Op-Ed: Why can’t some men handle WNBA players’ success?

Maya Angelou once said, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them”.

Lately, there has been too many men in the male-dominated world of sports podcasting who are showing themselves to be unbelievably hostile—if not angry—at the mere sight of women achieving success in sports.

Podcaster and influencer Charleston White is a good example of someone who has shown who he is, time after time. He’s demonstrated himself to be a reckless, rude and repulsive personality who doesn’t seem to have the slightest care in the world. He has routinely made misogynistic and racist comments, including advocating for Asian women to be sexually assaulted by Black men by relying on historically-racist stereotypes about Black men as violent brutes and Asian women as weak and feeble.

His latest target is Chicago Sky power forward Angel Reese.

During an appearance on the Club 520 Podcast hosted by former NBA player Jeff Teague, White defended previous comments made by Shaquille O’Neal, in which he suggested his fellow LSU alum should dunk while wearing short shorts in order to draw more viewers to the WNBA. The comments made on Reese’s podcast, Unapologetically Angel, made her visibility uncomfortable and drew ire on social media.

White didn’t double down, he didn’t triple down, he quadrupled down on those comments, which is still putting it mildly. “I’m with Shaq,” he said “Dunk in some panties with no bra on. That’s how you sell tickets. We need an OnlyFans WNBA, then I’ll tune in.”

This wasn’t the first time White objectified Reese. After she expressed disappointment at the results of the 2024 election, when Vice President Kamala Harris lost to President-elect Donald Trump, White offered his two cents. “She can’t do nothing but play basketball,” he said. “Angel Reese might as well start selling p***y. She don’t want to play basketball; she wants to h**”

By the way, how can he say she can play basketball, but doesn’t want to play?

On the Dec. 24 episode of Club 520, Teague said Caitlin Clark and A’ja Wilson wouldn’t be able to score a point against Los Angeles Lakers rookie Bronny James, the son of LeBron James, if they played a game of one on one. He also said they couldn’t compete against players in the NBA G League or on a high school boys team.

Both Clark and Wilson are at their respective peaks. Clark is coming off winning Rookie of the Year and being named TIME Magazine’s Athlete of the Year. Wilson won her third MVP, along with gold medal at the 2024 Olympics. Meanwhile, Bronny James, truly no disrespect, is still trying to get his feet wet in the NBA, appearing in seven games for the Lakers and averaging 0.6 points and 0.1 rebounds.

The comments from White and Teague materialized over the holidays, igniting a firestorm of backlash from players and analysts within the WNBA family on Twitter/X. A few examples include:

The words of White and Teague speak to a bigger issue: Some men clearly feel a bizarre angst about women in sports to the point where they have to resort to sexualizing and degrading them to draw clicks.

While their retrograde attitudes are rightfully being called out by prominent women in the game, there needs to be just as many men speaking out. Men with platforms in the basketball cultural space should make clear that the comments of White, Teague and their ilk are not a reflection of what manhood in sports and society should represent. It is unfortunate that this moment of growth for women’s basketball and women’s sports has brought out the worst among a select few of men with a microphone. What’s even more unfortunate is that conversations then fixate on what they say, and not on the accomplishments of these women.

The more men in sports media who have the cojones to speak up against misogyny and sexism, the better sports—and, frankly, this world—would be. Men with character, integrity, security and self respect can help to charter a new course. One such example is commentator Chris Williamson, who called out Teague in a reply post to former USC standout McKenzie Forbes, which read, “Teague been talking nasty about the W riddled with misogyny ever since the 2024 wnba season began.”

Williamson followed up by noting previous comments Teague made about Brittney Griner, posting, “And it wasn’t just the blatant disrespect for Angel either. We peeped that trifling crap they said about Brittney Griner too. Talmbout, ‘yeah I wished her ass stayed in that Russian jail’ cuz of that pool pic. Whole bunch of pathetic excuses for men.”

To which I say, “Amen!” Let’s get it together, guys.