The WNBA Hates America

From its founding in 1996 until today, the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) has been known as a “progressive” league. The WNBA has decried “police brutality,” “racism in all its forms,” and the “systematic oppression of Black Lives in America.” The WNBA has also been at the “forefront” of “initiatives” to “support” a variety of left-wing issues such as “gun control,” “#MeToo,” and “#BlackLivesMatter,” among others.

With such a history, it is not surprising that the WNBA refused to allow players at their All-Star game to wear “USA 250” patches on their uniforms. According to Warner Todd Hutson of Breitbart News, the WNBA is “the only major American pro sport to reject the patch.” The patches were worn by all players on both teams in the Super Bowl and throughout the National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals.

By rejecting the patch, the WNBA is rejecting the country where it was founded. It is rejecting the Americans who watch the games on television or in person and the sponsors who commercially support a league that has a history of financial losses.

In 2018, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver admitted that the WNBA had lost an average of $10 million annually since its inception. Silver was aware of the league’s financial status because the NBA created the WNBA and subsidizes the league every year. For example, in 2024, the New York Post reported that the WNBA would lose $40 million that season and that “NBA investors” were “growing impatient.”

Despite its troubled financial past, the WNBA is enjoying more support than ever due to superstars Caitlyn Clark and Sophie Cunningham of the Indiana Fever, one of the 15 teams currently operating in the league, which is expanding to 18 teams in 2030. This newfound popularity has allowed the league to negotiate a variety of lucrative media deals valued at $3.1 billion over 10 years.

This success would grow even more if the WNBA stopped embracing left-wing politics and showed more support for the United States of America, the country where basketball was invented.

Unfortunately, the league’s leadership has adopted an anti-American attitude. The Treasurer of the WNBA Players Association, Brianna Turner, opposed the league authorizing “USA 250” uniform patches for the All-Star game. She posted on social media, “No WNBA players would have been free 250 years ago. The majority wouldn’t even have their freedom 100 years ago.”

In another post, Turner, who was pictured wearing a t-shirt with the slogan “Protect Trans Lives,” continued to trash her country by stating, “We are some of the most elite female athletes. 250 years ago, we would have been breeders or in the fields working all day.”

So, Ms. Turner, what country allowed women “equal” rights 250 years ago? There is no country that has done more for women than the United States of America. The existence of the WNBA highlights the advantages that women enjoy here.

If Turner is so concerned about “freedom,” then she should condemn the slavery that exists today. In Africa, 7 million people live in slavery, and in Asia and the Pacific Region, 29.3 million people are enslaved, primarily in countries such as North Korea, China, Afghanistan, India, and Myanmar.

While Turner and her fellow WNBA players focus on supposed injustice in America, they are silent about the abuse of women throughout the world. In 77 economies worldwide, “women are legally barred from certain jobs and industries,” and in 19 economies husbands are allowed “to prevent their wives from working.”

In Afghanistan today, under the rule of the barbaric Taliban regime, no women are allowed to participate in sports. In Egypt, 87.2% of “women and girls aged 15-49” are subjected to female genital mutilation. In Niger, only 17% of women and girls aged 15-24 are literate.

In contrast, the United States is a bastion of “freedom.” Turner should be celebrating all the “freedom” and advantages that women enjoy in America. Instead, she decided to focus on the distant past, ignoring the incredible progress that minorities and women have achieved in recent decades.

Turner could have used her platform to denounce countries that allow real discrimination against women to occur today but decided it was better to condemn the country that has given her such tremendous opportunities.

Sadly, the WNBA was influenced by Turner and other critics. Initially, the league had committed to wearing the patches for the All-Star game but ultimately decided against it. It is unclear exactly what happened, but it seems several WNBA players objected to the patch, and it was rejected.

The WNBA should not have supported such America-bashing, but it did. The problem is that President Donald Trump is in the White House. If their favorite President, Barack Obama, was still residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, there would have been a different decision.

Obama was invited to address the All-Star players on Friday, before the game. Caitlyn Clark said it was “super cool” to talk to the former President. It is hard to imagine Trump being invited to address the players or receiving such a positive reaction.

The WNBA has clearly chosen political sides, and it is unfortunate. In fact, the only political party advocating for player safety in the league is the Republicans.

After Clark was subjected to multiple instances of physical mistreatment from fellow players, 11 congressional Republicans sent WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert a letter demanding “accountability” for “multiple attacks” against her.

The Republicans claimed that Clark received “unnecessary physical hostility and violence.” They suggested that the “attacks against Clark may be racially motivated.” Clark is White, while 70% of WNBA players are African Americans.

Hopefully, the attacks against Clark will end, and the WNBA will refrain from creating further ideological division and acting in an un-American manner.

The best way for the league to experience additional growth and obtain financial freedom from the NBA is to attract support from across the political spectrum and show appreciation for the country that allows their league to exist, the United States of America.  

Jeff Crouere is a native New Orleanian and his award-winning program, “Ringside Politics,” airs Saturdays from 1-2 p.m. CT nationally on Real America’s Voice TV Network & AmericasVoice.News and weekdays from 7-9 a.m. & 6-7 p.m. CT on WGSO 990-AM & Wgso.com. He is the President and General Manager of WGSO Radio, a political columnist, the author of America’s Last Chance, and provides regular commentaries on the Jeff Crouere YouTube channel and at Crouere.net. For more information, email him at [email protected].