It should have been a layup.
But when WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert answered a question about the “more menacing turn” in sexist and racist commentary around Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark — her league’s two brightest rookie stars — she made a mistake.
Engelbert told us what she really thinks.
She was asked on CNBC’s “Power Lunch” if she tries to stay ahead of the “darker” discourse around these tentpoles of her league or attempts to “tamp it down.” Engelbert seemed to imply she welcomes it.
“There’s no more apathy. Everybody cares,” she said. “It is a little of that [Larry] Bird-Magic [Johnson] moment if you recall from 1979, when those two rookies came in from a big college rivalry, one white, one Black. And so we have that moment with these two. But the one thing I know about sports, you need rivalry. That’s what makes people watch.
“They want to watch games of consequence between rivals,” Engelbert added. “They don’t want everybody being nice to one another.”
No denouncement of the racist and sexist commentary that has weighed especially hard on Reese, a Randallstown native who just this April tearfully pleaded: “I just want them to always know, I’m still a human.”
Oof, Cathy. Want to try that one again?
WNBA players association executive director Terri Jackson criticized Engelbert’s comments: “This is not about rivalries or iconic personalities fueling a business model. This kind of toxic fandom should never be tolerated or left unchecked.”
The “business model” is the big strike here. The WNBA has never been more popular, and Clark’s unprecedented marketability (not to mention her All-Star-level play in the last few months) is a huge boost. The sacrifice Engelbert appears willing to make is to allow other players — Reese more than anyone — to be the heels to Clark’s hero.
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I’ve written many times about the unfair burden Reese shoulders in this rivalry with Clark, which almost inevitably casts her as a villain — even though her success is a testament to her own hard work and charisma. It’s still jarring to hear Engelbert’s off-the-cuff response, seemingly acknowledging that sexism and racism are part of the production.
Engelbert eventually did amend her response on social media, but only after a wave of criticism from her own players. “To be clear,” Engelbert wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, “there is absolutely no place for hate or racism of any kind in the WNBA or anywhere else.”
It’s a statement so bland and generic you wonder why she couldn’t have come up with it on the spot.
Viewers are viewers, in Engelbert’s eyes, whether they spew hateful vitriol or not. The sideshow drives interest, and the interest drives revenue. The business model is what matters, more than fostering a hospitable environment for players.
To be clear here: The problem is not Clark’s conduct. This is not about a one-on-one rivalry that has been physical and in-your-face. That’s basketball. Not being nice between the lines is all fair game.
The problem is nameless keyboard warriors and bigots who twist a basketball rivalry toward their own hateful purposes, who enforce stereotypes by calling Reese — a great player and a marketing force in her own right — a “thug” or worse. The problem is people who have used artificial intelligence technology to invent disgusting sexual images of Reese. The problem is hostility that should have no place in civilized society, much less sports.
It has been speculated that Reese and Clark don’t like each other in real life, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. In one of the few times we’ve seen them play together, against Team USA, they showed great chemistry in a 117-109 upset of the future gold medalists. They high-fived after a third-quarter layup, a tantalizing preview of national team collaborations to come.
On her own podcast, “Unapologetically Angel,” Reese tried to clear the air. Her beef isn’t with Clark but her fans who step over the line.
“Caitlin is an amazing player, and I’ve always thought she was an amazing player,“ Reese said. “We’ve been playing each other since high school. … There’s never been beef. We talked trash at each other in AAU. It’s been that.
“I think it’s really been the fans,” Reese continued. “Her fans. The Iowa fans, now the Indiana fans that are like — they ride for her, and I respect that. But sometimes it’s very disrespectful. I think there’s a lot of racism when it comes to it. And I don’t believe [Caitlin] stands behind any of that.”
Competitive tension is good for any sport. From rivalries between stars like Reese and Clark, to franchises like the New York Liberty and the Las Vegas Aces who have met in back-to-back finals, these matchups build the lore and interest in the league. But it doesn’t have to come at the cost of subjecting players to bigoted views. The fact that Engelbert responded to a question about prejudice by citing business interests instead of the human ones shows which one ranks highest among her priorities.
It’s too bad Reese, who will miss the rest of the season with a wrist injury, can’t provide another rebuttal on the court. But Reese still set the WNBA’s single-season rebounding record (446), and her 26 double-doubles are more than any rookie in league history. She landed a number of high-level marketing deals this season while outperforming many of the rookies drafted ahead of her, including her own teammate Kamilla Cardoso.
Reese has done her part to lift up the WNBA, too. The commissioner should see her as a force of her own, not merely Clark’s foil.
Stars like Reese deserve protection from the WNBA’s highest levels — not casual indifference as long as the ratings roll in.
