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Associated Press
20-05-2025
- Sport
- Associated Press
Caitlin Clark says it was too loud to hear alleged racial comments but supports WNBA investigation
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark says it was too loud inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse for her to hear racial comments from fans directed at Angel Reese during Saturday's season-opening 93-58 victory over the Chicago Sky and that she supports the WNBA's investigation. A person familiar with the situation confirmed the details to The Associated Press on Sunday on condition of anonymity because the league had not publicly identified the subject of the taunts or who made the allegations. Reese, who is Black, and Clark, who is white, met for the seventh time in their ongoing — and much-talked-about — rivalry. Clark won the league's Rookie of the Year Award last season with Reese finishing second. Clark spoke for the first time publicly about the allegations Monday after practice. Indiana hosts Atlanta on Tuesday night. 'It's super loud in here, and though I didn't hear anything, I think that's why they're doing the investigation,' Clark said. 'That's why they're looking into it. That doesn't mean nothing happened, so I'll just trust the league's investigation, and I'm sure they'll do the right thing.' Both teams also have issued statements supporting the investigation, and so has the WNBA Players Union. Reese was booed during player introductions, and they reached a crescendo when she walked to the free-throw line after Clark smacked Reese's arm to avoid giving up an open layup with 4:38 left in the third quarter. Reese lost the ball and fell to the court before getting up and attempting to confront Clark as she walked away. Fever center Aliyah Boston stepped between the players and following a replay review, the refs upgraded Clark's foul to a flagrant 1. Reese and Boston each drew technical fouls. While Reese, Clark, Fever coach Stephanie White and Sky coach Tyler Marsh all called it a basketball play in their postgame news conferences, none of the four addressed hearing what league officials described as potentially 'hateful' comments. 'I told the team, obviously, we're going to cooperate fully with the investigation,' White said Monday. 'But there's no place for that in our league, whether it's at home, whether it's on the road. It doesn't matter. We want to encourage our players, our staff to bring recognition to it in real time if it's heard, if it's seen or anything of that nature.' Clark finished the game with her third career triple double — 20 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists — as the Fever matched second-largest victory margin in franchise history. Reese had 12 points and 17 rebounds in her first regular-season game since suffering a season-ending wrist injury in September. The league also launched its 'No Space for Hate' this season, a multi-dimensional platform designed to combat hate and promote respect across all WNBA spaces both online and in arenas. The league is focused on four areas: enhanced technological features to detect hateful comments online; increased emphasis on team, arena and league security measures; reinforcing mental health resources; and alignment against hate. This will be the league's first major test of it. 'There's no place for that in our game, no place for that in our society and certainly we want every person that comes into our arena — whether player, whether fan — to have a great experience,' Clark said. 'I appreciate the league doing that (investigation), I appreciate the Fever organization has been at the forefront of this really since Day 1 and what they're doing. With the investigation, we'll leave that up to them to find anything and take proper action if so.' ___ AP Basketball Writer Doug Feinberg in New York also contributed to this report. ___ AP WNBA:
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Coach who recruited Manute Bol admits he made up his birthday: "He was probably 40, 50 years old when he was playing in the NBA"
The NBA is not short of contentious situations in its history — it's filled with them. From performance-enhancing drugs, affairs, links to criminal activity, sports betting and everything in between have come across the league at some stage. Of course, the majority of sticky situations involve the very players that make up the NBA, and some situations are particularly more peculiar than others. With a smorgasbord of situations to choose from, when it comes to the controversial story of Sudanese-born former Center Manute Bol, just about everything was a question mark when he made his way to American soil, including his age. The challenges It's important to acknowledge that this situation isn't uncommon for African-born athletes. Their birthing system is substantially different from the rest of the world, meaning that, oftentimes, children can be born with no issuance of a birth certificate. Advertisement The absence of a birth certificate isn't an intentional malicious act but a result of various factors, including poverty, lack of awareness about registration, geographical challenges and bureaucratic hurdles. These issues often impact the ability of parents to register their children and access essential services or, in Bol's case, have verifiable evidence that he was of a certain age before the NBA draft. We've also seen a more recent example of this circumstance post-2010s, involving former Milwaukee Bucks lottery pick Thon Maker, who was taken with the 10th pick in the 2016 NBA draft. Maker's age was a point of significant controversy before the draft, with many believing he was older than the 19-year-old he claimed and closer to 23. This controversy arose from various sources, including a 2010 yearbook suggesting he was in the graduating class of that year, an expired passport listing a different birthdate, and conflicting information about his educational background. Thon was touted as an athletic prospect with great pedigree but struggled early on and only lasted three years in Milwaukee. He was then shipped to the Detroit Pistons before a brief stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers before exiting the league. It's never been definitively confirmed publicly if Maker was, in fact, not the age he claimed, but all signs point to this being a realistic possibility. Related: "He would just sit on the side" - Jayson Williams on Charles Barkley eating McDonald's while yelling at teammates to run harder in Philly Mackey's controversial call Before entering the NBA, Bol was recruited by Kevin Mackey to attend Cleveland State University. He was a mouth-watering prospect. Standing at 7'7" alone put him on the radar of NBA scouts, and combined with his natural athletic explosiveness, wingspan, reach, good hands and the potential to protect the rim and patrol the paint, Mackey jumped at the opportunity to have him a part of his program. Advertisement Still, Kevin knew of the mysteries surrounding Manute's personal information. But that didn't stop him. Anticipating Bol's stock to rise ahead of an NBA future, Mackey dubiously took it upon himself to give him a birthdate. "I gave him his birthday because they didn't know how old he was. Bol had no idea of his age, and the kid who came over with him didn't know how old he was. No one knew how old he was," he said. "I wanted to make sure he was young enough because he didn't have an age. I think he was in his 40s; I really do. But there's no way of ever really knowing. Every athletic door is open at 19; every athletic door is closed when you're 35. He was probably 40, 50 years old when he was playing in the NBA," he added. An impressive career Sadly, Bol passed away in 2010 due to acute kidney failure and complications from Stevens-Johnson syndrome — 15 years after he retired from the NBA. Advertisement To this day, he remains one of the most intriguing players in league history. Bol's game was certifiable — he led the NBA in blocks on two occasions in 1986 and 1989 and retired as the only player ever with more blocks than points in a career, finishing with 2,086 blocks and 1,599 points. When considering the mystery around his age, there's a real chance that Bol was competing and producing in the NBA in his mid-40s or early 50s. If so, it makes his career even more impressive than it was and perhaps points to him being an early example of a player holding off Father Time before modern medicine and sports science existed. Ultimately, we never found out his true age, but former Philadelphia 76ers teammate Jayson Williams has since stated Bol was 55 when he retired from the Association. Advertisement Nevertheless, at the time, Mackey believed in him so much that he was willing to put his reputation on the line to give Bol a chance at a professional sporting career. Related: "A game for sissies" - Wilt Chamberlain admitted he only started playing basketball because he was from Philadelphia
