2 Male Sportswriters Slammed For Suggesting WNBA Share Team Names With NBA
Two sportswriters fouled out on Wednesday when they offered a really, really bad take on WNBA team names.
During an episode of “The Bill Simmons Podcast,” Ethan Strauss, who covers the Golden State Warriors for The Athletic, griped that it was too hard to remember the names of all 12 WNBA teams.
He thought it would make life so much easier if the WNBA teams just changed their names to variations of existing NBA teams.
“Like, why force people to learn about ‘the Fever’? Why not just have the ‘W Pacers’?” Strauss suggested. “I think that makes it so much easier to just resonate and cut across.”
Simmons agreed: “Like how in college, where it would be, like, ‘the Lady Gamecocks.’”
Ethan Strauss thinks WNBA teams should be called like the “W Pacers” bc it’s too hard to learn the name Fever and Bill agrees pic.twitter.com/gIg8OdI6MO
— Paternity Riley (@lesterfreamon) May 8, 2024
Their proposal didn’t get much support on social media. In fact, the two sportswriters’ seeming struggle to remember 12 team names ― names that, you know, you could easily look up on Google if you had to ― was brutally mocked.
fever, sky, aces - all very difficult words to learn https://t.co/frhUCgSFmE
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) May 8, 2024
it's honestly incredible that two men who have spent their entire careers overwriting about basketball by many thousands of words can claim to not have the ability to remember 12 additional nouns https://t.co/2UubXJ9jGv
— Emma Carmichael (@emmacargo) May 8, 2024
I’m all for welcoming new fans to women’s sports but the guys who wanna change names, lower rims & relate everything to men’s sports can kick rocks.
Women’s sports are their own awesome thing (with their own team names!). Get on board or don’t, just don’t get in the way. https://t.co/HQ9mmmvSJV— Sarah Spain (@SarahSpain) May 8, 2024
Why stop there? Maybe all the W players should wear the jerseys of their NBA comps. If women’s sports are about anything, it’s about providing easy points of access for men who can’t be bothered to do the bare minimum, right?? 🙄 https://t.co/nSORhD8rA3
— Myles 🫠 (@MylesEhrlich) May 8, 2024
okay besides the large dose of misogyny here … W Pacers is one of the worst naming ideas ive ever heard https://t.co/9iAo8km9zB
— whitney medworth (@its_whitney) May 8, 2024
Solid guess here that more young basketball fans now know the team name “Fever” more than they ever knew the name “Pacers.” https://t.co/POu4ZExium
— Amy McGrath (@AmyMcGrathKY) May 8, 2024
This is embarrassing. You’ve got enough room in your brain to name every player with minutes played on the 2016 Cavaliers squad, but remembering 12 team names is asking too much? https://t.co/5PFd4a5LQJ
— Matthew Moore (@MatthewrMoore) May 8, 2024
The (much deserved) ascension of the WNBA in sports culture is going to lead to some atomically bad takes. Brace yourselves. 😬😬😬 https://t.co/3OmKJG7ehj
— Morgan Peter Brown (@MorganPeteBrown) May 8, 2024
There are 124 teams in NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL with another 69 in Power 5 conferences in NCAA. I bet they’d get over 95% correct if they were given each team’s location name. They can learn 12 more names for WNBA.
Also, not all WNBA teams are affiliated with NBA teams. https://t.co/7dkEKJ0e4z— Derek Johnson (@derekjjohnson) May 8, 2024
