are put on headlines. During an appearance on The Old Man and the Three podcast, Bird told hosts JJ Redick and Tommy Alter that the WNBA was made political by others.
“All politicians are trying to say to us is, ‘keep politics out of sports, this is where I want to go to just watch a game,’” Bird said on the podcast. “I’m not the one that brought it in here. Because as female athletes we are judged based on everything except the game we’re playing. We’re being judged because we’re women. We’re being judged because we’re gay. We’re being judged because we’re black. All of these political things are being brought to us and that’s how we’ve had to find our way in this life, in this WNBA trying to be a business life. We’ve had to battle that. It’s never just been about basketball for us.”
The WNBA dedicated its 2020 season to Breonna Taylor, a 26-year old Black woman who was unjustly shot and killed by Louisville police in her own home earlier this year. After Georgia senator and Atlanta Dream co-owner Kelly Loeffler disagreed with the WNBA’s social stance, players began wearing t-shirts supporting her political opposition Raphael Warnock.
Bird’s comments came just one day before former NHL defenseman and current NBC analyst Mike Milbury was criticized for saying “not even any woman here to disrupt your concentration,” while discussing the sport’s bubble system.
JJ Redick and Tommy Alter launched their Old Man and the Three podcast earlier this month, after leaving The Ringer to start ThreeFourTwo Productions in a partnership with Entercom’s Cadence13.
Brandon Contes is a former reporter for BSM, now working for Awful Announcing. You can find him on Twitter @BrandonContes or reach him by email at Brandon.Contes@gmail.com.
