It had been a tense week for the WNBA and its players after the league chose to impose $500 fines on three teams for wearing the black warmup shirts in response to recent shootings by and against police officers, saying the shirts were a uniform violation. Members of the Phoenix Mercury, New York Liberty, and Indiana Fever also began wearing black warm-up shirts in protest.
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Seattle Storm and Minnesota Lynx players expressed outrage over social media and tweeted pictures of themselves wearing black shirts with a Martin Luther King Jr. quote before their game.
“Carmelo Anthony also expressed his disapproval for the fines, pointing out that the National Basketball Association was supportive of players who wore hoodies and shirts for Trayvon Martin in 2012”.
In her statement, Borders said that since the league is suspending play until August 26 because of the Olympics, it will be using the extra time to work with players and their union “to make their views known to their fans and the public”. It’s also troubling that Borders is a Black woman, but nevertheless imposed the fines, which were $500 per player and $5,000 per team, and pinned to not following uniform guidelines.
“For a long time we have been trying to get players engaged in the union”, explained Catchings, “more engaged in the issues at hand, [and] having the league behind us 100 % allows us all to be on the same page and really fight for what we believe in”. Several NBA players, including the entire L.A. Lakers team, wore “I Can’t Breathe” shirts in memory of Eric Garner in 2014, but it never spread to half the league, as the WNBA’s stand for racial justice has. We had a traditional response to a nontraditional situation. Charles says she turned her warmup shirt inside out in support of recent shooting victims.
The president stopped short of saying it was a mistake to fine the players, but she did say that she hopes to learn from it.
Washington Mystics players had shirts saying “Black Lives Matters” in the locker room after their game Friday night.
On Saturday, the WNBA announced that it would withdraw its fines against teams and players, according to The Associated Press.
As soon as the fines were announced, numerous players who wore the t-shirts celebrating the riotous BLM movement criticized the move. They’re truly incredible, thoughtful and talented individuals.
The union felt it was unnecessary for the league to issue a memo this week reminding the players of the uniform policy.
“Black lives are in danger each and every day”, explained Mercury center and Olympian, Brittney Griner, “people aren’t aware or don’t want to be aware, so us as athletes need to use our platform to talk about it”. Players criticized the league – which is largely African-American – for punishing teams and players for social activism.
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“I respect Tina (Charles) and the players in the WNBA for their concern and their voices and the passion that they have and for their beliefs”.
