WNBA gets a diversity black eye

Three WNBA head coaches have been fired since the playoffs began a couple of weeks ago.  Two of them are Black females.  

Teresa Weatherspoon and Tanisha Wright both are former league players and have coaching experience either as an NBA assistant and college head coach (Weatherspoon) or as a former W assistant before getting her first head coach opportunity (Wright). Both were axed in a nearly two-week span by their former employers, Chicago and Atlanta respectively.

Both firings were surprising, though in Wright’s case somewhat expected since her Dream underachieved this season. Chicago wasn’t expected to make the playoffs but contended for the last eighth spot up until the final week of the season in Weatherspoon’s first and now only season with the Sky.

The Sky now will be on its third coaching search in barely two years. Wright led Atlanta to two playoff appearances in her three years as HC, but the Dream hasn’t had a winning season since 2018.

“The pressure to win is greater than ever,” said an ESPN article last week. The two Black coaches, along with Curt Miller, who LA fired after two seasons there, all had injuries to work around all season, which the article noted, “had they not occurred, could have changed their seasons.”

“We often get the dumpster fires,” Coquese Washington told me at Big Ten media days in Chicago last week. Washington, a former WNBA player, has been a longtime college coach. She is now at Rutgers since 2022, but once was fired at Penn State after some down seasons. She won three consecutive Big Ten regular season championships before that.  

Washington’s “dumpster fires” reference is to the frequent case where Black coaches are hired by struggling franchises or collegiate programs and unrealistically expected to be miracle workers. When the expectation isn’t met, they are shown the door out.

The old axiom “last hired, first fired” clearly applies to Blacks in coaching, as is often the case in working society. “We don’t always get the great jobs with the infrastructure in place,” continued Washington. 

This wasn’t the case for her, who succeeded the now-retired Hall of Famer C. Vivian Stringer and was fully supported by school higher-ups. “Then you have to be given time to do that if you want it done in a way to promote long-term success.”

Some would say Wright, who went into coaching after 14 seasons as a player, did get enough time. But they also argue that Weatherspoon certainly didn’t after only a year on the job. Unfortunately, this reflects the historical failing that Black coaches are too often not given the full benefit of the doubt or full support, unlike their non-Black counterparts.

This has been a tough couple of weeks or so for America’s longest running women’s pro basketball league. First, Commissioner Cathy Engelbert did not make things right when her initial comments went public to address the viral threats the league’s Black players have received all season long from new fans following the W sorely because of Indiana rookie Caitlin Clark.

Then, Connecticut’s Alyssa Thomas took some criticism when she spoke out against Indiana fans who have hurled racial brickbats at her and other Black players on social media and sometimes at games, all in the guise of supporting Clark, a White player.

Then, the WNBA Players Association came out with a strong statement, their second such statement decrying what has been happening this season to its rank-and-file members It calls for the revocation of a White female journalist after her seemingly racist questioning of Thomas’ teammate DiJonai Carrington after an on-court collision between her and Clark that resulted in a black eye to Clark. 

Both players said it wasn’t intentional. However, the journalist—who we later learned is working on a book on Clark—has been openly protective of the rookie.

Now comes the firing of two Black HCs, which if things stay the course leaves Seattle’s Noelle Quinn as the only Black coach in a majority-Black women’s league. Along with Clark, the W has a diversity black eye as a result.

Charles Hallman welcomes reader comments to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.