Reporter calls for more men, diversity in WNBA broadcasts: ‘Feels like a girls’ club’
Longtime NBA reporter Ric Bucher wants more men on WNBA broadcasts.
On his podcast this week, Bucher criticized networks like ESPN and NBC for using all-female panels during their WNBA coverage.
"Why are all the color analysts and studio hosts women?" Bucher asked. "Women have served in a variety of positions on national NBA broadcasts. Why shouldn’t there be diversity on national WNBA broadcasts? What are the networks afraid of?"
He elaborated, arguing that WNBA analysts tend to be like-minded.
"There are some smart, basketball-savvy women, both in the studio and the broadcast booth, but I don’t hear a whole lot of differing opinion or debate."
"It all comes off as safe and monotone and cookie cutter, especially when it comes to controversial topics. DiJonai took Sophie Cunningham’s head off, and the broadcasters were debating whether it would be elevated to a Flagrant 2. They sounded afraid to say it, even after multiple replays showed DiJonai [Carrington] made no attempt to make a play on the ball. The studio analysts were no better.
"All of it feels like a girls’ club. The media protecting the league from real scrutiny or critique. I’ll ask again: What are they afraid of? Players can’t take it? That critiquing a woman in public is no way to treat one?"
Bucher is right. There is rarely much debate among WNBA analysts, despite the polarizing nature of the topics they discuss. Whether it’s Caitlin Clark, alleged racism, transgender issues, or white privilege, the analysts sound the same.
Unsurprisingly, the consensus among WNBA analysts is that Clark is overrated, white privilege is rampant, Black players are victims of racism, and trans women are women.
For a network that markets itself around "diversity," ESPN’s lead WNBA studio panel consists of four Black women: Malika Andrews, Monica McNutt, Andraya Carter, and Chiney Ogwumike.
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That said, we don’t necessarily agree with Bucher that a male analyst would help.
Most men in sports media, especially at ESPN, aren’t going to add much diversity of thought to the conversation. They are even more afraid and concerned about fitting in with the in-crowd on Threads and Bluesky.
Case in point: ESPN writer David Dennis Jr., who claimed Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle ad left him "mortified."
What the coverage of the WNBA needs is someone who can provide balance to the conversation. It needs someone who isn’t afraid to acknowledge Clark’s record-setting stretch, that forcing females to change next to males in the name of transgenderism is wrong, that Carrington clearly committed a hard foul, and that the claims of "white privilege" are baseless, and that the Black women are aggressors.
To this point, the only analyst who has proven willing to provide this perspective, which is the majority perspective across America, is ESPN/NFL Network reporter Stacey Dales, who was a star in women’s basketball.
Earlier this summer, Dales debated and schooled Dennis Jr., who tried arguing that Caitlin Clark was not even a top-five guard in the WNBA.
ESPN could fix its WNBA studio show immensely by replacing the overly obnoxious Monica McNutt with Dales as it looks for other credible commentators, male or female.
Still, props to Ric Bucher for raising awareness that mainstream WNBA coverage is overrun by partisan, virtue-signaling, race-idolatrous mean girls.