Progress, recognition current safety considerations, challenges for WNBA

Connecticut Solar coach Stephanie White was an All-American and nationwide champion for the Purdue Boilermakers within the Nineteen Nineties and a WNBA star into the 2000s.

However, she stated, the recognition and degree of recognition for at present’s high ladies’s basketball gamers, resembling No. 1 WNBA draft choose Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever, has skyrocketed since her enjoying days.

“It is nuts. It is evening and day,” White stated. “I have been concerned on this league for a very long time. Simply seeing the distinction within the crowds that come earlier than and keep after to get autographs, to the crowds which are flooding lodge lobbies. You see it that manner on the boys’s facet. … That is the way in which it has been trending [on the women’s side].”

And with progress come new challenges.

“As a corporation, we regularly discuss participant security and having safety. We remind our gamers that if we’ve any individual obtainable for safety, make the most of them,” White stated. “I am grateful for the expansion of our sport, however we additionally want to remain forward of the curve by way of defending our gamers.”

The league introduced this week that it’s taking a significant step — one gamers have known as for over the previous a number of years — in getting constitution flights for the whole 2024 season. The WNBA stated Thursday that charters could be “phased in” beginning with this common season “as quickly as sensible.”

The gamers see constitution flights as an enormous assist for well being causes in addition to security causes. It’s going to save time and put on and tear on their our bodies. However it additionally permits groups to keep away from probably uncomfortable conditions in airports, as occurred final season when a YouTube provocateur confronted Phoenix Mercury heart Brittney Griner.

“We have all the time been a league touted as extremely accessible to followers, and that is nothing we need to change,” stated Seattle Storm ahead Nneka Ogwumike, president of the gamers’ union. “However with the evolution of our recreation and the expansion, we’ve to be a little bit extra aware of what that accessibility seems to be like.

“We’re all getting into new territory, the place we’re all going to be experiencing issues we’ve not earlier than. The inflow of those new youthful gamers which are bringing their followings goes to name for issues that perhaps we’ve not completed earlier than. It does not take away the authenticity of us being accessible, however nonetheless maintains the boundaries needed for the gamers to really feel safe.”

Clark’s recognition soared her final two seasons at Iowa and has continued within the WNBA. Different gamers within the 2024 draft class additionally constructed up their profiles whereas in school, helped by NIL offers that made them extra seen by means of endorsements.

No. 2 choose Cameron Brink of the Los Angeles Sparks stated she does not consider she has any points with safety herself. Nonetheless, the Stanford grad is anxious for others.

“I fear for associates of mine — Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark,” Brink stated.

Clark and Reese, the No. 7 choose by the Chicago Sky out of LSU, reached nice heights in recognition whereas nonetheless in school. It is precisely what ladies’s basketball has wanted. Reese and Clark are outgoing and join effectively with followers, and their influence on the WNBA’s recognition is already being felt.

However the recognition can also draw followers with questionable intentions.

“Chicago has completed a fantastic job of having the ability to verify I used to be protected,” Reese stated. “I do know [Sky personnel] have my again. They’re going to say no for one thing I’ll not see [isn’t] greatest for me. I am nonetheless studying to say the phrase ‘no.’

“It is a huge shift, clearly, in ladies’s basketball and issues we’ve not seen earlier than.”

Indiana basic supervisor Lin Dunn stated the Fever took be aware of the safety measures Iowa put in place to take care of the crush of followers who surrounded Clark.

“All of it goes to visibility,” Dunn informed ESPN. “Up to now, our gamers weren’t acknowledged as a lot. However take a look at the hundreds of thousands who watched the Ultimate 4 and the draft. They know who these gamers are. We’re simply being attentive to security extra — all of us, the league and the groups.”

The WNBA has safety briefings with groups and offers them with sources and steering.

“Guaranteeing the security and safety of WNBA gamers is paramount,” commissioner Cathy Engelbert stated in an announcement to ESPN. “The league’s safety insurance policies and area requirements have been developed in session with skilled safety professionals, and the league hires devoted safety representatives in every WNBA group market to work in coordination with the group safety personnel.”

Nonetheless, Las Vegas Aces guard Chelsea Grey reiterated this week that though particular person group safety has improved, she stays involved concerning the league as an entire.

“The Aces have taken the required steps to guard individuals in our group,” Grey stated. “As an entire, I feel the onus remains to be on the groups. With the league, I do not know that the correct precautions have taken place. However the Aces group has been like, ‘If this can be a downside for our gamers, we hear you and let’s make a change.'”

Aces coach Becky Hammon performed 16 years within the WNBA. She stated safety was one of many first subjects she mentioned with Las Vegas administration when she got here again to the WNBA earlier than the 2022 season after eight years as an NBA assistant coach.

“If our gamers need to exit to dinner, I need somebody going there with them,” Hammon stated. “I need them walked to the restaurant and coming again. So we have employed safety to journey with us full time and at each occasion we’ve.”

She stated security is a priority, particularly for gamers who stand out anyway due to their peak and/or public profile.

“We need to be certain that they’re taken care of,” Hammon stated.