Sunday, May 2nd, 2010 at 10:18 am  |  34 responses

Why Does the WNBA Make it Hard to Care?

One word: Censorship.

by Clay Kallam

One of the more popular players in the WNBA is backup point guard Kristin Haynie – but good luck trying to find out anything about her status on wnba.com.

One of the best players in the WNBA, when healthy, is Cheryl Ford – but good luck trying to find out anything about her status on wnba.com.

In the past four seasons, Loree Moore started 123 games for the New York Liberty – but good luck trying to find out when, or if, she was released by New York. (She’s now on the Seattle Storm roster.)

This is stupidity, plain and simple. WNBA management understands (or at least we hope they do) one of the key differences between fans of its league, and fans of the NBA: There is a much stronger connection between fans and individual players in the women’s game than in the men’s. It’s not better, it’s not worse, but it is different, and the leaCheryl Fordgue needs to acknowledge that.

But how, for example, would a fan of Haynie know that she was on the Washington Mystics’ roster for a while? It wasn’t on the transactions page on wnba.com, and neither was her removal from that roster.

No one knows Ford’s status at all. Is she hurt? Is she healthy? Is she a cored player? Does her contract with Detroit still bind her to Tulsa, where the Shock moved?

Let me expand on the Ford case a little before moving on. Here is Ford, one of the most talented players in the league, a borderline Olympian and the daughter of Karl Malone. She was a prominent member of the Detroit Shock semi-dynasty and would have an enormous impact on any team in the league, especially Tulsa.

So search for “Cheryl Ford” on wnba.com and you get … nothing about her status. Of course the same could be said for Deanna Nolan, another elite player. Search for her, and you get the Tulsa Shock draft history, a list of key games in 2005 and an interview with Lynette Woodard.

That’s certainly keeping fans in touch with their favorites, isn’t it?

Granted, Nolan isn’t playing in the WNBA in 2010, but that doesn’t mean the league shouldn’t have something about that on its website, something that’s easily accessible to a Deanna Nolan fan. And if Ford isn’t playing, why not say so? If she’s not sure, say that too.

But apparently there’s a sense that censorship is crucial to the league’s survival, and that bad news must be treated as if it doesn’t exist. Nolan doesn’t want to play in Tulsa – she doesn’t exist. Ford is in negotiations – news blackout.

Why not just write the story? Why not let the fans know what’s going on?

Which leads directly to Loree Moore, an integral piece for the Liberty for four years. Why was there no announcement anywhere that she had been released?

Of course, people might have been upset. Of course, there might have been some angry emails – but isn’t that part of the fun of being a sports fan? Isn’t that what gets leagues onto SportsCenter, and into newspapers?

Overall, I think Donna Orender has done a fine job as commissioner, but this whole atmosphere of secrecy and information control actively hurts the league. Fans should be able to still see Kristin Haynie’s career stats, and they should have known when she was added to Washington’s roster, and when she was taken off.

Fans should know what Cheryl Ford’s status is, both health- and contract-wise.

And fans should have known the day Loree Moore was released by the Liberty, and Carol Blazejowski should have justified the move.

If the fans don’t know, they can’t care. And if they’re discouraged from caring, then they’re discouraged from being fans.

In the end, though, it’s not the fans who are the losers because of this ludicrous censorship: It’s the league itself, and in the long run, the sport of women’s basketball.

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  • jdote

    I agree 100 percent. Its tough though because it’s not like their are many journalist who only cover the WNBA, let alone several journalist in charge of covering each team. But this week was the first week of training camp, and I’ve been dying to know how the number 1 draft pick Tina Charles, and her fellow rookie Kelsey Griffin have looked in camp. I also really wanted to check in on Ticha in LA, and how that transition is going. However, there is really nothing out there, and it is kind of frustrating. Its like the league takes their fans who are as passionate as any, for granted.

  • Coffy

    Great article. Communication is just one of the problems with the Wnba. I’m a huge fan and absolutely LOVE this league, but that horrible decision to put Marion Jones on a team is a terrible publicity stunt much like Lieberman playing for Detroit for a game! Why? What’s the purpose, extra pr for the league? Does it need that kind of pr? No. If you want a nice comeback story, bring the awesome Sheryl Swoopes back to the W, that’s something I can celebrate! Somebody with dignity and pride who essentially, like Lisa Leslie, is one of the legendary faces of the league! Instead we get a disgraced, convicted cheater who never played pro ball doing interviews and becoming a face of the WNBA. A Shame!

  • http://gamenotesofdoom.blogspot.com Queenie

    They’re so obsessed with controlling the message that they would almost rather there be NO message instead of one they haven’t spun harder and faster than Lance Armstrong’s bike wheels. I love my team and I love this game, but this league has done more to turn me into a WCBB fan than it has a WNBA fan.

  • Emily

    Amen! Totally agree. I feel like they’re so busy censoring that they’ve forgotten who they’re supposed to be promoting. Bad things happen to people. People get traded, “retire”, fired, etc… I want to know about those things. Just like I want to know about who won such-and-such award. I thought Haynie’d quit, to be honest. I’m tickled to death she’s still playing! But I had to read THIS to learn it!?! Absurd. There’s a John Mayer song with a line that applies here (for me), “When they own the information they can bend it all they want.” Stop bending, WNBA… we want to know. We do, in fact, care.

  • http://www.realcavsfans.com Anton

    Cause the men get home and their dinners are cold

  • Natalie

    Totally agree. It’s incredibly frustrating and mystifying how protective the WNBA is about information, most of which is not worthy of such a degree of protection. Why not tell us, for example, that Loree Moore has been waived (and why!) or that Cheryl Ford is in negotiations (if that is the case)? And while we’re talking about this, why can’t we know anyone’s salaries?

  • GK

    This is kind of ridiculous. I really doubt it is censorship as much as it is lack of money. The stories don’t just magically appear online, someone has to be there researching and writing the stories. And it takes money to pay that person. And theWNBA and it’s assoiated teams simply have no money.

    But hey, I bet if one of you WNBA lovers wrote it pro Bono and sent it into the team or league, you could get published!

  • http://www.shawn-kemps-offspring.blogspot.com Michael Scorn

    Is there a league pass for the WNBA?

  • http://www.triplejunearthed.com/dacre Dacre

    is it censorship, or do they just have a really slovenly I.T. department, like that ‘Newman’ guy from Jurassic Park…?

  • Fisticuffs

    Who cares?

  • http://www.chicagoskyblog.wordpress.com hoopla

    Totally agree with the article and most of the comments. This league definitely needs more transparency. I was hoping that with the rise of social media and with players being more open with information via various social media outlets that the league would follow suit. So far, not so good…

  • max

    Dude learn the facts before you write something like this. If you click on the transactions link on WNBA.com you can see that Moore was not only signed but also released.

  • max

    Dude learn the facts before you write something like this. Try the link on WNBA.com that says “transactions” it shows not only that Moore was signed, but also that she was waived.

  • shanny

    I don’t even think the league said anything about Deanna Nolan not playing this season? I get a lot of my information on player moves from simple womens sports messageboards. Of course, the Wnba has been detailing every move that Marion Jones has made, even on twitter, so maybe they’re putting all their eggs in her basket? Ridiculous if so.

  • http://gamenotesofdoom.blogspot.com Queenie

    max- yes, the league posted it to the transactions page… three days after the date it happened. Oh, and Moore disappeared off the Liberty’s roster a day before that with no explanation. And the team has still not acknowledged that they bought out their starting point guard of three years, who was one of the most tenured players on the team.

  • Ace

    I agree that they should put more information on the site, but they do have updates about players during the off season.

  • http://www.stuffwhitepeoplelike.com Tarzan Cooper

    It probably is a money issue. Everything is with the wnba

  • Indyfan

    I agree, it’s very hard to keep up with players when info isn’t posted on the site. It seems that every year gets more confusing re players and where they are playing or why they are not playing. It always takes me awhile to get settled with the teams and their players. I loved watching Deanna Nolan playing and will miss her playing in the league. I really hope she returns next year and it is too bad that she was lied to(according to some) about the sale of the Shock team. I wish her luck and hope to see her back next year.

  • Mel

    Good article, C.K. In general, the WNBA’s Web site seems to have problems with communication. As a Cal fan, I was happy to hear that Alexis Gray-Lawson was twice named something like training camp player of the day, but I didn’t get that info off the Mystics’ site; in fact, their training camp feature hasn’t been updated in five days. And it’s not any too easy to find LiveAccess, boxscores, etc., on game days, either; links should be prominently posted in the same place on each team’s home page.

    (Money is undoubtedly a problem, but good, easy-to-find p.r. is a valuable fan-building tool. Perhaps the W should conduct focus groups with fans–and pay attention to the results.)

  • Lisa Stevens

    For the most part, I agree with your article. However, the Storm handle things very differently. When Janelle Burse decided she didn’t want to play for us anymore, there was an article on the Storm site. When Katie Gearalds decided to rest her body this summer, storm.wnba.com had the story, interview, and even a page where fans could leave comments for Katie. When 2nd round pick Tanisha Smith decided to leave the team, we got the inside scoop. When Chelsea Newton decided to retire, we got an interview that let us see inside the decision. I wish the rest of the league was more like the Storm on giving its fans the information that they are craving for the players that they love.

  • vickster

    Amen, brother!

  • http://www.chicagoskyblog.wordpress.com hoopla

    While I agree with the article and comments, to be fair, I don’t think it’s the responsibility of WNBA.com or any of the official team sites to link to every news story and/or every morsel of information out there about the teams/league. No league does that. With the rise of facebook, twitter, message boards and blogs, we get a lot more info than we used to. Most of the time, if you can’t find information on the status “TrainingCampPlayerX” then that player likely isn’t “big” enough to warrant a feature story or even an explanation of their absence. I don’t expect them to comment on every player (Kristin Haynie…really?) but I do think its ridiculous that the league has remained mum on the Cheryl Ford and Deanna Nolan situations this long. I mean, those are big stars in the league. No excuse for that. That’s just dumb.

  • Stink

    maybe it’s not censorship but laziness. What I don’t understand is how a league that relies so much on an ONLINE fanbase with so many of the wnba’s games being on the internet, that they would not want to properly utilize this source. Why does Candace Parker have over 40,000 followers on Twitter? Because she is active online and engaging. After all of these years, I’m convinced, this league STILL doesn’t know who their fans are, and where they are.

  • Barbara Watson

    I blame the news media for the sale of Detroit Shock. Increasing news coverage spurs an increase in attendance.Even Deanna Nolan’s home town newspaper rarely had an article about the WNBA or the Detroit Shock. I thank the WNBA for allowing games to be seen over the internet, but I would like more general articles about star players and what happened to them.

  • lincab

    Well, if it weren’t for your article, I wouldn’t have known about Deanna Nolan. As your article stated, I was searching for the latest info on her because I haven’t seen her on a roster and of course, WNBA.com provides nothing.

    I am a HUGE FAN of the WNBA and you are right, the league needs to stop sabotaging itself so the world can enjoy women’s basketball. Let the fans know what the real story is with a player.

  • siouxs

    I just found out today, in a roundabout way, that I won’t get to watch superb athlete Deanna Nolan this year. I always thought that WNBA was protecting player privacy when, in fact, it was actively covering things up. Losing Tweety makes me sick at heart.

  • Mary

    I emailed Donna regarding Deanna Nolan and was told she was on the Shock roster and when she checked she wasn;t listed…maybe she got dropped….now how do you drop good players…and why not just say so..not beat around the bush…My granddaughter plans on playing in the WNBA and Nolan was her watch person…so sad…that the ones that have grace and conviction for the game are going by the way side..yes there are some good one coming along but play them with the older players to show the way..MENTORS…

  • Colin B. Titcomb

    Totally agree. The way the W has handled the Deanna Nolan and Cheryl Ford situations is disgraceful.

  • Joseph Smith

    To Clay Kallam, The WNBA is a shrinking league from where is started. Is it possible that there is a black/white problem due to so few job because the league is shrinking and there are more good black players than white players. The majority of the fans who actually purchase tickets and go to the games are white. You think the fans that buy tickets might want to see more white players or is the problem we just don’t support women team sports. The national media should discuss this issue.

  • Brooklyn

    I think the problem for wnba is a lack of national coverage. I live in Canada & can catch games on raptors tv but only in the month of August. I was disappointed that I could not see a playoff game or championship game last season on TV. You don’t seen the box scores in the newspaper or any articles about wnba in newspapers. I usually have to watch games on wnba live access. Perhaps us fans should bombard Orleander with emails to get wider coverage. Wnba should be as national as the NBA. Also how about some of these sports minded companies like Nike hire some of the wnba to showcase their wares like they do got the men!!!! I think it’s about time that the Tv execs to start taking women’s sports more seriously as there is a big fan base. I think without nation coverage the wnba will fold just as th abl did!

  • Gerald

    I sense your frustration and feel the same way . I was a BIG Shock fan here in Michigan but when I looked up my ole girls I was shocked that I couldnt find them! The only name on the Shock roster I recognize was Marion Jones and I didnt even know she played B-Ball! Hence why I found your article. I really miss those championships and being able to afford to go to a pro ball game! Oh well I guess I will just forget about those days like the WNBA did my Tweetie and Cheryl! Gerald

  • Linda

    Well said……..however, you did not mention a very important part ……….very few games are on television………I’ve watched them on Live Access but how is this league ever going to build fan support if more games are not televised???? DirecTV doesn’t even carry a sports package for them but one can be purchased for the NBA…….

  • shckgrl 03

    I was a Detroit Shock fan. I watched them win all 3 of there championships in person. And the way the media covered them then, when the team was sold was just not far compared to the way they cover the Pistons. It almost feels like they’re slowly trying to faze the league out. The tv coverage is almost non existance. What can be done if anything? Who can we contact, write, or even call? Just like the men in the NBA the women in the WNBA should be treated equally and fair……

  • Nate

    Absolutely! Being a former Detroit Shock fan it is very frustrating not knowing where Deanna and Ford are. All i knew about Deanna (more later) was she was overseas somewhere and Ford was rehabbing. It’s gotten to the point where i rarely go to WNBA.com anymore. I google these players, go to facebook and still can’t find much. I inadvertently discovered that Deanna may be or has already gotten married. Nothing on Wnba.com that i can remember. If it was on there it probably was when i stopped logging on to the site.

    Plus many Detroit fans feel that the Pistons and Shock are (were) the red-headed step children; black sheep of both leagues anyway. Now the Detroit Shock are no more and the Pistons are less than shells of their former selves. I wouldn’t be upset if neither Ford nor “Tweety” returns to the WNBA. It would be nice if they did though.

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