is correct about Congressional members being foolish to ask for an investigation. However he is wrong in his assertion that there is not an attack on Caitlin Clark. In her rookie season nearly all of the serious flagrant fouls in the entire season were against her. This being a "physical league" is to paper over conduct that has nothing to do with playing basketball. I have watched this league for years deteriorate into players routinely grabbing an opponent and throwing them to the floor, routinely employ raking each other across the eyes and face and whipping elbows into the face of an opponent not as an occasional occurrence or mistake but as a standard move even when playing without the ball.
The even more egregious part is that much of this never gets called as a foul because the officials are not even third rate level and for the author of the MSNOW article to claim there is not a racial component in the W is laughable since it is called out as recently as a few days ago by Kelsey Plum of the L.A. Sparks. Race has also been made an issue by players, both former and active, about the disparity in endorsement deals etc.
The whole thing has begun to drive fans away from the W and huge numbers of empty seats are common as opposed to the rookie year of Clark. Fans wanted to watch exciting uptempo basketball, great passing and great shooting. They instead have been treated to a game where the league itself had to address in the past off-season the excessive physicality, flagrant fouls and officiating. As far as Caitlin Clark being targeted for excessively physical play I see opponents hit her over and over in ways they do not hit other point guards even given the level of those moves generally in the league. Fans by the many thousands see it along with people in sports media. Apparently the author of the MSNOW article is fine with players being horse-collared from behind and yanked to the ground, purposely poked in the eyes, raked in the face, purposely given hits to the head etc. all because he says the league has a history of physical play. As someone who has followed women's basketball for many, many decades I and many others know what we see with our eyes and we know what is said. The game of basketball, both women's and men's, deserves better than what is shown by the author of the MSNOW article, GQP elected officials, embittered players both active and former and others who want to make the game and a league about axes to grind over societal problems, policies or viewpoints.
After all these years I cannot stomach watching WNBA games no matter who is playing because of the aforementioned sloppy officiating, excessive physicality and low quality of play. Perhaps more players should focus on being able to make their layups, pass the ball, make short jump shots etc. as opposed to how to ram into each other, put an elbow to someone's head/face or collar each other around the neck. Rugby basketball isn't what the fans want and they are making that clear by staying away from games.
The league is horribly mismanaged and can arguably be said to be responsible for the situation getting to this point. For any author from MSNOW or any publication to try and say this is all just the normal way it has been for many years is ignorant at best.
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