Portnoy slams WNBA as ‘least serious league’ over | Sports News

Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy didn’t maintain back this weekend, calling the WNBA “truly the least serious league that has ever existed” in a post on X, reacting particularly to a CNN Sports function by veteran journalist Christine Brennan detailing a contentious incident involving Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark. Portnoy not too long ago was infuriated by the WNBA’s determination to research alleged racism in the direction of Chicago Sky ahead Angel Reese. 

Portnoy’s commentary got here after CNN printed an excerpt of Brennan’s upcoming novel, “On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women’s Sports” on Sunday. The piece recounts an uncomfortable second in September 2024 when Brennan pressed Connecticut Sun’s DiJonai Carrington on whether or not a play that injured Clark was intentional, sparking backlash from the WNBA Players Association, gamers and media. At the time, Portnoy slammed the officers for not calling a foul on the play. 

In her article, Brennan explains that after a media session at Mohegan Sun Arena, she requested Carrington, “when you… swatted at Caitlin… did you intend to hit her in the eye?” Carrington responded, “I didn’t know I hit her actually… I was trying to make a play on the ball,” and added she didn’t snort about it later within the sport.

The exchange escalated when teammate DeWanna Bonner approached Brennan, accusing her of disrespecting Carrington. The WNBA Players Association subsequently issued a sturdy rebuttal, condemning “baiting” and alleging media bias.

Brennan defended her strategy, stating she requested related exhausting questions of male athletes. She shared footage of the exchange; Bonner nonetheless confronted her.

WNBA officers and groups later inserted themselves into the state of affairs, attempting to handle communications and disputed the gamers union’s narrative, saying the questions had been legitimate and “not vulgar or inappropriate.”

One WNBA official privately advised Brennan, “most of our players have zero idea what real media exposure is… they’ve been shielded at college,” exhibiting a wider debate over journalistic requirements in girls’s sports activities.

Portnoy’s sharp critique on X — calling the WNBA “truly the least serious league” — drives home his perception that the league overreacted to a customary journalistic inquiry.

DON’T MISS…

This veers into broader pressure, the place Portnoy has not too long ago amplified his help for Caitlin Clark amid a number of controversies — from bodily play incidents involving gamers like Marina Mabrey to perceptions of racial bias in fan conduct — usually utilizing his high-profile platform to problem league selections.

The Brennan-Portnoy exchange highlights two basic trends: the growing pains of a revolutionized WNBA pushed by Caitlin Clark’s star ascent and the conflict between more and more aggressive media protection and athletes searching for safety from misinterpretation or sensationalism.

Yet sports activities analysts — together with CNN’s Jake Tapper, The Poynter Report’s Tom Jones and Boston Globe sports activities columnist Tara Sullivan — facet with Brennan, seeing her as fulfilling the important function of holding athletes accountable and treating girls’s sports activities with the identical rigor as males’s.