One day last week, With her team, the Connecticut Sun, In a first-round playoff senes
against WNBA star Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever, guard DIJona1 Carrington was surrounded
by a group of reporters. Carrington had swatted Clark In the face while reaching for the
ball In the previous game, leaving her With a black eye.
USA Today columnist Christine Brennan had a question: Did you do that on purpose?
Jul 24, 2024; Pans, France; USA Today Sports columnist Christine Brennan during an IOC press
conference to announce Salt Lake City as host of the 2034 Winter Olympics at the Pans 2024
Olympics main press center at the Palais des congres de Pans. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-IJSA
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No, Carrington said-
Brennan followed up: Were you laughing about It later In the game?
“l just told you I didn’t even know I hit her,” Carrington said.
The exchange came at a thrilling but tense moment for the league, which has long been powered
by women of color but has seen Its recent SUCCess largely attributed to Clark- The attention on the
league has never been greater, but players during the senes were subject to upticks In online
harassment, and security was added at Connecticut’s home arena.
It was With this backdrop that the questions didn’t Sit well In the Connecticut locker room, and a
few minutes later, the SUn’S DeWanna Bonner confronted Brennan-
Brennan repeatedly tried to Introduce herself and explain what she said as Bonner Implored the
columnist to treat her teammates like humans. After nearly two minutes of mostly talking past
each other, Bonner returned to the locker room. (Brennan confirmed the confrontation to The
Washington Post)
Brennan, who IS working on a book about Clark and routinely appears on TV, approached the
other reporters and remarked that something like that wouldn’t happen In the NFL. She asked
why the WNBA was so sensitlve and told multiple reporters that If anyone had questions about
her awareness of the racial dynamcs at play, they should read her coverage of former NFL
quarterback and activist Colin Kaepernick, among other work stretchlng back decades. (Brennan
IS White; Carnngton IS Black.)
Three days later, the Women’s National Basketball Players Assoclatlon ISSUed a statement calling
for the league to revoke the credential of Brennan, one of the most recognizable sports journalists
In the country.
“To unprofessional members of the media like Christine Brennan: YOU are not fooling anyone.
That so-called Interview In the name of journalism was a blatant attempt to bait a professional
athlete Into participating Into a narrative that IS false and designed to fuel racist, homophobic, and
misogynistic vitriol on social media. You cannot hide behind your tenure,” the statement read. It
added: “You have abused your privileges and do not deserve the credentials ISSUed to you.”
Brennan, In an Interview, called her questions “journalism 101
“Its something that I have done In the entirety of my career,” she said, “and I think every other
journalist has done the entirety of his or her career”
Other journalists, Including her boss at USA Today, agreed.
“We reject the notion that the Interview perpetuated any narrative other than to get the player’s
perspective directly,” USA Today executive sports editor Roxanna Scott said In a statement.
But the saga has nonetheless become a major storyline of the WNBA playoffs, at a tme when
Clark’s enduring stardom and the league’s unprecedented growth are testing the league’s
relationshi With the media.
‘When I saw the video [of the questions to Carrington], my heart dropped,” Terri Jackson, the
executive director of the players union, said In an Interview. “l was so upset because we already
have people looking to attack these players- We’re talking about being safe at work.”
A WNBA spokesman did not reply to a request for comment. Neither did Scott.
Brennan, 66, IS a pioneer In sports journalism. She was the first president of the Association for
Women In Sports Media In the 1980s (when she worked for The Washington Post)- She
remembers gong to her editors and asking why the paper didn’t cover the major women’s golf
tournaments or the women’s Final Four — and promptly got some of those assignments.
“l cannot tell you the number of tmes my male colleagues — and some of them dear friends —
have teased me or ridiculed me for my coverage of women’s sports,” she said.
Brennan said her upcomng book, “On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution In Women’s
Sports,” IS “unauthorized” and that she has not done a sit-down Interview With Clark. It’s expected
to be published next season- Its scope goes beyond Clark, but she IS Its driving force.
Clark helped the league secure a huge Increase In Its new broadcast deals and her games have
set attendance records and driven TV ratings spikes. Fox Sports executive Mike Mulvihill posted
on social media recently that the audience for Clark’s national TV games during the regular
season averaged 1.178 million but was 394,000 for all others.
Still, some reporters and league stakeholders have bristled at what they see as the narrowness of
Brennan’s coverage, which has focused almost exclusively on Clark. Reporters pointed to an
April column In which Brennan asked why players are “frosty” toward Clark. And she was deeply
critical In stones, on TV and on social media about Clark being left off the U-S- Olympic team-
Brennan wrote another piece from the Olympics after the U.S. team advanced to the gold medal
game, headlined: “US women’s basketball should draw huge Pans crowds but Isn’t. Team needed
Caithn Clark.” The announced attendance was 11 ,919, only around 300 fewer fans than the U.S-
men’s semifinal comeback victory against Serbia the day before.
Brennan said she did not write the headline and agreed It was misleading- She said the column
Itself highlighted the lack of media attention and VIPs at the game, adding: “The whole point of
saying Caitlin Clark should have been on the team was to bring eyeballs that this team so
deserves that It just never gets.”
“Her coverage has gone way beyond what IS normal,” sad Gregory Lee Jr., a former editor at the
Athletic and professor at Loyola University New Orleans, who said he wouldn’t speak With
Brennan for her book even though she reached out- “The way she’s covering Caithn Clark, you’re
asking, ‘Is she Caitlin Clark’s PR agent?” (Lee IS a former editor at The Post.)
Added Terrka Foster-Brasby, the sideline reporter for the Connecticut Sun: “l think It’s wonderful
she wants to write a book on Caitlin Clark, but I do think It’s a gross misuse to use those media
availabilities to gather content for your book and make players uncomfortable.”
She continued: “It’s disheartening for those other athletes who have wanted an opportunity to
have media coverage and you’re taking the opportunity to speak With them but never ask
anything about them-‘
Brennan said she has spoken to a number of players about topics that ranged far beyond Clark.
Jackson, the president of the WNBA players association, spoke to Brennan this summer. She said
she left the conversation troubled.
“It was exhausting,” Jackson said. “l said this season wasn’t a flip of the switch- We had the covid
bubble season, other periods. I’ve been here rune years, and I said, YOU are dong a disservice to
the history [by focusing only on Caitlin].
Brennan sad she was stunned the Interview Wlth Jackson could be misconstrued as anything
other than a reporter looklng for Informatlon.
‘When you cover a sport, you wrlte about the big story,” Brennan said. ‘Over the years covenng
golf, I wrote probably over 100 columns on Tiger Woods and Ignored almost all the other golfers.”
The WNBA has long had a fraught relationship With reporters. Last year, several New York Liberty
players were fined for not talking With reporters after the Finals, and the league has shut off
reporters’ access to locker rooms. Legacy media and newspapers have often made coverage of
the league an afterthought.
But that IS changing. With Clark leading the headlines, talking heads and many former NBA
players have spent this season discussing the league at length, With many of those same people
telling WNBA players to be grateful for Clark. Several reporters who cover the WNBA said there
remains tension whenever reporters ask about Clark, even as Clark continues to drye Interest In
and revenue for the league.
After Brennan’s questions to Carrington last week, Jackson sad she spoke With leadership In the
players union and there was widespread agreement that they needed to respond.
But when the Union ventured Into the territory of questioning Brennan’s credentials, the story
morphed from a referendum on a high-profile columnist’s reporting to whether she should be
allowed to do that reporting at all. Several reporters around the league called It a blatant
overreaction.
“The WNBA and Its players keep fumbling their golden opportunity With a string of Ill-advised
decisions and PR gaffes exposing them as not bang ready for prme time,” wrote Boston Globe
COIIJmnlSt Tara Sullivan.
Michael Rosenberg, a Sports Illustrated columnist who has covered the WNBA, said In an
Interview: “Decline to answer someone’s questions, complain to them privately, or np them
publicly. That’s all fair. But I think credentials should only be pulled for clear violations of
professional ethics.”
The critique of Brennan’s questions was rooted less nn the questions themselves than In the
climate In which they were asked.
Carrington has been the subject of Intense social media harassment. She posted a screenshot of
an email she received In which she was called a racial slur and threatened With sexual violence.
Someone else posted a picture of a police officer kneeling on George Floyd’s neck With a Picture
of Carrington superimposed over Floyd’s face and Clark’s supermposed on the officer’s.
According to a report In Andscape, the crowd In Connecticut during the playoff senes was
trafficking In racially coded trash talk, too. One fan’s shirt read “Ban Nails,” and one fan shouted
at Carrington when she fell, “What, did you tnp on your eyelashes?”
“In my II-year career I never experienced the racial comments like from the Indiana Fever fan
base,” Sun forward Alyssa Thomas said after the senes.
“We certainly know that there are many people who are racist who attack Black people on
Twitter,” Brennan said. “That IS a fact. It IS horrible.. . In the case of asking the follow-up I did, It
was giving DIJonal Carrington the chance to address an ISSUe that was already on Twitter and
being discussed by, what? Tens of thousands of people? Hundreds of thousands? Millions of
people?