One day last week, with her team, the Connecticut Sun, in a first-round playoff series against WNBA star Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever, guard DiJonai Carrington was surrounded by a group of reporters. Carrington had swatted Clark in the face while reaching for the ball in the previous game, leaving her with a black eye.
USA Today columnist Christine Brennan had a question: Did you do that on purpose?
No, Carrington said.
Brennan followed up: Were you laughing about it later in the game?
“I just told you I didn’t even know I hit her,” Carrington said.
The exchange came at a thrilling but tense moment for the league, which has long been powered by women of color but has seen its recent success largely attributed to Clark. The attention on the league has never been greater, but players during the series were subject to upticks in online harassment, and security was added at Connecticut’s home arena.
It was with this backdrop that the questions didn’t sit well in the Connecticut locker room, and a few minutes later, the Sun’s DeWanna Bonner confronted Brennan.
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Brennan repeatedly tried to introduce herself and explain what she said as Bonner implored the columnist to treat her teammates like humans. After nearly two minutes of mostly talking past each other, Bonner returned to the locker room. (Brennan confirmed the confrontation to The Washington Post.)
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Brennan, who is working on a book about Clark and routinely appears on TV, approached the other reporters and remarked that something like that wouldn’t happen in the NFL. She asked why the WNBA was so sensitive and told multiple reporters that if anyone had questions about her awareness of the racial dynamics at play, they should read her coverage of former NFL quarterback and activist Colin Kaepernick, among other work stretching back decades. (Brennan is White; Carrington is Black.)
Three days later, the Women’s National Basketball Players Association issued a statement calling for the league to revoke the credential of Brennan, one of the most recognizable sports journalists in the country.
“To unprofessional members of the media like Christine Brennan: You are not fooling anyone. That so-called interview in the name of journalism was a blatant attempt to bait a professional athlete into participating into a narrative that is false and designed to fuel racist, homophobic, and misogynistic vitriol on social media. You cannot hide behind your tenure,” the statement read. It added: “You have abused your privileges and do not deserve the credentials issued to you.”
Brennan, in an interview, called her questions “journalism 101.”
“It’s something that I have done in the entirety of my career,” she said, “and I think every other journalist has done the entirety of his or her career.”
Other journalists, including her boss at USA Today, agreed.
“We reject the notion that the interview perpetuated any narrative other than to get the player’s perspective directly,” USA Today executive sports editor Roxanna Scott said in a statement.
But the saga has nonetheless become a major storyline of the WNBA playoffs, at a time when Clark’s enduring stardom and the league’s unprecedented growth are testing the league’s relationship with the media.
“When I saw the video [of the questions to Carrington], my heart dropped,” Terri Jackson, the executive director of the players union, said in an interview. “I was so upset because we already have people looking to attack these players. We’re talking about being safe at work.”
A WNBA spokesman did not reply to a request for comment. Neither did Scott.
Brennan, 66, is a pioneer in sports journalism. She was the first president of the Association for Women in Sports Media in the 1980s (when she worked for The Washington Post). She remembers going to her editors and asking why the paper didn’t cover the major women’s golf tournaments or the women’s Final Four — and promptly got some of those assignments.
“I cannot tell you the number of times my male colleagues — and some of them dear friends — have teased me or ridiculed me for my coverage of women’s sports,” she said.
Brennan said her upcoming book, “On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women’s Sports,” is “unauthorized” and that she has not done a sit-down interview with Clark. It’s expected to be published next season. Its scope goes beyond Clark, but she is its driving force.
Clark helped the league secure a huge increase in its new broadcast deals and her games have set attendance records and driven TV ratings spikes. Fox Sports executive Mike Mulvihill posted on social media recently that the audience for Clark’s national TV games during the regular season averaged 1.178 million but was 394,000 for all others.
USA Today columnist Christine Brennan had a question: Did you do that on purpose?
No, Carrington said.
Brennan followed up: Were you laughing about it later in the game?
“I just told you I didn’t even know I hit her,” Carrington said.
The exchange came at a thrilling but tense moment for the league, which has long been powered by women of color but has seen its recent success largely attributed to Clark. The attention on the league has never been greater, but players during the series were subject to upticks in online harassment, and security was added at Connecticut’s home arena.
It was with this backdrop that the questions didn’t sit well in the Connecticut locker room, and a few minutes later, the Sun’s DeWanna Bonner confronted Brennan.
Skip to end of carousel
End of carousel
Brennan repeatedly tried to introduce herself and explain what she said as Bonner implored the columnist to treat her teammates like humans. After nearly two minutes of mostly talking past each other, Bonner returned to the locker room. (Brennan confirmed the confrontation to The Washington Post.)
🎾
Follow Sports
Brennan, who is working on a book about Clark and routinely appears on TV, approached the other reporters and remarked that something like that wouldn’t happen in the NFL. She asked why the WNBA was so sensitive and told multiple reporters that if anyone had questions about her awareness of the racial dynamics at play, they should read her coverage of former NFL quarterback and activist Colin Kaepernick, among other work stretching back decades. (Brennan is White; Carrington is Black.)
Three days later, the Women’s National Basketball Players Association issued a statement calling for the league to revoke the credential of Brennan, one of the most recognizable sports journalists in the country.
“To unprofessional members of the media like Christine Brennan: You are not fooling anyone. That so-called interview in the name of journalism was a blatant attempt to bait a professional athlete into participating into a narrative that is false and designed to fuel racist, homophobic, and misogynistic vitriol on social media. You cannot hide behind your tenure,” the statement read. It added: “You have abused your privileges and do not deserve the credentials issued to you.”
Brennan, in an interview, called her questions “journalism 101.”
“It’s something that I have done in the entirety of my career,” she said, “and I think every other journalist has done the entirety of his or her career.”
Other journalists, including her boss at USA Today, agreed.
“We reject the notion that the interview perpetuated any narrative other than to get the player’s perspective directly,” USA Today executive sports editor Roxanna Scott said in a statement.
But the saga has nonetheless become a major storyline of the WNBA playoffs, at a time when Clark’s enduring stardom and the league’s unprecedented growth are testing the league’s relationship with the media.
“When I saw the video [of the questions to Carrington], my heart dropped,” Terri Jackson, the executive director of the players union, said in an interview. “I was so upset because we already have people looking to attack these players. We’re talking about being safe at work.”
A WNBA spokesman did not reply to a request for comment. Neither did Scott.
Brennan, 66, is a pioneer in sports journalism. She was the first president of the Association for Women in Sports Media in the 1980s (when she worked for The Washington Post). She remembers going to her editors and asking why the paper didn’t cover the major women’s golf tournaments or the women’s Final Four — and promptly got some of those assignments.
“I cannot tell you the number of times my male colleagues — and some of them dear friends — have teased me or ridiculed me for my coverage of women’s sports,” she said.
Brennan said her upcoming book, “On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women’s Sports,” is “unauthorized” and that she has not done a sit-down interview with Clark. It’s expected to be published next season. Its scope goes beyond Clark, but she is its driving force.
Clark helped the league secure a huge increase in its new broadcast deals and her games have set attendance records and driven TV ratings spikes. Fox Sports executive Mike Mulvihill posted on social media recently that the audience for Clark’s national TV games during the regular season averaged 1.178 million but was 394,000 for all others.
