In 2010, a poll concluded that the Women's NBA is the most far-left sports organization in the land. With a mid-term election fast approaching all indications are that the league remains largely in support of leftist causes. The 2018 "Woke" NBA season recently ended and while many of these players take their games overseas in the league's offseason, others are staying put in hopes of rocking the vote.
Swish Appeal blog's James Bowman wrote of the "Democratic" WNBA's politics eight years ago, and little has changed since then. Several recent developments attest to this.
Carolyn Swords of the Las Vegas Aces and Sue Bird of the Seattle Storm are both working to get out the vote for November's election. They're working with GOTV organizations claiming to be non-partisan, but the communications coming from the league and its most politically active players indicate solid support for radical social justice positions. That bodes well for the radical lefties running for office.
Earlier this year, several WNBA players appeared in a video demonstrating the league supports Planned Parenthood and GLSEN, formerly known as the formerly the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network. Neither of these organizations is known for supporting Republicans.
Several members of WNBA teams participated in the Women's March in D.C. on January 22, 2017 to protest against President Donald Trump before he'd even served a week in office. "Snowflake" Marissa Coleman of the Indiana Fever (see photo of Fever players kneeling during national anthem) marched that day and said this afterwards:
“I wanted to be apart of the millions of people who joined in solidarity to show we will not be silenced. I also needed to be a part of something uplifting and inspirational after such an emotional few months after learning Trump would be our president.”
Many WNBA players also support Black Lives Matter. Christina Cauterucci, of Slate, wrote in 2016:
"This month, the WNBA has become the site of one of the most united, persistent political statements in sports history. In recent weeks, entire teams and their owners have come out in support of the Black Lives Matters movement, and their sustained protest effort has forced the league to back off the fines it charged players who used their warm-up outfits to stake ground against racism and police brutality."
Off-duty police officers walked away from their posts at a Minnesota Lynx game in protest of the team's BLM support.
Devereaux Peters of the Phoenix Mercury participated in a panel at the recent Young Feminist Conference in Chicago. Heidi Stevens, a Chicago Tribune columnist, moderated a panel discussion at that conference. Writing about it, she admitted, "I walked in despairing." It was only "a few hours before Brett Kavanaugh was sworn in as the 114th justice of the U.S. Supreme Court ..." She ended her column with a Noam Chomsky quote.
Bird is reportedly working to get out the vote, but her heart is nowhere near non-partisan. A Sept. 14 story by USA Today demonstrated her political bias in favor of the previous occupant of the White House:
"I've been really fortunate to go, and it's exciting," Bird said. "You're going to the White House. I remember first walking into the room to meet President Obama and the aura. ... It's insane.
"Now, that's not the case anymore. It doesn't feel exciting. Nobody wants to go. It's totally changed. And that's disappointing because it used to be, like I said, something that most athletes would look forward to."
According to ESPN, Bird's Storm teammate Jewell Lloyd supported the same political sentiment about visiting the Trump White House:
"For what we stand for in Seattle, and what we stand for in the league, I think it's pretty evident that we don't want to go. So thanks for the non-invite."
What does the WNBA team in Seattle stand for? "It partners with and raises money for Planned Parenthood," writes Jason Rantz of the blog My Northwest. "That might make woke Progressive activists excited, but it’s certainly not bringing butts to seats."
With the politics of the WNBA as they are, it's not surprising the league's attendance has dropped in eight of the last nine years. The steepest drop of all was this season, when attendance plummeted 13 percent.
