Into the fiery cauldron of the Black Lives Matter movement, standing in solidarity are many players in the WNBA who had been violating the League’s on court dress code, wearing black shirts and urging the press in their media availability to ask about the issues.
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Saturday, the WNBA rescinded the fines.
Borders addressed that while the league “expects players to comply with league rules and uniform guidelines”, she also acknowledged the importance of using their platforms as players to bring awareness to certain societal issues.
Borders said that the league was suspended until after the Olympics, and they “plan to use this time to work with our players and their union on ways for the players to make their views known to their fans and public”.
The fines ended up helping the players as well, because it drew even more attention to their cause.
The Indiana Fever, New York Liberty, Phoenix Mercury and their players all faced fines after they chose to wear warmup shirts to speak out about recent fatal shootings involving Alton Sterling, Philando Castile and the Dallas police officers.
And players from both teams at the Liberty-Fever game on Thursday staged a “media blackout”, where they refused to answer any questions about basketball, as Sports Illustrated reported.
“It’s a huge win overall”, Fever All-Star and players’ union president Tamika Catchings told ESPN. We had a traditional response to a nontraditional situation.
Her reversal followed the Rev. Al Sharpton’s offer to pay the $500 fines. They’re truly incredible, thoughtful and talented individuals’. “We want to be able to use our platforms, we want to be able to use our voices”, she continued.
And it will be an interesting test case to see how the league and players respond to each other in public forums when “hot-button” issues come to the fore the next time around. “When we take off our jerseys and we are out there, we could be next”. When we received word from the league, it felt like it was very heavy-handed toward the players. We stood in solidarity with in and they did the same thing in their locker-room so it was very powerful. The Mystics wore “Black Lives Matter” shirts in the locker room after their Friday game.
Monumental Sports and Entertainment backed the players’ efforts, saying “we respect the right of our players to peacefully protest and appreciate them doing so in a manner that promotes dialogue and understanding. We want to make sure they play well on the court and they are happy off the court”.
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THE WOMAN’S National Basketball Association (WNBA) has rescinded fines imposed on teams and players for donning uniforms emblazoned with the words “Black Lives Matter” in support of the victims of on-going police brutality in the US.
