The WNBA’s massive growth in recent years has been paired with record-breaking viewership, multi-year media rights deals, and expansion to 18 teams. However, every time the league has gained mainstream attention, it is rarely for the happenings on the court. Despite all the success, the league is simultaneously facing deep-seated criticism regarding cultural and political wars, and there always seems to be room for controversy in the W. Recently, sports journalist and Barstool host Kevin Clancy has pointed out how so much outside turbulence is affecting the sport.

“It’s all drama. You want to talk about the greatest reality show on earth right now? It’s the WNBA. Things that really get traction on the internet are WAGs, drama, and beef. It is going to grow your league. I think the problem is twofold. One, I don’t think people really care about the results right now. Win or lose, who’s the champion doesn’t really make a difference.” Clancy said in an appearance on Tomi Lahren is Fearless, via X.

“And two, I think you have to be able to still just have the sport be the sport. So when there’s a hard foul, that happens and you either get a technical foul or maybe you get kicked out of the game or suspended, but it doesn’t turn into like a race war or a gender war. So if normal things are happening on the court, the fan is taunting you, and all of a sudden it’s an international incident. It’s like, if you’re going to be a professional league with a lot of eyeballs and a lot of attention, you’ve got to start to act like that.”

While brewing controversies and forced narratives attract the most attention from the general audience, Clancy took it as one of the issues clouding the players’ on-court efforts and team achievements. There is a very recent example that perfectly illustrates what Clancy is talking about.

The WNBA media was in the spotlight with Caitlin Clark after Team USA’s gold medal victory over France in the FIBA Women’s World Cup final. The Indiana Fever star has a well-documented rivalry with Angel Reese since college, and she teamed up with her for only the second time in her career. But what was supposed to be a joyous moment with Team USA celebrating their fifth straight gold medal turned into more outside noise when a reporter asked Clark whether she and Reese had “become friends now.” That question did not sit well with Clark, to say the least.

“We’ve always been friends. Don’t try to do that. Don’t try to do that,” Clark told the reporter, as she believed it to be a false narrative. Clark later returned to confront the reporter for the same.

The Barstool host is not the first to speak on it, though, as multiple players and coaches have addressed it, wanting to put the focus back on basketball.

“The WNBA media, all we ever do is cover everything except basketball. It’s like, ‘What are we doing?’ You can talk about other things; those are great stories; it shows fans who people are outside of the court, but I also think we (have to) keep the main thing the main thing.” Sophie Cunningham said to reporters back in August ahead of a practice session at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

Apart from the in-game results, Clancy also pointed out that every on-court dispute turns into a cultural or race war. This can also be traced back to an incident involving Chicago Sky’s DiJonai Carrington and Cunningham, who has been a primary figure in the ongoing culture wars after she sparked a national controversy on transgender athletes’ place in the WNBA in an ESPN profile back in July.

During a game between the Fever and the Sky back in August, Carrington made contact with Cunningham’s head while trying to stop a fast-break layup. But the guard received a Flagrant 2 foul and was ejected. But the controversy only began there, as immediately after heading to the locker room, Carrington took to Instagram Threads and posted “WHITE PRIVILEGE @indianafever.”

After the game, the Fever guard clarified that race played no role in the officials’ decision to eject the Sky guard. Carrington later revealed her Instagram Threads post was more about a systemic issue, not just the specific Flagrant Foul 2 on her.

Another example Clancy portrayed was fan taunting turning into an “international incident.” This is a reference to an incident involving the now five-time MVP A’ja Wilson’s heated interaction with an Indiana Fever fan in the first round of the playoffs.

With 4:10 remaining in the fourth quarter of Game 2 against the Indiana Fever, the Las Vegas Aces forward was in an off-ball battle with, well, Sophie Cunningham. The Fever guard fell to the floor after a foul was called on her. While she was protesting the call, Wilson spotted a fan pointing straight at her. According to witnesses, the fan wanted the foul to be on Wilson instead. Regardless, the Aces star did not take the gesture kindly and angrily walked towards the fan. If not for Wilson’s teammates stopping her, the situation could have escalated further.

While Wilson was not ejected, she did receive a technical foul for “unsportsmanlike conduct.” It was just another example of a single moment stealing the thunder of a playoff game between two great teams.

Host Tomi Lahren added to Kevin Clancy’s issues with the WNBA. According to her, both Clark and Cunningham are in a deadlock, with the media overly fixated on them and their fellow colleagues not wanting them to have the spotlight.

“They want to go after Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham. And it seems like a league that is made up of mostly black women, and many of those women are lesbian black women, that they really don’t want these two girls getting attention.” Lahren said.

Since her inception in the WNBA, controversy has followed Caitlin Clark. Online commentators have used her name to push their own agendas against other players, and while the Fever star publicly addressed them in 2024 and asked to treat “every single woman in this league with the same amount of respect,” there has been no change. In fact, Clark might be the one not receiving her due respect, and that too from her own colleagues.

Back in July, the WNBA world was shocked when the All-Star voting result was released. This is because, while fans ranked Clark as the No. 2 guard and the media ranked her the No. 3 guard in the league, the players voted her the eleventh-best guard, a steep drop from how fans and media voted. For context, Clark was averaging 21.0 points (fourth in the WNBA at the time) and 7.9 assists (second in the WNBA at the time) in 23 games. Such numbers make one wonder why the Fever star could not even crack the Top 10.

Naturally, such a gap in voting sparked debate across the league, as WNBA legend Candace Parker had some fierce words for the players who believed 10 players were better than Caitlin Clark in her position.

“I think people need to look at themselves in the mirror and realize, man, you got some insecurities. – If you’re sitting down and putting Caitlin Clark as the 11th-best guard… y’all need to go to a therapist and figure out what childhood issues you have.” Parker said.

Instances like these are why Clancy coined the WNBA “the greatest reality show on earth right now.” And throughout the many discourses and controversies surrounding the league, the WNBA has chosen to remain silent on most matters. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert has chosen to retire from her position at the end of this season. She also drew a large amount of scrutiny and public backlash from players, who criticized the league’s governance and leadership, and its handling of player safety and public controversies.

While the current focus is obviously the ongoing WNBA Finals between the Golden State Valkyries and the Atlanta Dream, it remains to be seen if the league will actually take a step forward to address the variety of issues that have clouded the WNBA this season.