WNBA teams have continued their protests after being fined for showing solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and the slain Dallas police officers. The rules state that the players’ uniforms can not be altered in any way. It’s so screwed up that wearing Black Lives Matter t-shirts was a punishable offense – $500 is a lot of money for some of these women who already don’t make anywhere near their male counterparts. Nothing concrete was decided.
Advertisement
“Through my conversations with players, people need to understand it, as professional athletes we also have hearts”, the Liberty veteran said.
“We appreciate like insane the support we’ve gotten, particularly from the league”, Reeve said. The players have an open invitation with the league. “This is important to us”. We believe in them. “So this is something that directly affects us, and we want to use our voices”.
Right now the players aren’t happy.
Three WNBA teams and several players have been fined for wearing black pregame shirts over the past two weeks to honor those who have lost their lives in the recent shootings. Even following Eric Garner’s death, and the judicial system allowing the police officer who killed him to walk free, the National Basketball Association sported “I Can’t Breathe” t-shirts, without being fined for their actions. As players we have been trying to figure out where were the shirts to support the events going on in our country recently…
In December of 2014, LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Garnett, Deron Williams, Jarrett Jack, and Alan Anderson all wore shirts that said “I Can’t Breathe” on them before their respective games.
Charles is looking forward to discussing future actions at the Olympics, where she’ll have a chance to talk with her teammates on the women’s national team and NBA players on the USA men’s team. Don’t tell us we have a platform and then you penalize us for our platform for speaking and showing our actions.
Fever star and players union president Tamika Catchings also spoke out against the WNBA after the game. You know, just knowing my status, knowing the player I am representing this organization, if anybody was going to wear it, it had to be me. “So we want them to stand with us and support this as well”. However, it is not bad to show support to a certain issue that greatly affects the society but players must be mindful to the rules and regulations set by the league.
“The Adidas black shirts are not regulation”, Borders said. They didnt wear them on Thursday in their matinee game against the Fever opting for their normal black shirts with the Liberty logo. If they hadn’t been issued by the league, and the women had been fined for showing their support, it would have been obvious to call the league homophobic. The players were not fined for their actions. They were just disappointed.
Advertisement
New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony – an outspoken figure on the most prevalent issues in the United States today – took exception.
