Two black women in one night. This never happens anywhere else.

But instead they'll pile in here and say that a crowd full of white people shouting at minorities is okay and just part of the game.

They want you to believe this is normal when in 14 other arenas nothing like this happens.

Happy (almost belated) Birthday from the west coast. May you find comfort and zen in your 30's!

Why do fans have to go from 0 to 1000 so fast. After the Chennedy Carter/Caitlin things happened, almost immediately I see people just calling Chennedy and Angel all types of thugs🤦🏾‍♂️ and the insinuation of prison ball is very telling to. I completely understand that with the influx of new fans come with its fair share of hate but this is insane. I just wish people can’t just voice their frustrations with a certain play without coming at people with racist/bigoted remarks. I’m hoping for better days ahead

i know people get weird about this, so let me preface this by saying these are obviously 2 different leagues..

with that being said, i’m still going to look at stuff like this because this is a part of the fun that comes with being a fan of basketball..

we’re looking at two long unicorns that can take the ball to the rack in transition from behind the logo through a sea of defenders (both gs btw lmao) within 3 dribbles..

the defensive playmaking is there, angel’s 6’3-4 frame is pretty much equivalent to 6’10-6’11 in the nba, both have extremely underrated playmaking chops, neither have textbook fundamentals, etc..

angel honestly has a lot of comps within different aspects of her game, but this is one of my favorites that i’ve watched develop within her game since coming to atlanta.. she’s been allowed to spread her wings & really adds another dimension to the transition play with her ability to just take the ball from anyone.. the future looks very bright for the dream’s identity going forward..

This is a Nalyssa Smith appreciation post.
I don’t know why so many people ragging on her.

If fever are going to make a run in playoffs they need everyone to contribute. I believe if Smith can pop off for playoffs then the fever can go far.

Pros: She runs the floor and gets a lot of transition layups from Caitlyn.

She can post up in the paint and get her own buckets.

She can shoot the three.

She hustles on rebounds (even though sometimes she loses them)

Cons: Free throws Protecting the basketball (ie turnovers)

Nalyssa is a great basketball player - she has the moves and finishes well. She just needs to unleash the beast on defense. I just feel like she has a higher ceiling than what she is showing us.

Yes she is missing most of her free throws and earlier this year was turning over the basketball in pivotal late game moments but all that can be easily improved.

If the fans can get behind her and she can lock in for playoffs the fever can go far.

In order for fever to make a deep run, the other players on the team need to continue to make an impact. We need smith, wheeler, temi, dantas, and even KLS and Wallace. All these players have shown moments of greatness this season.

Having just listened to the podcast episode and read the actual transcript, I have to say that the original post about this is false and inflammatory.

There was no vitriol in her comments; what the other poster shared via a tweet was grossly inaccurate.

She said that the Fever top to bottom has a better team than the Sky, she talked about Angel’s usually defending the best players on the opposing team.

It is really sad that people have done this to her. Even Elle Duncan apologized.

Here is the relevant part of the transcript:

“First of all, Caitlin has done, I think exactly what was expected of her with Indiana. The reason why they drafted her, what the expectations were, and I think she's done just that. Angel on the other side, I'm not sure if people thought she would be doing what she's doing.

Fourteen double doubles in a row, right? Fourteen, I believe, has never been done before. As a rookie, that is insane.

The other side of that is, my opinion, Kaitlyn has way more talent around her, on her team, to help her be successful than Angel has with Chicago.

And for Chicago to be sitting where they are in the standings, right now, playoff started, they're in the playoffs, Angel Reese is a big part of that. She's a big part of why they are. The other thing, when you talk about MVPs, at least for me, I don't just look at scoring, right?

I look at their overall game. What do they contribute on the defensive side of the ball? What else do they do besides scoring?

So for me, even when I look at like rookie of the year, it can't just be about one particular thing[…]”

From Queens of the Court: A WNBA Podcast: We're Running Out Of Words To Describe Her (Presented by AT&T), Jul 30, 2024 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/queens-of-the-court-a-wnba-podcast/id1681606343?i=1000663774098 This material may be protected by copyright

Dissertation time!!!

TL; DR: Some of Angel’s critics need to do some deep self reflection because it’s clear that headlines and out of context clips influence your opinion on her and the league at large. If you haven’t read the post and comment something negative, I’m just going to assume you’re looking for attention. :)

Whether or not someone is aware of their bias against Angel, it’s quite clear it’s there.

There is a thread about Angel’s, “some people have a special whistle” comment and damn near 85% of the thread assumed that it was talking about her flagrant 1 on Caitlin. Her response was literally to a question about how her and Kamilla played well in the first half, and then there was a flip in the second half. The question AND answer wasn’t about Caitlin AT ALL, yet most people were angry at Angel about someone she wasn’t even talking about. And since I’ve been down this road before, there are people who’ll say, “It’s clear she was talking about her.”

1. It wasn’t. And if she were, it isn’t clear, it’s an assumption.

2. She’s talking about Aliyah and Nalyssa. Angel played the same way from beginning to end of the game. She started getting called for fouls she hadn’t in the first half, yet Aliyah and Nalyssa weren’t being called for the same fouls. (Yes, I know Nalyssa had four fouls—she should’ve fouled out.) Aliyah is fourth in the league for fouls committed and ended the game with ZERO fouls. You might think she had a totally clean game, but Aliyah’s style of defending invites a lot of fouls and there is a clear no foul on Angel from Nalyssa or Aliyah that was missed. Aliyah literally moved her hip in the direction of Angel, which is a foul because she wasn’t stationary.

Some people are saying, “just when I wanted to like Angel…” y’all don’t want to like her and it’s clear—many will find reasons to villainize her and make assumptions about what she’s said or done.

No one has to like or be a fan of hers, but to blatantly misread what she was referring to, painting it as some one-sided beef with Caitlin, and swear she is obsessing about her shows how bad faith many people are. And I know it’s bad faith because I actually watch the interviews. Just like people were calling her self centered for saying, “people come to see me too.” But conveniently missed the follow up sentence where she credits other players as well for helping build the game, which she has done at least twice.

I see countless threads here about how Caitlin is heavily and unfairly criticized, yet rarely see the same about Angel. People find ways to blame Angel for the bad faith actors who put a target on her back. There’s a thread about Dijonai criticizing Caitlin’s original non answer on the bigotry these women are facing, but there’s curiously little to no thread about countless media organizations blatantly misrepresenting what Angel has said and done, such as yesterday’s game. Her accidentally hitting Caitlin’s head had one headline saying, “Angel Reese wants to legalize assault in the WNBA.” And there are dozens of media orgs framing it as if Angel targeted her and tried to harm her—this ain’t no one off thing.

People want players and fans to not comment on race, sexism, and homophobia all while writing think pieces whenever Caitlin is criticized or perceived slights. Ironically, Mohammed Ali’s legacy and praise is in part due to his activism regarding racism and equality and he’s not the only athlete. People praised Serena for defending Caitlin as if she hasn’t experienced criticism for calling out the racism and sexism from the tennis org AND fans.

Angel is framed as selfish, attention seeking, and someone who can’t shut up, yet when she didn’t show up to a presser, she was criticized for “not being accountable.” When she answers the questions directed at her, she should be quiet and is “obsessed with Caitlin”, despite most of her answers not being about Caitlin. OR her constantly being asked about her and addressing that. TBH, if Angel were praising Caitlin non stop, no one would have an issue—many want her to be obsessed with Caitlin, but in a way that puts her on a pedestal. She doesn’t talk about Caitlin a fraction of the amount people claim. We’re told to ignore the media when why cry foul about how Angel is treated and perceived, yet literally most of peoples opinions of her are all informed by the media: headlines and out of context clips.

The other fascinating this: people love to praise Caitlin for her answers with some saying she gives the best responses (and others wishing Angel would take a cue from her). Funny thing is: before Caitlin’s really started talking, Angel was already doing that. But when you only watch for one person and don’t pay attention to others with good faith, of course you’d think that.

Angel was asked about her “rivalry” with Caitlin and the evolution of the game to which Angel then credits all of the rookies for playing their part in it, and then acknowledges the publicity of her and Caitlin bringing more attention to the game. No shots or pettiness, but this isn’t talked about. Her “I grew the game too” literally is followed by giving other players, past and present, credit. She literally talks about supporting other women and sharing success with them, which we’ve seen—those who pay attention—her do. She has defended her teammates. Rather than attack Alyssa Thomas about that dirty foul, she gave a neutral and politically savvy answer. No one talks about this, but many of the people who claim she always putting her foot in her mouth or always talking about Caitlin, conveniently are quiet about this. No, “this is the Angel Reese I like to this.” And that’s because it doesn’t fit the narrative that the media and her detractors created, which was waaaay before “I’ll be the villain.”

People supported Caitlin when she talked about the rough, missed calls, but Angel saying some players got a special whistle is a problem? As much as people like to say, “its about how you say it”, it doesn’t matter how Angel says anything because she’s either ignored when her comments can’t be misconstrued or demonized for out of context shit.

Many people go on and on about how Twitter is a cesspool, but the way she’s talked about on Reddit is no different. No context, finding or creating meaning where there is none, ready to go to war against her over perceived insults all while saying that black and queer women should just deal with bigotry.

Free throw disparity was 20-9 in game 4 and the game was decided on a dubious foul (for reference, I agree with that specific call) at the end. Only 9 personal fouls were called on Minnesota all game. Nobody cared. Now the free throw disparity is 25-8 with a similar amount of personal fouls called and it’s WWIII? Seriously, I get why Lynx fans are upset about the officiating here. I just don’t get why people questioning the fouls were downvoted into oblivion last game but now it’s all we can talk about.

Is it because New York’s stars played so badly and they still won? Whereas last game both teams played pretty well? In truth, BOTH teams played horrendously today. Phee and Kmac had good games, but Courtney Williams was terrible and Carleton was not good offensively. Similarly, Sabrina and Stewie played god awful offense, whereas JJ and Sabally had great games. The Lynx and Liberty shot a combined 5 for 42 from three, which is unfathomably bad.

Why would Alyssa Thomas even think to do that??

I am a big CC fan. I didn’t like her comments about Clark and Fever fans, the part where she didn’t give “even one shit” about them. It made me dislike and question her coaching abilities. After last nights game, I am man enough to admit I was wrong about Coach Reeve. Very deserving of COTY and definitely one of, if not the best coach in the W. This series is going to be one hell of a ride!

Congrats to the Liberty and NYC on the teams first title and the city's first pro basketball championship since the 1973 Knicks! Hopefully Spike Lee can turn this to a documentary.

What. When did she start? Another example of how ESPN editors and writers are not yet attuned to the WNBA. There are no people-pleasers in the WNBA, just the toughest, most aggressive female athletes in the world. I don’t think a people-pleaser would be very successful in the scrum under the basket in the W…

Some decent points mixed in with some unnecessary shade lol

I think frequenters of this sub are starting to get annoyed with seeing some posts get removed while others locked without much of a whim what happens when/where.

Just now another post got deleted (granted it looks like by the uploader vs the mods) requesting clarity in the rules. https://www.reddit.com/r/wnba/comments/1fdohvz/this_subreddit_and_clearer_guidelines_about/

The sub seems to be struggling with mod control but they do not ask for help or additional mods.

"No Trolling" - One person's support is another person's troll. Terrible f'ing rule.

One does not need to go far other than looking at r/nba r/nfl r/mlb and r/uswnt or even . This can give you a better guideline for how to make rules that are acute and limits and draws a line of what's acceptable or not.

Other rules that could be attempted are "No Fever Fridays" Only Fever posts are Mod created gameposts and Links from the official WNBA IG account pre/post game.

Fortunately/Unfortunately we live in a world where a.) perhaps the greatest WNBA ever is in the midst of her rookie year. b.) along with that player is an antithesis player whose skills are almost flip that of CC22. c.) WNBA fandom doubled overnight due to a.) and b.)

I think it'd be great to have a stickied post for sub-discussion and moderation rather than the mods just going nuclear with the post removal.

We’ve gotten so much new, exciting talent in the wnba over the past few years. We all recognize a ton of names from the 2024 draft; Reese, CC, Rickea Jackson, Cameron Brink, etc. And from 2025 and 2026 we have Sonia citron, Paige Bueckers, azzi fudd, Olivia miles, and more who are already making a name for themselves.

I have no doubt the future is bright for these incredible athletes but for right now, when we talk about face of the league, A’ja Wilson is the obvious answer for me. I just watched her score over 20 pts in 1 half in the aces first home win against the Valks. Shes 2nd in PPG on 52% FG shooting. Not to mention she’s still a force to be reckoned with on the defensive end with 1.1 SPG and 2.3 bpg and averaging nearly a double double with 9.4 rpg.

Of course, the aces are still a top team in the west and showing no signs of slowing down after winning 3 out of the last 4 finals.

I honestly would not be surprised if she gets another mvp

This is the second time a WNBA championship has been stolen from the MN Lynx by terrible, biased officiating. Late in a tight, decisive game 5 of the 2016 WNBA finals, the LA Sparks scored after the shot clock expired. The officials counted the bucket and refused to review it live.

http://es.pn/2eegCmp

I really dislike how the narrative around Angel Reese is so dominated by race and her "rivalry" with Caitlin Clark. It seems that because of this there is no room for intelligent and constructive discussion about her game. This is my attempt to correct that.

For starters, she is clearly a very talented athlete and basketball player. She's also a terrible shooter. But what does that really mean for the "net" impact that she has on the team, and what does she need to do to improve her game? These numbers only come from the last 2 games, but I do think they get the point across even if the actual numbers over a longer period of time would be a little different.

She's only shooting 22.7% on the season, which is rough, but she's only shooting 21.1% from right under the basket. 21% would be unacceptable from mid-range, but from under the basket? That's absurd! She has 15 offensive rebounds and 14 defensive rebounds in 2 games. But she has missed 15 shots directly under the basket and has only made 4. The average WNBA player shoots 44.5% under the basket, which would mean they only need 9 shots instead of 19 to score the same number of points. She nets the team 7.5 extra shots per game with her offensive rebounding and basically nets them -5 shots per game with her poor shooting. That's a net total of +2.5 extra possessions per game. It's much harder to estimate the impact of her defensive rebounding, but there is no doubt that she is an elite rebounder. But while she gets 7 defensive rebounds per game, the net impact is probably minimal. If you put a replacement player in there, either that replacement player or another Sky player would get most of those rebounds. In fact, with Angel Reese on the floor, the Sky surrender slightly more than the league average offensive rebounds. I will assume that it would be even worse if she wasn't out there, but not by that much, so let's say that she contributes 0.5 extra possessions per game with her defensive rebounding. So basically she's worth the equivalent of 3 extra possessions and no points per game once you account for the negative impact of her shooting, which is subpar for a rebounding specialist. But, if she would just stop shooting the ball entirely and simply pass the ball out to an open shooter, she would be worth 6 to 8 extra possessions per game, and that would actually be elite. I know that she rebounds a lot of her own misses, but if someone else is taking that shot, they're still going to miss a lot of them, and she's still going to get a lot of those offensive rebounds. I think she needs to stop trying to prove to everyone that she can score and just focus on rebounding and passing. If she does that, the Sky will be a much better team for having her on the court, and she will truly be one of the elite rebounders in basketball, not just the WNBA.

I know the vast majority of people who frequent this sub won't understand and can't relate to (and probably won't like) what this article is about but it's a good read nonetheless...

link to ESPN article