‘We Don’t Just Shut up and Dribble Here’: WNBA Player Issues Stark Warning to New Fans

Michael Gonzales_NBAE via Getty Images (1)
Michael Gonzales/NBAE via Getty Images
Dylan Gwinn

If you thought WNBA players would be happy about the newfound attention and success that has recently come to their league, you thought wrong.

DiJonai Carrington, a player for the Connecticut Sun who no one knew about before she mocked Caitlin Clark for embellishing a foul, sounded off Sunday in apparent distress after the Caitlin Clark-led Fever beat the Chicago Sky in what was the most-watched WNBA game in 23 years.

“Unfortunately for yall new fAnS, we do not just ‘shut up and dribble’ here. Ya picked the wrong league,” Carrington wrote.

Reaction to her post flowed in rapidly.

Actively wishing people would not watch your league is a curious marketing strategy. We’ll see how it plays out, Cotton.

Carrington need not worry, though. No one knew who she was before she mocked Caitlin Clark. Remember this?

In fact, Carrington got booed on her home court during that game. So, she needs not worry about “the fAnS.” The next time someone buys a ticket or turns on a TV to specifically watch her (other than friends and blood relatives) will be the first time.

The WNBA has existed off of corporate welfare for so long that some of these players have genuine disdain for someone who brings in money. They actually resent the attention that’s come to their league. Because the pressure of having to behave like professionals is now being impressed upon them for the first time. Instead of acting like they were doing the world a favor by playing women’s basketball that no one ever watched, they actually have to act like grown-ups.

Sorry about your life, DiJonai.

Obviously, given the behavior of their players, this league was not ready for the limelight.

But no matter, Caitlin Clark was ready, and that’s really the only person in that whole organization who matters.

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