The last couple of weeks have been a forgettable prelude to the upcoming WNBA preseason, marked by Tuesday’s stunning news that Isiah Thomas had been named the president of the New York Liberty.
Yes, that Isiah Thomas, reunited with old Pistons Bad Boy teammate and once-again Liberty coach, Bill Laimbeer. Knicks/Liberty/Cablevision boss James Dolan brought Thomas back into the fold despite him costing the organization a $11.6 million settlement in 2007.
Thomas was accused of sexual harassment by Anucha Browne, then a Knicks executive and now the NCAA’s vice president for women’s basketball championships.
It didn’t take long for the New York and national sports media to pounce, especially against a Knicks organization whose once-proud basketball product is struggling mightily to improve under the guidance of Phil Jackson.
The howls of outrage against Thomas further escalated when both he and Dolan issued statements disputing past history.
This is the guy Dolan has tapped to run a women’s pro hoops franchise, and wants to give him an ownership stake to boot.
That’s truly appalling.
But this is hardly the only troublesome matter for WNBA leadership as overseas players are returning and the U.S. women’s national team conducted a brief pre-season training camp in Las Vegas.
Two weeks ago today, Brittney Griner of the Phoenix Mercury was charged with domestic violence during an altercation at home with her fiancee, Glory Johnson of the Tulsa Shock.
Griner admitted she struck Johnson and has agreed to enter a pretrial diversion program. She also skipped the USA Basketball camp.
Yet beyond the heat of the moment, there’s been very little media scrutiny and little in public response from WNBA president Laurel Richie.
In case you’ve been living in a cave, domestic violence and sexual assault are all the rage in so much of the sports media these days, ever since the Ray Rice video was released by the tabloid site TMZ.
In the aftermath of Griner’s arrest, mainstream and other media alike flocked to years-old allegations and charges of domestic violence involving boxer Floyd Mayweather before his fight last Saturday against Manny Pacquaio.
While Mayweather is a detestable figure, he did actually serve some jail time for the abuse of his wife. Since his release three years ago, he has fought in four other bouts that generated virtually no media condemnation.
Just as the Isiah Thomas news dropped on Tuesday, so did a report in Seattle that the Seahawks didn’t properly vet second-round draft pick Frank Clark, who copped a plea to two misdemeanor counts and a small fine after striking his girlfriend in December.
Media calls for the Seahawks to cut Clark were immediate and fierce.
Isiah — he must go. Now.
About Griner . . . mostly crickets.
Despite her high profile in the WNBA, Griner’s visibility compares in comparison to male athletes and officials in the major team sports and brash boxers like Mayweather.
The sporting public just doesn’t care as much about women’s sports, but that’s only part of the problem.
What’s most troubling is that during a fever pitch of emotional, even unhinged public discussion about athletes, domestic violence and sexual assault, when the accused athletes are women, media coverage is dismissive.
If it exists at all.
Griner is the second prominent female athlete charged with domestic violence post-Rice. As I wrote elsewhere about U.S. women’s soccer goalkeeping star Hope Solo, media types and the general public don’t want to believe that women do these things.
When they do, they’re not considered the same thing, or excuses are made because of the plight of women throughout history.
Does anyone even in women’s basketball remember that Chamique Holdsclaw was charged with a felony, of shooting — with a gun! — into the SUV of her former girlfriend, WNBA player Jennifer Lacy?
Do you remember reading much about any of that, or hearing anything from WNBA brass?
I didn’t.
But there was quite a bit about her battle with depression, bypassing the messy business of being in trouble with the law.
Only two substantive mainstream accounts of the Griner matter have emerged in recent days, from Eric Adelson of Yahoo! Sports, who’s troubled by the WNBA’s silence, as well as Mechelle Voepel of espnW.
She’s right to urge caution and due diligence — something male athletes merely accused of violence against women aren’t getting in the media.
While espnW has done a few stories — and a chain mail! — its treatment of the Griner arrest pales in comparison to its full-scale inquisition of Jameis Winston, who hasn’t been charged with anything.
It certainly hasn’t been showcased like Kate Fagan’s ESPN The Magazine piece in 2013 of the newly-drafted Griner, posing with a snake.
Then again, pageviews and ratings are not generated, and thus media careers are not built, on a nuanced, serious examination of issues involving women and sports — unless there are repugnant males to blame.
When some on social media called out ESPN personalities about the coverage discrepancies, here’s what one well-known female talking head Tweeted out:
As I said, dismissive.
Even USA Today’s Christine Brennan, who scolded U.S. Soccer for not suspending Solo after her arrest, is worked up for the moment only about Isiah Thomas.
If women’s sports, and especially basketball, really wants to be taken seriously, its leadership can’t dodge what little public attention may come over unsavory developments.
Especially regarding a signature player. This isn’t like the case of Holdsclaw, who was out of the league, or Deanna Nolan, who hasn’t played in the WNBA since the Shock left Detroit.
Richie spoke to the AP Wednesday about both Thomas and Griner, but is getting the benefit of a doubt that Goodell doesn’t enjoy. In Voepel’s piece is an interesting nugget — there is nothing in the current WNBA collective bargaining agreement specifically mentioning punishment for domestic violence.
It’s the sort of thing the NFL has been crucified over.
Sportswriters and commentators who prattle on about the supposed disregard for women’s sports do a disservice when they ignore a serious allegation against a female athlete.
And if the problems of domestic violence and sexual assault are ever to be properly addressed, it must come with the understanding that women are not always the victims and that they commit these violent acts more frequently than the public wants to believe, or a servile media establishment will ever acknowledge.
