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Andrea Adelson, ESPN Senior Writer
UNCASVILLE, Conn. — Connecticut Sun forward Alyssa Thomas and Indiana Fever coach Christie Sides both called for the abusive comments toward WNBA players to stop during their respective postgame news conferences following Game 2 on Wednesday night.
Thomas went as far as to ask the league to step in to do something about the behavior.
“In my 11-year career, I’ve never experienced the racial comments from the Indiana Fever fan base. It’s unacceptable, honestly,” Thomas said. “There’s no place for it. We’ve been professional throughout the whole entire thing, but I’ve never been called the things that I’ve been called on social media.
“Basketball is headed in a great direction, but we don’t want fans that are going to degrade us and call us racial names. I mean, we already see what’s happening in the world and what we have to deal with in that aspect. And we come to play basketball for our job and it’s fun, but we don’t want to go to work every day and have social media blown up over things like that. It’s uncalled for. Something needs to be done, whether it’s them checking their fans or this league checking, there’s no time for it anymore.”
Sides spoke to reporters first after the Fever’s season-ending 87-81 loss to the Sun. She was asked what she believed was important to say to her team in the locker room after the defeat. The Fever overcame a 1-8 start to the season to earn the No. 6 seed in the playoffs.
“Just proud of the adversity these guys went through,” Sides said. “The expectations that were insane for us to start this season, and what people thought we should be doing, and just the outside noise that these guys had to endure from Game 1 till now.
“It’s a lot of hurtful, hateful speech out there that’s happening, and it’s unacceptable. When it gets personal to me, there’s no reason for it. These guys have to listen and watch — social media is their life. That’s just what they do. And they have to read and see these things constantly, and just all the stories that are made up of what people see or think they see. It is just not acceptable when it gets personal.”
In the wake of both of those impassioned statements, the WNBA released a statement on its social media.
“The WNBA is a competitive league with some of the most elite athletes in the world,” it said. “While we welcome a growing fan base, the WNBA will not tolerate racist, derogatory, or threatening comments made about players, teams and anyone affiliated with the league. League security is actively monitoring threat-related activity and will work directly with teams and arenas to take appropriate measures, to include involving law enforcement as necessary.”
— WNBA (@WNBA) September 26, 2024
During the first quarter of Wednesday’s game, Fever guard Caitlin Clark got into it with a fan who was sitting in the second row near midcourt, getting game officials involved. Officials alerted security, who took the fan off the floor. After a few moments, the fan was allowed to return. It isn’t clear what the fan said.
Sides made her comments unprompted.
As for a response to what Thomas said, Sun coach Stephanie White added, “We have to do a better job.
“We’ve seen a lot of racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia throughout the course of our country. Sport is no exception, and it’s unacceptable. The thing that frustrates me the most is that we — I say we because I work in television as well — what we in the media have to do a better job of [is] not allowing trolls and social media to become the story. I feel like we have allowed trolls in social media to frame the narrative of what the story is. We have to do a better job. I applaud our team for maintaining their professionalism.”