WNBA players don’t make a ton of money as it is, so they’re definitely going to do what’s in their hearts, regardless of any fines.
On Thursday morning, the WNBA levied some low — but ridiculous fines against three teams and their players for using their uniforms to protest the recent spate of police killings of black people.
On Thursday afternoon, the players responded resoundingly.
Following their game at MSG — players from both New York Liberty and Indiana Fever — refused to take questions about any subject other than Black Lives Matter, after they were among the teams and players fined.
“We feel like America has a problem with the police brutality that’s going on with black lives around here, and we just want to use our voices and use our platform to advocate for that,” the Liberty’s Tanisha Wright said according to Deadspin. “Just because someone says ‘Black Lives Matter’ doesn’t mean that other lives don’t matter. People put out this imaginary ‘black lives only matter’ whenever people say, ‘Black lives matter.’ What we’re saying is, ‘Black lives matter, too.’ Period.”
Wright wasn’t done there:
We really feel like there’s still an issue here in America. And we want to be able to use our platforms, we want to be able to use our voices, we don’t want to let anybody silence us and what we want to talk about.
It’s unfortunate that the WNBA has fined us and not supported its players.
Liberty’s star Tina Charles accepted the Player of the Month award with her uniform inside-out — while Indiana Fever star Tamika Catchings also said she would only address questions related to Black Lives Matter.
The protests began when players wore shirts commemorating Alton Sterling, Philando Castile and the Dallas Police Department during warm-ups and after games. That prompted the league to issue a memo this week warning that the shirts were in violation of its uniform code, which in turn prompted players to wear all-black shirts, at which pointed the league began handing down fines.
Flip The Page to see all of the united protest and boycotts: