Phoenix Mercury’s Brittney Griner says suspension is symptom of WNBA’s bigger drawback
Mechelle VoepelespnW.com
CloseMechelle Voepel covers the WNBA, ladies’s faculty basketball, and different faculty sports activities for espnW. Voepel started masking ladies’s basketball in 1984, and has been with ESPN since 1996.
When the skirmish broke out in Saturday’s Phoenix-Dallas recreation, the preliminary key questions had been how lengthy Brittney Griner could be suspended and the way it will have an effect on the Mercury’s playoff hopes.
However since then, one other massive query has arisen: How a lot has this incident and subsequent punishment broken Griner’s relationship with the WNBA? Based mostly on what she has mentioned, it is quite a bit.
That highlights a much bigger battle than what occurred on court docket Saturday: The league’s stars, specifically, really feel they’re undervalued and underappreciated by the WNBA. And that is one thing new commissioner Cathy Engelbert cannot ignore as she makes an attempt to place her management stamp on the league.
Tuesday, Griner was suspended three video games. Even with out their 6-foot-9 heart, the Mercury seemingly will not lose all three. Every recreation she’s out is at house: Wednesday in opposition to Connecticut (ESPN2, 10 p.m. ET), Friday in opposition to Atlanta, and Sunday vs. New York. At 11-12 and at present in eighth place, the Mercury’s odds of being within the postseason are nonetheless fairly good.
Diana Taurasi, left, and Brittney Griner have spoken out just lately about what they understand because the WNBA’s general lack of dedication to look out for its gamers. Barry Gossage/NBAE by way of Getty Photographs
Griner is not contesting the size of her suspension, however mentioned she felt it was unfair that the first Dallas gamers concerned — Kristine Anigwe and Kayla Thornton — had been suspended simply two video games.
Monday, Griner despatched a type of warning shot throughout the bow of the WNBA, telling Arizona Republic reporter Jeff Metcalfe that the league’s resolution may find yourself influencing her future within the WNBA. Requested by ESPN on Tuesday, after the suspensions had been introduced, if her remarks nonetheless stood, Griner mentioned they did.
“Does it affect my profession within the WNBA? Sure, it does,” Griner instructed ESPN. “Not proper now, this second. However how lengthy I am going, yeah, it is undoubtedly going to have an effect on it. I imply, I really like taking part in for the Mercury; that is the one motive I am taking part in right here proper now. Positively not taking part in for the W. The W do not do nothing.”
Is that this a case of Griner blowing off steam whereas the incident remains to be recent? Or may we actually see her take a break — even perhaps an prolonged one — from taking part in within the WNBA after this season?
As for the punishments, Dallas’ standpoint is that Griner elbowed Anigwe within the face first Saturday. Phoenix disagrees, saying Anigwe had engaged in extreme contact with Griner in earlier video games — when she was nonetheless with the Connecticut Solar, who drafted her — and that each one Griner did Saturday was defend herself, since she felt the referees weren’t doing that.
The league, in its launch, says Anigwe instigated the incident, however that Griner escalated it, threw punches, and pushed Thornton within the face. Therefore, one further recreation of suspension.
2 Associated
I do not know all the data the league was working with. However primarily based solely on what we noticed, I would not have any quarrel with all three gamers getting the identical suspension. I may see the league’s view that Griner’s escalation, which included contact with an official who was making an attempt to calm her down, warranted one further recreation. As with all such scuffles, either side is satisfied it’s right.
However that is about way more than this incident and these suspensions.
Griner is a former No. 1 draft choose, a WNBA champion, an Olympic gold medalist, a seven-year veteran, and it is clear that she feels she has been disrespected by the league. Not simply in regard to this incident, however by how bodily play in opposition to her has been referred to as her complete profession.
Teammate Diana Taurasi, who was suspended one recreation for leaving the bench Saturday, criticized the referees for letting issues get out of hand. Complaining about officers — both for calling too many fouls or not sufficient — is an everyday a part of basketball in any respect ranges. (And one thing Taurasi has executed quite a bit.)
However on this case, Taurasi and Griner hyperlink this difficulty with officers to what they see because the WNBA’s general lack of dedication to look out for its gamers — significantly the marquee gamers.
Prime gamers command larger salaries and extra perks abroad. So the WNBA’s salary-structure rigidity is considerably of an irritant for them, because it typically retains the league’s stars from maximizing their incomes potential the best way stars do in different professional leagues. The gamers’ union should stability this in its present collective bargaining negotiations with the league: advocating for higher salaries, journey situations, and many others., for all gamers, whereas additionally making an attempt to satisfy the needs of the WNBA’s stars.
These are realities in all skilled sports activities; it is a cauldron that has been effervescent for fairly some time within the WNBA.
Taurasi has turn out to be an increasing number of important lately about what she sees because the WNBA’s flaws that have not been mounted throughout her profession. She makes use of hyperbole to comedic impact at instances, however there is not any mistaking that she’s upset — not together with her franchise, however the league’s management. Griner voiced related sentiments, praising the Mercury however castigating the league.
Taurasi sat out the 2015 WNBA season on the request of her Russian crew, which paid her way more than she received within the WNBA. Griner additionally makes way more abroad and will do the identical factor, though the WNBA gives visibility that abroad leagues do not. And their WNBA success is no less than some a part of what builds gamers’ profiles for abroad compensation.
“I really like taking part in for the Mercury; that is the one motive I am taking part in right here proper now. Positively not taking part in for the W. The W do not do nothing.”
Brittney Griner
How do gamers stability their very own self-interest vs. their assist of a league nonetheless in progress mode and making an attempt to turn out to be self-sustaining? That has been a debate for a very long time.
The reply was computerized within the league’s early years, when all of the gamers concerned had grown up with out the WNBA. Gamers had points then with wage, journey, perks, services, officiating, and many others., too, however did not speak a lot publicly about it. Additionally they did not have social media to amplify their considerations and generally turn out to be an echo chamber.
On the similar time, any enterprise that will not hearken to criticism from its workers has sustainability issues anyway. The WNBA must be sturdy sufficient to listen to and reply to the gamers’ complaints, however that criticism additionally must be constructive and real looking.
If this one incident pushed Griner away from the WNBA, that will be an overreaction on her half. However she signifies it is a long-building disenchantment the place she feels her considerations have been ignored. And she or he’s not the one participant to really feel that approach.
Engelbert simply joined the league in July, so her credibility with gamers is being established proper now. A marquee participant saying she feels no obligation or connection to the league — even when these statements sound extreme — ought to be a priority for Engelbert, and immediate a dialogue with Griner.
Communication with gamers hasn’t been the league’s strongest trait, however it must be.