Source: Bill Clark / Getty
Here’s a question: In the entire history of the WNBA—or the NBA too, for that matter—have you ever heard of a player who took a flagrant foul that was so upsetting that a U.S. congressman felt compelled to write an angry Karen letter to the league’s commissioner demanding a policy change? Professional basketball is a physically demanding contact sport, and while it’s normal for fans to feel a way when their favorite player is getting beat up on the court, excessive fouls against a player prompting a legislator to try and intervene could only happen on behalf of one player who has shown time and time again that she has the complexion for white America’s dedicated protection—Caitlin Clark.
According to the New York Times, Indiana GOP Rep. Jim Banks sent the letter Tuesday to WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert regarding Chicago Sky guard Chennedy Carter’s hard foul on Clark last Saturday.
Look how hyped Angel Reese is on the bench after Caitlin Clark takes a cheap shot
pic.twitter.com/GyeG1Q6OhZ
— Emo Jimmy (@WheelerJaylen) June 1, 2024
From the Times:
“Indiana is a basketball state. We don’t wince at aggressive defense, but this was not an example of playing ‘tough,’” Banks wrote. “It was a cheap shot that could have resulted in an injury and should not be tolerated.”
Banks suggested the WNBA should discipline Carter and the Sky beyond its decision to upgrade Carter’s foul to a Flagrant 1 and fine the Sky and Reese for failing to make herself available to the media after the game.
Banks said the WNBA “refuses to hold hostile players accountable and enforce their own rules of sportsmanship.”
“It is not only a disservice to Clark and the Indiana Fever, it’s a disservice to the millions of young girls who are watching with dreams of playing in the WNBA one day,” he added.
He ended the letter by asking Englebert to respond to four questions, including if the league will take steps “to curb excessive physical targeting of specific players.”
Seriously, WTF is going on here?
Actually, veteran sports analyst Bob Costas already addressed this earlier this week on CNN when speaking on the discrepancy between outrage over fouls against Clark and the outrage (or lack thereof) when Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese was basically clotheslined by Connecticut Sun forward Alyssa Thomas.
If you didn’t have a problem when this happened to @Reese10Angel then STFU
about Caitlin Clark. Please and thank you. pic.twitter.com/fHqIz8tvE7
— MrDaddy (@therealmrdaddy1) June 2, 2024
Bob Costas had a strong take why Alyssa Thomas’ flagrant foul on Angel Reese last week received less coverage than Chennedy Carter’s on Caitlin Clark this weekend. “It’s because it’s a Black-on-Black incident.” pic.twitter.com/zOQN9zheMD
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 4, 2024
“There was an incident recently where Alyssa Thomas, who happens to be African American, grabbed Angel Reese by the throat and threw her to the floor,” Costas said during an appearance on CNN’s NewsNight With Abby Phillip on Monday night. “The reason why that doesn’t spark as much conversation isn’t just that Caitlin Clark is a bigger star than Alyssa Thomas. It’s because it’s a black-on-black incident. You don’t have the dynamic that people can comment on but also exaggerate and make the entire story.”
Costas’ NBC Sports coverage spanned nearly four decades before he retired in 2019, so we should probably defer to his expertise over that of an aggrieved white man who, for whatever reason, thinks he needs to behave like he’s Clark’s overprotective father angrily sitting in the stands of his play daughter’s little league game shouting at the refs over a little roughhousing.
When Banks says the WNBA needs to “curb excessive physical targeting of specific players,” we know he’s only specifically talking about Clark. We also know the “specific” thing about Clark that makes her such a prominent hero for white America. (And when I say “white America,” I’m including Jason Whitlock.) After all, it’s not like he’s sent a letter on behalf of Reese when she took her hard foul, but he did mention in his letter that Reese cheered her teammate after the “excessive attack” on Clark.
Of course, it should surprise absolutely no one that Banks is an anti-diversity, anti-critical race theory, and anti-woke Republican who hates books on systemic racism almost as much as he hated the UN’s probe into racist civil rights violations in the U.S. Who knew that to get a Republican to actually care about racial injustice in America, all one had to do was get rough with their great white hype on the basketball court? (Actually, we all knew that. The only time Republicans care about racism is when they erroneously perceive it’s being leveled against the largest, most privileged, most powerful and most overwhelmingly represented racial group in the nation.)
In all fairness to Clark, even she hasn’t been nearly as whiney about the foul she took as her fans. After Saturday’s game, she said she “wasn’t expecting” the hard foul from Carter, and she said it was “not a basketball play,” but she isn’t out here flooding the airwaves with white tears over it and demanding to speak to the WNBA’s manager like a certain Republi-Karen who really needs to stick to politics and STFU about what’s going on in a league he never felt the need to police before Clark was a player.
Just like white conservatives tell Black athletes to “shut up and dribble,” maybe Banks should shut up and write oppressive, anti-Black legislation since that’s all he’s good for.
SEE ALSO:
WNBA Contracts Controversy Reminds Us Why Brittney Griner Was Playing In Russia
Jason Whitlock Says Angel Reese Needed To ‘Cover Up’ At WNBA Draft, Not White Athletes
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