By Ray Cardello for August 24, 2026, Season 32 / Post  49

This should not be difficult. You have a women’s basketball league that has been around for a few decades with little attention. The games were played in front of small turnouts in small arenas and even lower TV ratings. Some good players were fed to the league by schools like UConn, Baylor, and even So. Carolina, but the league never generated much excitement. Then came the equivalent of Tiger Woods in a phenom from Iowa who had rewritten the NCAA record books. Caitlin Clark began making a name for herself when she set her sights on the all-time scoring record for Division I basketball. It didn’t hurt that Clark was in the shooting zone as soon as she crossed half court. Her passing and shooting were so dominant that she was like a female version of the Globetrotters without the comedy.

Instead of cashing in on Clark’s popularity, the league has done many things to counter her positive impact. The league has not only had a difficult job in defining the W (stands for women) in their name, but also cannot stay out of the fray about biological men playing in the all-female league. This league does not have a communications problem; it has a policy problem and needs to topple its hierarchy, or it will devour itself. Some of the recent decisions that have kept the league in the news go beyond confusion or hypocrisy. Last week, a mother and daughter who were sitting in front-row seats they paid $1,000 a piece for were asked to change their shirts or leave the building because someone was offended. The shirts only had Xs and Ys denoting chromosomes, making one wonder how that could be offensive. At another game that same week, a head coach wore a pro-trans T-shirt under her jacket. The Canadian team introduced an asexual mascot this week, and former NBA star Enes Kanter Freedom was evicted from a game after one of the Chicago players started an altercation by yelling at the man who has declared for the upcoming WNBA draft. While these pro-women fans were being harassed by security, teams were blasting pro-trans messages on the jumbotrons. Talk about in your face. Were the teams entertaining any complaints about the use of center-court media screens? I highly doubt it.

In the game between Indiana and Chicago that Freedom was ejected from the stands, Caitlin Clark set a record by hitting 8 three-point shots. Nobody was talking about the on-court accomplishments because they were all too busy with the political issues. The WNBA is no longer about the game, protecting women in sports, or celebrating the newest talent that shows how much this sport has progressed. The league’s number-one asset and golden ticket is still being brutally fouled, and it is only a matter of time before she either suffers a career-ending injury or gives up the game for self-preservation. In the meantime, the WNBA is wasting Clark’s career and tremendous impact on the league’s future.

Author’s Note: Graphics created by Grok AI. Grok’s comments about the images: This one captures the pure athletic force the article is talking about. The player is locked in, mid-release on a deep three, arena packed and electric — exactly the kind of moment that should define the WNBA right now. No political noise, no distractions, just skill, power, and the kind of dominance that rewrites records.

It’s a reminder of what the league is supposed to be selling: elite women’s basketball. The talent is there. The stage is there. The only question left is whether the league will get out of its own way long enough to let that talent actually shine.