July 22 (Reuters) – The Women’s National \u2060Basketball Association (WNBA) and its players’ union said on Wednesday they would continue \u2060to enhance security measures after meeting to discuss a recent rise in \u200cracist, hateful and abusive messages directed at players.<\/p>\n
The joint statement from the league and the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) followed a meeting between WNBA leadership and members of the union’s executive committee and \u200bJustice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion committee.<\/p>\n
The meeting was requested \u2060by the WNBPA after an \u2060incident in a June 24 game, where Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas made contact \u2060with \u200cIndiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark’s throat, as Thomas later said she had been subject to online harassment. <\/p>\n
“The conversation underscored the importance of addressing issues early \u2060through proactive communication and strengthening the league-union relationship,” the statement \u200bsaid.<\/p>\n
“The league committed to \u200ccontinuing to enhance security resources and will work with the players’ union \u2060to explore collaborations \u200bwith organizations that share the values of our league and advance our shared priorities.”<\/p>\n
The league suspended Thomas for one game after upgrading the play to a Flagrant Foul 2, while \u2060Fever coach Stephanie White criticised officials for failing to \u200bcall a foul on the play.<\/p>\n
After the fallout, Clark condemned abuse directed at players, coaches and officials.<\/p>\n
“Harassment, hate, none of that is okay,” Clark told reporters earlier this month. “That \u2060goes for the opposing teams we play, that goes for my teammates, that goes for my coaches.”<\/p>\n
The WNBA launched a player safety programme last year after players raised concerns that racist and sexist abuse had become an unwanted consequence of the league’s \u200brapid growth in popularity.<\/p>\n
The league also has security protocols \u2060in place, including league and team security personnel who assess threats and coordinate with law \u200benforcement when appropriate.<\/p>\n
“Yesterday’s discussion marked the beginning of \u200can ongoing dialogue, and we are united in \u200bour commitment to building on this work together,” the WNBA and WNBPA added. <\/p>\n
(Reporting by Janina Nuno Rios in Mexico City; Editing by Kim Coghill)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"July 22 (Reuters) – The Women’s National \u2060Basketball Association (WNBA) and its players’ union said on Wednesday they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":817746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,6675,85],"class_list":["post-817745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-na","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}