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After South Carolina’s bid for a perfect season came up short Friday, head coach Dawn Staley had a message for the media in her postgame press conference.
“Watch what you say.”
Staley had been hearing the ways her predominantly-Black team was being talked about in certain circles, and she planned to address it regardless of the game’s result.
Before the subject could get lost in the moment, a reporter asked Staley for the truth about her team, which was often described as a bully.
“The truth about our team … We’re not bar fighters. We’re not thugs. We’re not monkeys. We’re not street fighters. This team exemplifies how you need to approach basketball on the court and off the court. And I do think that [is] sometimes brought into the game, and it hurts.
“Some of the people in the media, when you’re gathering in public, you’re saying things about our team and you’re being heard. And it’s being brought back to me.”
"We're not bar fighters. We're not thugs. We're not monkeys. We're not street fighters. … So watch what you say when you're in public and you're talking about my team in particular."
South Carolina coach Dawn Staley had a message for the media. pic.twitter.com/4Y6WL3T8MX
— The Sporting News (@sportingnews) April 1, 2023
What Staley described is racism, at worst. At minimum, it’s an implicit bias common in sports: Black women are the aggressors in proximity to their non-Black counterparts. In basketball, that type of bias influences how athletes are covered, coached, officiated, and ultimately perceived by the public.
Less than 48 hours later, we saw those exact biases and double standards go to work when LSU’s Angel Reese was ridiculed for taunting Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, who was widely celebrated for doing the same thing to another player a week earlier.
"I'm too hood, I'm too ghetto. Y'all told me that all year. But when other people do it, y'all don't say nothing. So this is for the girls that look like me."
Angel Reese is unapologetically her 👏 @Reese10Angel pic.twitter.com/9cuCWwayhA
— The Sporting News (@sportingnews) April 2, 2023
The great ambassador for women’s basketball that she is, Staley should have been applauded for bringing this issue to the forefront. As the sport continues to grow in popularity, it’s something better addressed earlier than left to fester and become normal.
There was no better person to speak about it than a Black woman who has experienced these biases first-hand, as both a player and coach. Already a Hall of Famer, Olympic gold medalist and two-time champion, Staley doesn’t have anything left to prove. She’s simply someone who has seen and heard everything there is to be seen and heard about basketball. If she says something is happening, we should listen.
Instead, Staley was doubted by people like columnist Peter Vecsey and called a sore loser or a victim who was playing the race card – sentiments that did nothing but prove the exact point she was making.
Guarantee, nobody in the media has ever referred to South Carolina’s players as monkeys. What nonsense!
— Peter Vecsey (@PeterVecsey1) April 1, 2023
People would rather live with their unchecked biases than look themselves in the mirror and admit they harbor harmful thoughts, which is sad and the type of behavior that allows racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, and so forth and so on to exist.
Seeing it play out the way it did — just in the same way Staley pointed out how her team was talked about — put a real damper on what was otherwise an incredible Final Four.
Quick Hits: LSU-Iowa officiating gets slammed … Wrestlemania madness! … The “ghost fork” makes its regular-season debut … and more.
— The officiating for the women’s title game got ripped
— Wrestlemania 39 featured Snoop Dogg hitting The Miz with a people’s elbow and Johnny Knoxville heckling. Also, Logan Paul put his business partner KSI through a table.
— Have you seen the ghost fork pitch from Mets hurler Kodai Senga? You should see what it did to Yuli Gurriel.
