Riley Gaines, Clay Travis, And More React To WNBA Shutting Out OutKick

You’d think with the biggest, most headline-grabbing player on the planet (Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever) sidelined with injury, the WNBA would want some eyeballs on its league no matter what, but it sure seems as though you’d be wrong.

As you may be aware, OutKick requested media credentials to cover multiple Atlanta Dream games — one last month in Los Angeles as well as Friday night in Connecticut — and was rejected both times. The idea was to ask Dream star Brittney Griner whether or not she called Clark a “f–king white girl” after fouling out of a game last month.

Why? Because no one else has bothered to, though they did vigorously investigate some phantom racism claims that went nowhere.

That’s something Riley Gaines, host of the “Gaines For Girls” show on OutKick, noted in her takedown of the league.

” I have never seen an organization more committed to self-imploding than the WNBA,” the Gaines For Girls podcast host said, before talking about the situation with Griner. “[OutKick has] never had trouble getting media credentials with any professional sports league in the past. But, what do you know now? They suddenly have very limited space, which is total baloney. They just want to suppress any sort of uncomfortable inquiries from media.”

Gaines then called on those at other media outlets to do their job the right way if they want to call themselves reporters.

“And if you do call yourself a reporter or a journalist from an outlet like ESPN or any other sports outlet for that matter, and you have access to these settings and you’re not asking those questions, you’re really no reporter or journalist at all, at least not one with journalistic integrity,” she said.

‘This Is Not A One-Team Decision’

OutKick founder Clay Travis gave his take on the WNBA, telling us here at OutKick, “Thanks, but no thanks,” when it comes to getting covered like any other league in existence.

“This is not a one-team decision. This is a top-down decision,” Clay said on Friday’s edition of OutKick The Show. “The WNBA has decided they’re not going to credential OutKick because we are being too critical of their athletes, of their coaches, and of the league itself. We have been critical way more of leagues that people care about, a great deal more than the WNBA never had credentialing issues. This is content-based discrimination.”

Clay went on to discuss that this situation says a lot about the WNBA media, members of which have completely refused to ask Griner about the incident.

“What does it say about the media that cover the WNBA that not one of them has asked Brittney Griner about a mega-viral, millions-of-views clip where she appears to insult white girls in the wake of the WNBA saying that some fan — which wasn’t true — in the Indiana Fever audience, said something racist?” Clay asked. “They had press conferences, they answered questions. They were asked about it. No one is asking Brittney Griner about a statement that 100% happened on the sideline. 

“And what does it say about those WNBA media members? They’re not actual media members. They are simply propagandists.”.

‘When You Ask Those Questions You Don’t Get Invited Back’

OutKick’s Dan Zaksheske wrote about the repeated rejections and talked about why the league might not want OutKick there (although, I think we can all make a pretty good guess).

Zaksheske appeared on The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show on Friday and addressed the situation, noting that the WNBA has a history of shutting out anyone who doesn’t serve as a cheerleader for the league.

“We’re finding out right now, [that] when you ask those questions, you don’t get invited back to the WNBA has put this, put this in place where it’s like, ‘Hey, you cover our league the way we want you to cover it. We’re not giving you a credential,'” he said, before noting that even notoriously progressive journalist Christine Brennan faced the wrath of the WNBA Players Association for asking Dijonai Carrington a completely legitimate question about poking Clark in the eye.

“I think it comes down to a simple calculus, like, ‘Hey, we want to continue to be allowed to cover games,’ (but) the WNBA has a group of people who act as essentially a PR firm or a cheerleader for the league.”

Zaksheske also joined OutKick’s Dan Dakich on Friday’s edition of Don’t @ Me with Dan Dakich, to discuss whether the league is making a strategic decision to shield its players from the media… y’know, unlike every major league on the planet.

“It’s like I always say this to people, you know, do you want equal, or do you want equal but special treatment?” Dakich said. “And it feels like — and you can correct me if I’m wrong — they want special treatment.”

Well, I think Dakich certainly hit the nail on the head there.

Meanwhile, the NBA — which owns 42% of the WNBA — has not responded to a request for comment about the league’s apparent policy of icing out anyone who wants to cover them as the legitimate league they claim to want to be.