This week, the WNBA fined three teams $5,000 plus $500 per player after wearing warm-up shirts with the phrase “Black Lives Matter”. The league’s decision for doing so was justified by the ladies inability to adhere to uniform guidelines. While that may seem petty, team members from the New York Liberty and Indiana Fever took it a step further and refused to answer any questions that were not related to #BlackLivesMatter or police brutality in an effort to continue the much needed dialogue.
The Liberty’s Tanisha Wright said, “We really feel like there’s still an issue here in America. And we want to be able to use our platforms, we want to be able to use our voices, we don’t want to let anybody silence us and what we want to talk about. It’s unfortunate that the WNBA has fined us and not supported its players.”
The WNBA Players Association released a statement in support of the ladies which read:
“We are extremely disappointed the league chose to punish our players for bringing attention to an issue that continues to impact families and communities across the country. The league’s behavior has been inconsistent. Our players sought only to demonstrate in a constructive way that was consistent with reactions to social issues by NBA players, and with earlier league initiatives, including the recent tragedy affecting the LGBTQ community in Orlando. The league’s decision to try and suppress our players’ desire to express themselves is shortsighted and arbitrary, and we hope they will reconsider.”
What’s seemingly unfair about this entire situation is that the NBA was never fined for wearing shirts in support of Eric Garner. The league has yet to comment on this.
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Source: http://www.excellesports.com/news/wnba-fines-players-teams/, http://fusion.net/story/328651/wnba-media-boycott/amp/
