The WNBA Is Bigger Than Ever. Its Race Problem Is Only Growing

On June 30, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert held a press conference announcing the league would expand into three more cities in the next five years — bringing the WNBA team count to a league record of 18. “This historic expansion is a powerful reflection of our league’s extraordinary momentum, the depth of talent across the game, and the surging demand for investment in women’s professional basketball,” Engelbert said. 

The move — adding teams in Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia — marks a new step in the past three years of growth for the women’s basketball league. According to StubHub data, tickets sales for the 2024 season went up 93 percent from the year before, viewership quadrupled, multiple franchise teams sold out season tickets, and some of the biggest WNBA stars received national recognition. “If you would’ve told me we would eventually have sold out arenas, I would’ve probably laughed,” Aces star A’ja Wilson told Rolling Stonein June 2024. But as the league’s growth continues to skyrocket, experts and fans alike are noticing that racism  that has followed women’s basketball since its start are only growing stronger. 

It’s impossible to talk about women’s basketball in 2025 without discussing Indiana Fever star player Caitlin Clark and Chicago Sky baller Angel Reese. Interest in the two’s rivalry dates back to their 2020-2021 college season, when they played for the University of Iowa and Louisiana State University, respectively. But what’s followed their moves to the league — and the national spotlight —  the ongoing disparity in how fans treat Clark and Reese because of their race.  Social media coverage is filled to the brim with recaps of WNBA games, but behind playful debates of who’s the better players is a growing characterization of Black players as violent, aggressive, and dangerous to their white counterparts. 

Elizabeth Taylor, an associate professor at Temple University, has spent years studying the intersection of gender and sports. She tells Rolling Stone that the WNBA has always been one of the most progressive sports leagues in the U.S., most likely because of their players’ intersecting identities and vocal statements on gender discrimination. This has made the league somewhat synonymous in recent years with liberal ideas of activism and racial equality. But as the sport has grown, she notes that an influx of new fans has significantly changed the makeup of the average WNBA supporter. “With the televising of games and increase in fan attendance, we are seeing a growth in fans who may not be as left leaning,” Taylor says. “That absolutely plays a role in what we’re seeing from fans, in terms of how they engage with the players.” 

One of the biggest focuses in the past few months has been on viral flagrant fouls between WNBA players. What started as discourse surrounding Clark and arguments that she’s been targeted on the court because of her outsized group of fans has quickly spiraled into thinly veiled racism toward Black WNBA players in general. During a June game between the Connecticut Sun and Chicago Sky, Reese got into an on-court argument with several Suns after Bria Hartley pulled her braids. Hartley, Olivia Nelson-Ododa, Tina Charles, and Reese argued, with Reese shoving the group before it was resolved. Videos of the clip were filled with comments calling all of the Black women involved “classless,” or “dirty” players — even though Reese and Charles embraced on camera after the clash. When Black Washington Mystics player Okikiola Iriafen got a flagrant foul call during a matchup between the Mystics and Indiana Fever, she was called “violent” by internet pundits for days. But that same treatment wasn’t applied when Indiana Fever player Sophie Cunningham fought Connecticut Sun player Jacy Sheldon. Sheldon had fouled Clark with eye poke earlier in the game and on a later play, Cunningham slammed Sheldon in the back of the head as she went up for a layup, grabbing Sheldon’s ponytail and continuing to shake her as refs and her teammates tried to break up the melee. Cunningham was ejected, but the viral clip turned her into a star. In three days, the white and blonde basketball player went from 300,000 TikTok followers to 1.4 million. 

“Research shows that mainstream media overrepresents white players,” Taylor says. “Black WNBA players receive less media attention, despite winning more end of season awards. And Black athletes who are non feminine or present in traditionally non feminine ways receive the least amount of media attention.” 

There’s also the difficulty with addressing in-game racism. In 2024, Phoenix Mercury star Brittney Griner said that many players were subjected to racial slurs from fans during games — attributing the attack to new WNBA viewers. “I don’t appreciate the new fans that sit there and yell racial slurs at myself, my teammates, and the people that I play against because, yeah, those might be opponents but those are friends, too,” Griner said. “They don’t deserve that, so I don’t appreciate the new fans that think it’s OK to do that.” Retired WNBA legend Sue Bird, who is white, also noted the league’s problem with racism, but pushed back against assumptions that it started with Clark’s fame. “Caitlin didn’t bring racism to the WNBA. This has been happening,” Bird said in a 2024 podcast episode. “That, I think, has been a shock for all of us. That other people are surprised by this. We’ve been trying to tell you.”

There’s a real life cause-and-effect to this kind of language. Fourteen-year-old WNBA superfan and sports commentator Selah Viana has been obsessed with the league since she was six. But she tells Rolling Stone that as she’s started to consider a career reporting on women’s sports, a lot of the racist coverage has left her feeling frustrated. The WNBA growing feels like an amazing development. But is there a way to change the prejudice that’s growing with it? “Racism is really steeped into sports culture. And the WNBA is a sensitive topic for Americans because it’s mainly Black women, the two groups that society tends to put their troubles on,” Viana says. “I’m a young Black sports journalist, and seeing those stereotypes being put on professional women at the top of their level? It’s kind of discouraging.”