The WNBA has finally built momentum among viewers, and yet the hate crime hoaxes that always seem to follow Angel Reese around are undermining the progress the league has made.
After a soft foul call that sent Reese to the free-throw line in a game against the Toronto Tempo, Tempo coach Sandy Brondello was heard on a hot microphone calling Reese a “protected species” to a referee. A Reese fan on X decided that this was racist, and Reese approvingly shared the sentiment. Brondello has been in the league as a player or coach since before Reese was born and won two championships as a coach. Overnight, she was smeared as a racist by Reese and suspended by the WNBA, despite offering two apologies that were far more sincere than they should have been.
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Brondello’s “protected species” comment is apparently a common sports saying among her fellow Australians. Even putting aside that cultural context, though, it is obvious what Brondello meant to anyone with basic language comprehension. Still, Reese refused to acknowledge that she misinterpreted the comment, instead saying she was “grateful” that the league suspended Brondello.
This is the third hate crime hoax involving Reece in as many years in the league.
In her rookie year in Chicago, Reese was one of a handful of Chicago Sky players who claimed they were harassed by a racist, vulgar man on the way to the team bus. The only video posted of the incident showed no harassment of any kind, and the team’s own general manager downplayed the incident.
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More notable was last year’s hoax, where Reese fans on X managed to whip up such fervor over a claim that Indiana Fever fans were making monkey noises at Reese during a game. The social media pressure was so great (and WNBA leadership so weak) that the league opened an investigation, which ultimately found no evidence from the wealth of audio and video available that such an incident occurred. That didn’t stop Reese from playing the victim, though, continuing to maintain that she heard the noises that no one else, including the black players on the Fever or Chicago’s black head coach, heard during the game.
Each new hoax makes WNBA players look mentally weak and makes the league look unserious. Reese’s constant need to be the victim, and her fans’ constant desire to whip up a racial controversy where none exists, make the league look amateurish compared to its male counterparts, especially when it is punishing a veteran coach for the crime of offending its most perpetually offended player.