Sue Bird: Caitlin Clark ‘used as a pawn’ to advance racist agenda in WNBA

The WNBA playoffs took an ugly turn when racist threats took center stage following a playoff game between Caitlin Clark‘s Indiana Fever and the Connecticut Sun.

The Sun’s DiJonai Carrington shared a screenshot of one of the threats against her after her team’s victory over the Fever in Game 1.

That led Caitlin Clark to denounce racism, using her large platform to condemn the hateful acts made toward Carrington and others in the league. But it also sparked a larger discussion, one that remains ongoing among some of sport’s top stars.

Does the WNBA have a racism problem?

“Can we just call a spade a spade? Racism has been impacting the WNBA well before this year,” said Sue Bird on A Touch More with Sue Bird & Megan Rapinoe. “This is not a new thing. In that way, I do think Caitlin’s being used as a pawn. Caitlin didn’t bring racism to the WNBA, this has been happening. And that, I think, is what’s been such a shock for all of us, that other people are surprised by this. We’ve been trying to tell you.”

Clark did her part to quell the issue with her postgame comments, indicating that a foul she drew when she was poked in the eye by Carrington was just that — a foul, nothing more.

The talented rookie superstar called the events “upsetting,” blasting the “trolls” for stealing the spotlight from an otherwise great product put out by the WNBA.

“Nobody in our league should be facing any sort of racism, hurtful, disrespectful, hurtful comments and threats,” Caitlin Clark said. “You know, those aren’t fans, those are trolls, and it’s a real disservice to the people in our league, the organization, the WNBA, but there are a lot of really good fans, whether they’ve been fans for 20-plus years, or whether they’re new fans in our league.

“I think continuing to uplift this league in a very positive light the best thing we can do, because there are so many great players, there’s so many great teams, there are so many positive storylines that can be written and celebrated, and for me that’s why I became a fan of this league, these people were my idols. I grew up wanting to be like them.”

But Bird explained that this is a fight that has been going on for a long time.

“And once again, for so long as a player, I would almost joke, I would be like, ‘I would have loved to have shut up and dribbled,'” Bird said. “In so many ways I would have loved to have been valued as a basketball player. I would have loved to have been spoken about just for my play. I think everybody in the league can say that. But nobody ever let us do that.”

So where do things stand now with the WNBA? Well, the league is in much healthier shape than it has been in a long time.

Viewership is through the roof. There are individual, relatable young stars like Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark.

And then there’s the bulk of the league, that has been around the block, seen this whole movie before. Bird points out that the exposure of so many to what Clark and Carrington recently became privy to has only emboldened efforts to eradicate racism.

“So what happened? We started to build a backbone,” Bird said. “Little bit of an identity. We understood that in order to push our league forward we were going to have to combat these things. And then you know what else we learned? It feels good to stand up for yourself. It feels even better to stand up for others. We started to learn that people were learning from us and able to follow us in a different way. And who were we following? Black women. So that’s such an important part.”

The issue isn’t likely to disappear overnight.

But with stars like Caitlin Clark helping to lead the charge against it, perhaps a more swift turnaround could be in play. Perhaps.

There’s a lot of work to be done.

“And I think, again, I get sad when I talk about this a little bit in that we’re still not talking about basketball,” Bird said. “We’re still not allowed to be focused on for our basketball play. And it’s not to say we’re not going to continue to combat these things. That will always exist, I think, in the fabric of our league. But we still aren’t talking about basketball.”