A WNBA writer said that a MAGA hat made her feel unsafe while attending a WNBA playoff game and claimed the white women on one of the teams needed to control their tempers.
During Game 2 of the playoff series between the Indiana Fever and Connecticut Sun, which featured rookie star Caitlin Clark, a journalist who covers the WNBA described other fans as racist for their comments toward some players.
“I’m at the Sun/Fever game and the vibe is HORRENDOUS,” Frankie de la Cretaz wrote. “The woman behind me was mocking DiJonai’s eyelashes & only stopped when my partner turned around & told her to stop being racist.”
DiJonai Carrington is a guard for the Connecticut Sun.
‘I’ve never felt unsafe at a WNBA game & tonight I did.’
The writer then continued her outrage as she described “a man in a MAGA hat” and a woman wearing a “ban nails” shirt, who had props of giant fingernails on her hands.
Cretaz went on to say what she witnessed at the game made her feel unsafe.
“I’m going to be writing about my experience tonight. I’ve never felt unsafe at a WNBA game & tonight I did.”
After a viewer pointed out there were no MAGA hats in the photo Cretaz posted, she responded with a photo of a male fan in a MAGA hat in what appeared to be the lobby, holding a sign that read “Make Basketball Great Again #22,” Clark’s number.
“Here’s one of them! There was another with a literal MAGA hat that I saw too,” Cretaz captioned.
The Sun won the game 87-81.
Cretaz’s X bio describes herself as a writer for topics like sports, “gender,” and “queerness,” while listing her pronouns as “they/them.”
She has previously written for ESPN about nonbinary athletes in sports.
On her Substack page, Cretaz wrote about the incident and complained that “queer or trans or a person of color” are viewed as biased in their writing when covering their own “community.”
It is not clear if Cretaz ever played professional basketball or if she simply feels the WNBA is her community due to the presence of lesbian players.
She expanded by saying the coverage Caitlin Clark has received in 2024 is “rooted not only in racism, but in the homophobic tropes of the predatory lesbian and the queer villain.”
“The number of times I read WNBA coverage that seems like it was written by someone who, frankly, hates Black women is inexcusable—especially in a league that is over 80% Black,” she continued.
After combining her WNBA coverage into a critique of race, sexuality, and journalistic ethics, Cretaz’s argument closed by saying the white women on the Indiana Fever can’t control their tempers.
“I am deeply uncomfortable with [the] dynamic on the Indiana Fever in which the Black players are responsible for de-escalating the white women who can’t keep their tempers.”
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