WNBA player Brittney Griner, of Russian jail fame, has been on quite the tear as of late. On May 22, 2025, Griner was caught on camera possibly calling Caitlin Clark a “trash (expletive) white girl” after Griner fouled out of a game between her current Atlanta Dream squad and Clark’s Indiana Fever. Since a microphone was not present to capture this moment of grace and sportsmanship, questions exist about the exact wording and subject of Griner’s outburst. Making sure no such confusion would come into play the next time around, Griner guaranteed she would be fully seen and heard at the next available opportunity by interrupting an on-court halftime interview during the Dream’s game on May 24, 2025, against the Dallas Wings to berate the game officials to “be (expletive) better.” Charming.

Griner’s May 22 outburst, which may or may not have been aimed at Clark, caught the attention of outspoken defender of women’s sports being a place for women only Riley Gaines.

What was actually said by Griner, and the target of her comments, remains a mystery. Neither Griner, Clark, the teams involved, nor the WNBA has yet publicly commented on the matter. Unsurprisingly, neither has ESPN.

ESPN has also missed Griner berating the officials on May 24 (language warning).

About the only thing left for Griner to do this season is throw hands. The season is barely underway, so plenty of time remains for such.

Snark aside, if Griner said what she stands accused of saying about Clark, it is not a good look for her or the WNBA. Players trash-talking one another has been part of sports since the original Olympics in Greece when two marathon participants spent the race’s entirety insisting the other’s technique was to running what Pandora was to following instructions. Racially-charged epithets, however, are unacceptable regardless of originator or subject. Also unacceptable is dropping bombs on live TV when you know the sound is on.

It’s not as if this is the first time the WNBA has had an issue with players doing a much better job of playing Mean Girls instead of basketball. Not that you would know it from watching most any given broadcast of a WNBA game, with the announcers seemingly mandatory unrelenting onslaught of lavish praise on all participants for so little as successfully not tying their shoelaces together before running onto the court, but a lot of WNBA players are not very good. Sadly, far too often, it appears that the fundamentals of shooting the ball — the ABCs, if you will — suffer from the misinterpretation of being Airball, Brick, and Clunker. When a player with authentic skill, such as Clark, comes along, instead of responding by putting in the work to up their game, a lamentable number of players spend their time being put out of shape while bathing in their tears.

If the WNBA wishes to be taken seriously as a professional sports league, it must embrace the practice of disciplining its own without catering to the soft bigotry of low expectations. The incessant “what about me” whining by players such as Angel Reese should be an embarrassment. Likeability is neither defined nor limited by skin color or preference. Neither is boorish behavior excused by past grievances or accomplishments. Brittney Griner’s on-court accomplishments are unimpeachable: a WNBA championship and three Olympic gold medals. Regrettably, the off-court lack of common sense that led to her arrest and imprisonment in Russia has now made itself onto the playing surface and an astonishing inability to keep her mouth shut.

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