The way the WNBA is covered in the media is often a bigger story than the league itself, and Megan Rapinoe thinks she\u2019s identified one of the major issues.<\/p>\n
The Dallas Wings selected Azzi Fudd with the first pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft, which was a no-brainer of a selection. However, it was notable given that she and Wings star Paige Bueckers had previously announced they were dating<\/a>. There have been plenty of cases of WNBA teammates dating, but for a team to have two high-profile stars in a relationship is not only rare but also a situation many mainstream journalists haven\u2019t encountered before, especially if they\u2019ve mostly covered men\u2019s sports.<\/p>\n That\u2019s led to a lot of conversations about the appropriateness of asking questions about their relationship<\/a> and whether that\u2019s even fair game. The issue came to a head last week when Wings PR shut down a question<\/a> from Dallas Morning News\u2019 Kevin Sherrington about their relationship.<\/p>\n The debate has raged on<\/a> over whether it\u2019s perfectly reasonable for reporters to ask about their personal relationships and how they might impact the team or their play. For her part, Rapinoe didn\u2019t have an issue with Sherrington\u2019s question, but she does think there is a larger issue with many of the people in sports media covering the league, especially if they only have experience covering men\u2019s sports.<\/p>\n \u201cI do think we are watching legacy or establishment media come in, and sort of like do business as usual, and it just feels like it needs more understanding and nuance,\u201d Rapinoe said on the latest episode of the\u00a0A Touch More\u00a0podcast<\/a>.\u00a0\u201cLike it\u2019s not quite hitting. I think anybody who\u2019s been in the sport a long time just sort of has that feeling of like that\u2019s like, I, I get why you\u2019re doing that. You do that (with) men\u2019s sports, but like it\u2019s not really quite hitting here.<\/p>\n \u201cAs it continues to grow, as it continues to become more a part of mainstream culture and media, I do think we are watching legacy or establishment media come in and sort of do business as usual. It just feels like it needs more understanding and nuance.\u201d<\/p>\n As for what she\u2019d like to see change, Rapinoe hopes more media members can meet WNBA players where they\u2019re at, culturally and personally, rather than demanding they meet mainstream standards.<\/p>\n \u201cHow do we collectively protect and craft the future of this space as the people who care about what the WNBA has built and enjoy the culture that it brings? Because let\u2019s be honest, the reason why the WNBA is out front in culture is because of how rooted it is in Black and queer culture and around equality for women and progress in all of those realms,\u201d she said. \u201cSo how do we contribute to an ecosystem that can sustain player authenticity?\u201d<\/p>\n As noted by the outlet Them<\/a>, a majority of WNBA players are Black, and over a quarter<\/a> are openly LGBTQ+.<\/p>\n Specific to the situation surrounding Fudd, Bueckers, and the Wings, Rapinoe noted the need for reporters and PR professionals who understand queer culture.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s going to need to include PR teams and managers and agents and media members that can understand queer culture and have an imagination around how to give these players media platforms that work for them,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n There have been two competing narratives about how the WNBA has been covered in the last few years<\/a>. On one side is the sense that longtime women\u2019s basketball media is too protective of the players and game<\/a> and unwilling to dig into thorny issues<\/a> that could court controversy. On the other side is the influx of mostly male sports media members who seem to use the WNBA and its players to further personal agendas<\/a> and narratives<\/a> without actually knowing what\u2019s going on<\/a>.<\/p>\n What Rapinoe is asking for might not solve these issues, but it could be an opportunity to help bridge some of the gaps that exist currently between women\u2019s basketball players and the media ecosystem around them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The way the WNBA is covered in the media is often a bigger story than the league itself,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[174234,28454,49,48,3459,215392,4658,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-628091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-a-touch-more","9":"tag-azzi-fudd","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-dallas-wings","13":"tag-megan-rapinoe","14":"tag-paige-bueckers","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}