Latest / The Facts with Jamal 🇺🇸🦅👊 / How the #WNBA ‘s fight for ‘ sustained relevance’ is coming back to haunt them.
Transcript
- 0:00Alright, good morning everyone. It's almost 5:30 in the morning
- 0:06here. If you're giving a new day
- 0:10today, be grateful for that and go make it happen.
- 0:17So now let's get right into it. Sometimes when you try the, in
- 0:32this case, literally do too much, you ultimately put
- 0:39yourself in a no one situation where you're trying to fight for
- 0:44something that you believe you deserve.
- 0:49Ultimately, yeah. But then once it happens, you
- 0:56will fight trouble that you probably didn't think was
- 1:01realistic but it ended up being the case, all because you felt
- 1:07you were entitled to something that you necessarily didn't want
- 1:13to earn or work hard for. And that's where the WNBA is as
- 1:23of right now. Now mind you, this has been
- 1:32leaked, has been around for over 30 years, OK, but if we're being
- 1:46real honest, nobody has really given the WNBA much love or
- 1:55respect. And in some cases, many of us
- 2:02just never really pay much attention to it.
- 2:05I mean, let's be real about that.
- 2:08Now, have there been great players in this history?
- 2:10Absolutely. I'm not even going to deny that.
- 2:13From the Rebecca Lobos, Sue Birds, Tamika Catchings, Lisa
- 2:18Rasley, Cynthia Coopers to the Diane Troasis, Candace Parkers,
- 2:29there has been a great handful of women who have made that week
- 2:36with our fans that are all Hall of Fame.
- 2:43But This is why. In all honesty, this particular
- 2:51season has really shown why that league has become, in a way,
- 3:03completely evolved. Let me start off with if you go
- 3:14back to the offseason now mind you this was at a point where
- 3:25you know the players association in the league will try and
- 3:30figure out a way to reach common value as far as the players
- 3:39winning more for purse and salaries a lot more credibility
- 3:50and all that and really the respect fact OK.
- 4:01And so when they actually got it, they also in a way fought
- 4:10unwanted consequences that is starting to take really on force
- 4:16right here. And so once that issue was
- 4:22resolved and came the instant, I guess you better be careful of
- 4:32what you wish for 'cause it's going to happen.
- 4:36The whole week has essentially become a cesspool, a tox of
- 4:44toxic evil offense. Starting with really the
- 4:53treatment of how certain players and you know what mostly black
- 5:01players, OK, taking unveiled shots at caveman Clark and
- 5:07Sophie Cunningham more so for them, you know, for that league
- 5:12still pushing, you know, trans ideology, which is completely
- 5:18ridiculous to I don't know if you saw it on your Saturday or
- 5:24Sunday Enos Kanter freedom. He, you know, tossed out with
- 5:30game all because he and voice right, I believe was the other
- 5:37guy that was supporting biological born woman 2.
- 5:45If you go back a couple weeks prior, there were two woman who
- 5:51I believe when it happened up in Seattle that were wearing, you
- 5:58know, different shirts or similar shirts, but it kind of
- 6:02like different means to it in support of biological one sports
- 6:07that were ultimately kicked out. And now we have this notion or
- 6:15this ADC going on where the league a couple weeks back had
- 6:25really a meeting which was a complete waste of time as they
- 6:29were essentially trying to figure out what is A1 like.
- 6:39Do you know how if you have all those things together, how
- 6:45ridiculous is always, I mean, why are we in the year 2026 even
- 6:58still having this question about what a woman is and not really
- 7:07so much of value unless one of the issues.
- 7:11But it's gotten to a point where the WNBA, the players in the
- 7:18league, you know, let's hold, you know, in that offseason,
- 7:25wanted to fight for increased relevance 'cause they felt like
- 7:32they hadn't gotten enough respect for me from the outside.
- 7:38This was the case of You better be careful as as to why you
- 7:50cannot. Ultimately.
- 7:56You cannot ultimately, you know, push for what you want and then
- 8:05be surprised when consequences fall.
- 8:14I mean, I have not. I mean, I can't even say he
- 8:17would say I'm surprised. But this is what happens when
- 8:22you get more than you barking for.
- 8:29And so you don't get to your league be outraged because you
- 8:39put yourself in this position of when you're trying to fight for
- 8:43sustained relevance, it ends up coming back on.
- 8:50And I'm also going to say that'll work.
- 8:53This commissioner, the Kathy Engelberg, I don't know what's
- 9:02going to really happen with her as far as, you know, her long
- 9:06term standing as commissioner. I would, you know, not even I
- 9:17would if I were the owners or the shareholders.
- 9:22Those kind of make the decision as far as who you know, decides
- 9:26she gets to be a commissioner. I would not want her back in the
- 9:33want because she has made a mess of a situation that quite
- 9:42frankly, did not need to be the case here.
- 9:49Because why would you ultimately be the type of person that once
- 9:59again, has gotten so tone deaf to the obvious?
- 10:09You let this happen because you didn't know how to handle
- 10:15everything around you and see what ends up happening.
- 10:29And again, I'm putting Engelbert on the spot here.
- 10:37She unfortunately gives the impression that she's a woman
- 10:42that was. How you don't control he sees
- 10:58the perfect example of a leftist left ball 1.
- 11:12I'm just going to come out and say you see all those, you know,
- 11:18leftist woman who I mean, I'm not going to say anything else
- 11:23more than that. But she gives that impression
- 11:30that only many people realize where if you cannot find a way
- 11:40to have common sense to define what a real woman is, where you
- 11:46have had star players gang abused by not only the
- 11:50officials, but the majority of them being the players.
- 11:55I mean, black woman. And then you had one really on
- 12:05and off the court. You know, theatrics happening so
- 12:09often to me, I would not want her.
- 12:27She did not. She does not need to be lean
- 12:31this league anymore. And you know what?
- 12:39If I were her, I would have a sign in the scrapes.
- 12:45But you know what? It's always about kissing up to
- 12:50the masters. Nobody ever wants to admit that
- 12:55part, but that's the reality. If you can't ultimately be able
- 13:08to lead, you know, let's just say for sickle argument, private
- 13:14equity, whatever, then you do not need to lead anything in
- 13:26life. Unfortunately, this won't be the
- 13:37last instance of that. We continuing to be in the
- 13:42headline for every other reason that it's not simply on the
- 13:48court. And I think also at this point
- 13:53the least it is to solve. I wouldn't believe that.
- 13:58I really think the WNBA at this point, they have become so tone
- 14:03deaf. They have become so tone deaf.
- 14:17They've become tone deaf in how they been in in a way have kind
- 14:25of like destroyed, you know, the once great credibility of the
- 14:31former players I had mentioned earlier that, you know, built
- 14:40that league and and I guess you could say in the span of a
- 14:45couple of moments or years, they drew it all away all because
- 14:56they didn't know how to control themselves.
- 15:00So if the whole league, the players, subsequently the
- 15:05commissioner, if they have somebody they want to blame,
- 15:10they should look in the middle because it is their fault
- 15:13they're in this situation. That is the bomb.