‘Focused on the finals’: WNBA players ignore President Trump’s national anthem warning
· Yahoo Sports
United States President Donald Trump took aim at the WNBA last week, criticizing players in the WNBA Finals for leaving the court before the national anthem and telling fans to stop watching the league. The players, however, don’t seem to be all that worried about what he has to say.
Members of both the Atlanta Dream and Golden State Valkyries were asked about Trump’s comments and made it clear that they’re simply keeping their focus on the series at hand.
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Trump Takes Aim At WNBA
Throughout the WNBA Finals, both teams have left the court before the anthem, returning once it ends. While this has recently attracted a lot of attention, it’s not exactly new. Many teams have made it part of their pregame routine for many years.
The WNBA rulebook does lay out what’s supposed to happen during the anthem, but “the protocols were suspended years ago,” according to Doug Feinberg of the Associated Press. Since then, many teams have left the court during the anthem.
That didn’t stop Trump from weighing in at a rally in Iowa last week.
“By the way, what’s going on with the women’s NBA? What’s that all about?” Trump said, via ESPN. “You know, they’ll destroy themselves before they get started, because they just started to do good.”
“You know, the NFL did that for a while and they stopped because people stopped watching the games,” he added. “I think you should do the same thing with women’s basketball.”
‘Focused On The Finals’
While Trump and conservative commentators might be making this a story throughout the Finals, the players are refusing to participate in the controversy.
Speaking at practice on Friday, Dream guard Allisha Gray made it clear that she wasn’t letting the criticism distract her.
“I’m focused on the Finals,” Gray said, via ESPN. “I am not really on social media and listening to what people are saying.”
Kiah Stokes of the Valkyries said the same.
“For me, it’s staying off social media. It’s just going inward with our teammates and staff,” Stokes said. “Staying together. That’s been one of our keys all season.”
Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase also said leaving the court during the anthem has simply been “part of our pregame,” according to OutKick’s Dan Zaksheske. And Valkyries forward Gabby Williams said it isn’t a protest, telling OutKick, “That’s been the routine for like, seven years now.”
WNBA Remains Silent
The WNBA has also chosen not to comment on Trump’s remarks. That’s been the league’s approach to most of the “controversies” surrounding it this season, as it has largely chosen to ignore the manufactured outrage.
When Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White declared their intent to enter the WNBA Draft, a league source said the WNBA “will not allow outside pressure or manufactured controversy to dictate league processes,” according to Front Office Sports.
And much of the online outrage around the league has been driven by just a handful of posts. An analysis by GUDEA of more than 188,000 posts about the WNBA’s transgender athlete debate found that nearly 99% were on X.
“If you take out the eight top posts, this [narrative] didn’t happen. Nobody would be talking about this,” GUDEA founder Keith Presley said, via Rolling Stone.
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