WNBA Legend Sue Bird Rips Racist Trolls For Using Caitlin Clark As A ‘Pawn’

WNBA icon Sue Bird insisted on calling a “spade a spade” on Wednesday as she claimed that internet trolls are using Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark as a “pawn” to spread racist hate to the league’s players.

“Racism has been impacting the WNBA well before this year, this is not a new thing. In that way, I do think Caitlin’s being used as a pawn,” said the former Seattle Storm player and the team’s part-owner in her “A Touch More” podcast with fiancée Megan Rapinoe.

“Caitlin didn’t bring racism to the WNBA. This has been happening and that I think is what’s been such a shock for all of us. That other people are surprised by this. We’ve been trying to tell you.”

Bird’s remarks arrive roughly a week after Connecticut Sun star Alyssa Thomas, who is Black, slammed racist and homophobic comments from the Fever’s fan base after the Sun swept the team in the playoffs.

“Basketball is headed in a great direction, but we don’t want fans that are going to degrade us and call us racial things,” Thomas said.

The talk of racism impacting WNBA players follows a historic regular season for the league that saw increased attendance and viewership along with interest in both Clark, the WNBA Rookie of the Year, and Chicago Sky star Angel Reese.

The two have dismissed rumors that there’s beef between them stemming from their college rivalry, which included Reese’s “you can’t see me” gesture to Clark during the 2023 NCAA women’s basketball tournament. Clark made a similar gesture earlier in the tournament, but only Reese’s sparked backlash.

Reese, who has revealed that she’s faced death threats amid her rise in fame, recently declared that “something has to change” while claiming the media has benefited from her “pain” and “villainized” her to create a narrative.

Clark has condemned racist and misogynistic comments toward WNBA players as well, denouncing those that made them as “trolls” and not “fans.”

Bird told Rapinoe that she — and everyone in the league — would have “loved” to have been spoken of and valued for their play alone.

“But nobody ever let us do that. So what happened? We started to build a backbone, a little bit of an identity. We understood that in order to push our league forward we were gonna have to combat these things,” she said.

“And then you know what else we learned? A, it feels good to stand up for yourself, it feels even better to stand up for others. We started to learn people were learning from us and able to follow us in a different way, and who are we following? Black women.”

She added that she gets “sad” over the issue as “we’re still not talking about basketball.”

WNBA players and their union recently criticized Commissioner Cathy Engelbert for her response to players facing racist comments, with some declaring that she did a “disservice to the majority” of the league and calling it a missed “opportunity for her to really be able to take hold of what’s been going on.”

The WNBA, in a statement released last week, said that the league “will not tolerate racist, derogatory, or threatening comments made about players, teams and anyone affiliated with the league.”