It has become a tradition here at Beyond The W where we acknowledge the great coverage there was of a WNBA season. We have done so the last couple of seasons and are doing so again here.
This year was a bit different because of a mass influx of “new” WNBA media personalities who attempted to create false narratives about the realities of the league.
Let us start with the positives. Firstly – we have to give love to USA Today and For The Win’s Meghan Hall. Based in the Atlanta area, the respect that she has obtained within the WNBA community in such a short period of time has been a sight to behold. And why has she obtained such respect? It is because she has actually put in the time and effort to study the entire league – not merely one player.
Hall deserves her flowers – and that is why it broke our hearts in July when we did not see her in Phoenix at WNBA All-Star. She certainly deserved to be there and hopefully she will be there in Indianapolis for WNBA All-Star 2025. Hall deserves all of the flowers.
Speaking of someone who certainly deserves all of the flowers – Khristina Williams continues to earn bouquets on bouquets as she is continuing to obtain blessings on blessings. This season, Williams launched her new iHeartMedia podcast “In Case You Missed It…” and it is certainly a worthwhile listen. Among the guests she has had on her podcast include Sue Bird, Greydy Diaz, Nekias Duncan, Dearica Hamby and Terrika Foster-Brasby.
Speaking of Terrika Foster-Brasby, she too made an iHeart move as well by launching the “Levels To This” podcast with the one and only Sheryl Swoopes herself. San Antonio-based iHeartMedia certainly deserves plenty of credit for the investments made in women’s sports audio content. In addition as Williams, Foster-Brasby and Swoopes display, they understand where the lion’s share of that investment should go – to Black women. Also – she continues to do great work with the Connecticut Sun.
“In Case…” and “Levels…” are among our top women’s sports podcast recommendations – especially if one needs pods to listen to during a long road trip.
For all of the flack that we have given ESPN over the years, we also have to shout out ESPN for bringing in Ari Chambers – formerly of Bleacher Report and Highlight Her – into the fold at the four-letter mothership. If anyone deserves a spot at ESPN, it is Chambers as her tireless work advocating for women’s sports over the years has been well-documented.
In addition to ESPN striking gold with the Chambers hire, it also struck gold with another major move it made – the big three of Chiney Ogwumike, Elle Duncan and Andraya Carter. Given that the WNBA is slated to be on NBC and Amazon beginning with 2026, hopefully they take lessons from what ESPN has done and prioritize Black women as primary personalities. After all, NBC already has one in Natalie Esquire. She deserves to be prominently featured as part of NBC’s WNBA coverage when it tips off in 2026.
Another who certainly earned his bouquet of flowers this year is Myles Ehrlich who covers the New York Liberty for Winsidr and co-hosts the “Pull Up with Myles and Owen (Pence)” podcast. Ehrlich has been on the Liberty beat since 2020 – and that was not exactly a fun season to cover anything Liberty, WNBA or sports related for that matter. He has been on the beat for the seafoam, black and copper since the two-win bubble season of 2020 to New York ascending to the top of the WNBA’s food chain this year. Well-earned and well-deserved. Re2pect.
Also, two other Winsidr mainstays in Aryeh Schwartz and Rachel Galligan have done an excellent job in bringing what they do to Bleacher Report as well as Winsidr.
Speaking of that podcast, it as well as its sister “Step Back” podcast are both now produced by Kevin “KDot” Lewis. Another of the rising stars of WNBA media who is well-respected particularly within South Carolina and New York circles. He did his big one this year and we know he will continue to so.
Another of the newest podcasts that hit the women’s basketball/WNBA scene this season was The Best Damn W Show co-hosted by Nick Andre, Jay Holloway and LoLo. The more WNBA podcasts that are out there – scratch that – the more knowledgeable WNBA podcasts that are out there as opposed to astroturf podcasts hosted by meatheads who merely create segments based off Caitlin Clark stat lines the better. This podcast certainly falls under the category of a knowledgeable podcast – every episode is worth the listen as it is every bit knowledgeable as it is entertaining.
One of those that we have always had plenty of admiration for within this WNBA content creator space is Oklahoma-based Tyler DeLuca. Formerly of The Committee (another podcast continuing to push a necessary element of the overall WNBA and women’s sports conversation in its own right) he is now a co-host of the No Cap Space podcast. In addition, he is continuing to do features for Slam Magazine and even had the privilege of being part of a Golden State Valkyries event in Phoenix at WNBA All-Star. DeLuca’s time to shine could not have come…sooner.
Another one of our favorites within the WNBA creator space is Rob Knox. When he is not tweeting pessimistic thoughts about his beloved Philadelphia sports teams, he is a passionate WNBA fan who has had the privilege of being in the mix at many a game this year. If Philly wins that final expansion bid, some Delaware Valley-based outlet ought to hire Knox as its beat reporter.
Another of our favorite WNBA journalists is Charles Hallman of the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder. Hallman makes sure he gets to as many games as possible and is a mainstay of Lynx coverage. In addition, Hallman continues to address what is an important issue in sports media and that is diversity. That is something that has set apart the WNBA content creator space from those of other sports – the diversity that exists. Hallman is a key element in continuing to push that conversation in the right direction. He is another who is more than worthy of his flowers.
Two fellow media personalities we had the privilege of interacting with at All-Star was Brenden Potts and Scott Mammoser. Potts is based in the Pacific Northwest and covers the WNBA and women’s basketball for World Exposure Report. He will surely have plenty to write about with the Pacific Northwest soon gaining a second team in 2026.
Mammoser previously wrote here at Beyond The W and particularly does great work continuing to cover international sports. He was busy around that time as shortly after All-Star weekend concluded he flew to Paris to cover the Olympics.
Speaking of those who earned a gold medal for women’s hoops coverage, one must give love to Erica Ayala of Black Rosie Media and CBS Sports. She also had boots on the ground in France and is another who is true to this as opposed to being new to this. Ayala is another of the standard bearers when it comes to Black women in sports media. Speaking of CBS, props to Chris Williamson as well for being active within the WNBA community on social media and doing what he does best at CBS Sports HQ.
One of our largest bouquets of flowers we have to grant is to Aya Abdeen. She has been active throughout her young career getting involved with media at Arizona State and also does work with Cronkite News. Prior to the 2023 rendition of WNBA All-Star, the 2024 version was announced for Phoenix. When this announcement was made, Abdeen was one of the first names we automatically thought about. Anyone who knows her story understands how hard she has worked to get to this point and how much it meant for her to cover a marquee event like WNBA All-Star in her own hometown. All. The. Flowers.
And we have to give our own selves flowers as well. After all, thanks to our photographer extraordinaire Lamar Carter of Survivor By Design Media, we had boots on the ground at all five games of what was an unforgettable WNBA Finals in addition to being in the mix at the draft and All-Star. Plus we interviewed Gina Duncan, the president of the Brooklyn Academy of Music (where the draft took place) and Ohemaa Nyanin, the former assistant general manager of the New York Liberty who took the main GM job with the Valkyries.
And, of course, the beat writers. We highlighted Ehrlich of course but there is also Dorothy J. Gentry who covers the Dallas Wings and Annie Costabile who covers the Chicago Sky. Let us not forget about Kareem Copeland who mostly covers the Washington Mystics for the Post but also takes to the road to cover events. And of course Hall who, being based in Atlanta, centers much of her coverage around the Dream.
There are so many names to highlight we could probably do two of these at the conclusion of every season. But just know that we see those who have grown the game and are covering the WNBA the right way. Those that are doing so – as is the case with the names listed above along with many others – take a bow and treat yourself for being the talented, hard-working and gifted individuals you are.
Of course, this season, a whole new crop of WNBA media joined the fray. A lot of it was mainstream media and a lot of it was only to cover one player as opposed to an entire league.
Those media newcomers to said league could have learned something on how to cover the WNBA from individuals such as Ehrlich, Williams, DeLuca, Abdeen and Hallman.
Many of these individuals became WNBA “fans” and we had optimism that at the very least they would study the league, analyze the league, understand who the top players as well as league issues are and base their coverage around those basic points.
Instead, many of them demonstrated how astroturf they were. Many of them went on radio shows or went on television and attempted to push a false narrative that the rest of the WNBA was jealous of Clark because of the increased attention she brought to the W.
Sadly, the manufactured storyline of the other 143 players being jealous of Clark was something that was even peddled by other Black male personalities such as Shannon Sharpe and Stephen A. Smith. They were not as quick to defend Simone Biles when she encountered her mental health bouts three years ago at the Tokyo Olympics or Sha’Carri Richardson when she was shafted out of the opportunity to compete in track and field events at those same Games or last year when someone voted A’ja Wilson fourth for WNBA MVP.
The reality of the situation is they wanted the rest of the W to be jealous of Clark because many of them believe that their voice is representative of the masses when it is anything but. Many of them cosplayed as new WNBA fans but clearly still believe the product is sub-par outside of the Indiana Fever’s No. 22.
Here is all you need to know that many of these new WNBA media individuals were bad actors. How many of them actually spent time breaking down WNBA games the way Chambers, Duncan, Ogwumike and Carter did. In fact, how much time did they spend talking about what was one of the greatest Finals in history between the Liberty and Lynx?
Oh, they automatically thought the WNBA season was over the nanosecond the Fever were swept from the playoffs by the Connecticut Sun? Typical.
The sad part is many of these bad media actors fail to take into consideration the consequences of their words. Media malcontents like Clay Travis (who has no business being anywhere near press row of WNBA events) were a massive catalyst behind the increased harassment that was leveled in the direction of Black WNBA players such as Angel Reese, Chennedy Carter and DiJonai Carrington.
One would think that long time sports writers would know better than to make themselves the story, but that was obviously not the case. Frank Isola (who used to write at the New York Daily News and the New York Post) tweeting that the reason why Clark gets covered so much was because she was the most “interesting” story ala Michael Jordan in the 1990s (as opposed to said media’s desire to be in close proximity to celebrity) was a moment.
Then there was the Christine Brennan mess from the first round of the playoffs and the line of questioning she had for Carrington in regards to one of her fingernails making contact with Clark. Brennan, a longtime sports reporter and advocate for women’s sports, found herself in the sunken place by continuing to push this narrative of jealousy in regards to Clark.
Brennan even got called out by the WNBPA for it. Why did she get called out by the WNBPA for it? Because the WNBPA is very familiar with Brennan and understands that she is much better than trying to create news so her employer can charge higher rates to prospective advertisers.
The year 2024 has told us that there is a lot of media out there in the sales business as opposed to the journalism profession as this year reminded us how broken the business model for sports journalism is at many outlets. What is especially galling is how many of these radio shock jocks could not take the time to learn a 12- (soon to be 13-, soon to be 14-, soon to be 15-, soon to be 16) team WNBA, but they will learn the ins and outs of over 100 or 200 college football teams with the snap of a finger.
Ultimately, they lost – because they missed out on what was an unforgettable Finals because of their Neanderthalic belief that the whole of the W revolves around one player because they themselves were not checking for the W prior to that one player sporting a Fever jersey.
The coverage around Clark by big budgeted mainstream media personalities was so laughable that they felt she should have been given an easy path to success – something that no other rookie in the history of sports received.
Clark never wanted to be the basketball hero that many big-budgeted mainstream media personalities hyped her up to be – she just wants to play the game she has loved since she was a little girl watching Maya Moore lead the Minnesota Lynx to four championships during the 2010s.
And our guess is she also did not want to see the mainstream sports media be so lackadaisical in its coverage of the game that they turned Reese into the villain as opposed to her hero role, but that is exactly what happened.
The worst part is whenever these newcomers to the WNBA discourse were pushing these narratives, a lot of them did not even bother to have individuals such as Ehrlich, Foster-Brasby, Williams, Abdeen, Ayala, Esquire or others on their programs. Why is this? Because they knew that having more seasoned WNBA insiders on said programs would puncture a massive hole in their false narratives. We believe in the “big tent” philosophy when it comes to WNBA media coverage, but the newcomers to the club thought they could simply sashay directly to the VIP section simply because they are sporting gold chains around their necks and Patek watches on their wrists.
This was a more difficult season than most because of how at various points during the season the discourse became more toxic than what it needed to be. And if it continues, then certainly more will have to be done about the malcontents and bad actors.
There will be more time focus on the negative of the WNBA’s media climate in the coming days, weeks and months. As for now, those that are true to the WNBA and want to see it thrive as it is doing in 2024 should look back at the work done and give themselves a huge pat on the back – and a bouquet of flowers to boot.
Whether that work was in written form, photography, via podcasts, in the broadcast space, through social media or via other creative means to continue to positively elevate WNBA coverage, you should give yourself a huge pat on the back.
Because what the malcontents like Travis do not understand is part of covering either a team or an entire league is part of the job is about building relationships. By focusing so much of their coverage around one player, that is not exactly conducive to building the relationships necessary to make said coverage worthwhile.
There was a lot of outstanding coverage once again in many avenues of the W – on-court, off-court, business, cultural, etc. We are doing what has to be done because we are demonstrating the clear and stark difference between covering a sport as a job and covering a sport as a passion.
