RebKell's Junkie Boards

[Stormeo]

(TL;DR at the very bottom if you don't feel like reading the following)


So pretty much all of us fans alike on this board, despite the fact that we disagree on a bunch of things & may not get along with each other from time to time, basically have all agreed since basically the start of the season that the Indiana Fever are complete & total disaster right now, for one reason or another. We've also discussed it a number of times – especially the past couple weeks.

The Fever have now lost 10 straight games, are 5.5 games back of the 11th place team (who is only 1 game back of the 4th place team, mind you), and – if they keep it up – are supposedly on the verge of having one of the worst seasons in WNBA history based on off vs. def rating & the W-L column. Y'all can give us the full numbers/comparisons to the other Worst Teams In League History.

Here's the problem:

Has anyone noticed any media coverage or seen any broadcasters/commentators speak in depth on the Fever as a subject? Any articles detailing the massive pit the Fever's in, or anyone doing analysis out there of any sort as to why they're so bad and how the Fever should go about turning the tide?

I googled "Indiana Fever Bad" and found one (1) article, written about a week or two ago from Forbes, speaking to the team's season as a whole, rather than related to just a single game (because one game could not possibly encapsulate the sheer ineptitude that plagues this entire organization). And while I disagreed with its general premise (Kelsey Mitchell turning her own inconsistent play around on its own is not going to fix this franchise), I appreciated how the article/author simply summarized how the Fever's season had been going and how Mitchell could be a potential solution to turn it around, including simple stats/facts that any fan could look up on their own. Nothing fancy, nothing too scathing/harsh. Just basketball stuff.

So why does it seem like this subject – which by all means is a normal subject within the context of a professional sports league – is a complete elephant in the room when it comes to League analysts, writers, and broadcasters? I may see on twitter a comment here & there about "Yep, the Fever are definitely bad", but I see nobody really talking about it. From what I've seen, it's not touched upon by the Fever's home broadcasters at all, and not really by the usual bunch of ESPN analysts – whereas I think in a men's league it would at least be one talking point while the commentators in real time are covering the game in front of them.

Granted, I don't really listen to podcasts, so I don't know if all the Fever talk exists there only – maybe so. Still, even if it is there & even if it only gets buried as a towards-the-end subject, having it on podcasts isn't good enough.

If this were one of the major men's leagues, y'all know that we'd get constant coverage of not just the worst team, but the clear-cut worst team. The team itself would get a swath of pressure applied on it from local media in print/press conferences, national media on tv, and every medium in between.

I acknowledge this League and its media is small enough to where it'll never get wall-to-wall coverage in its current state (not even when it's influencing earth-shattering elections, if we're being honest), but imo there are enough writers/analysts out there to where this topic needs to be covered. Every writer/speaker is different, and could surely add their own thoughts, their own color, to this topic which imo is deeper than it appears.

It's not just the Fever being bad that's an interesting topic to me, but I think this very phenomenon of no one covering the League talking about it. Not talking about objective reporters/insiders, but the writers & analysts. Just to be clear.

And though I could go on & add my two cents on why I think all of this is (I'll just say, I think those who cover the League are soft and not actually helping things much), I'd humbly prefer to open it up to anyone who wants to speak to this. And if I'm wrong about any of this, please, by all means, speak to that as well.


TL;DR – the Fever suck in a historic way, but writers/analysts who cover the WNBA seem to refuse to talk about it; why would that be? (Also, see subject line)

[PickledGinger]

I don't know that the Fever can dig themselves out of this hole. Like, ever. They hare historically bad, and have one of the smallest markets in the league. But I'm not sure if my problem comes from the fact that this fact is being ignored by the media, or because it seems to be ignored by the ownership.

The fact that both Marianne Stanley and Tamika Catchings (I love you girl...best defensive player ever but those draft picks tho...) are employed right now is insane to me. And maybe why the media isn't going there is because they love Tamika and going there would inherently lead to them having to say bad things about her?

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Unspoken expectations are just premeditated resentments.

[johnjohnW]

I think the problem (if it even is one) is that the W media actually loves the league and wants it to succeed, so they don't have a vested interest in anything hyper critical. Pointing out how bad a team is, while accurate and worthy of discussion, would be fodder for the trolls who think every W team is as bad as the Fever are. Do we really want Stephen A Smith squawking about how abysmal the Fever are?

I definitely think the Fever can rebound from this but it's going to take a little bit longer. They might set the record for most consecutive missed playoffs.

[Randy]

Interesting post Stormeo - but you and everyone else who is down on the Fever is forgetting that the team would probably look a lot different if they had won the Wilson or Ionescu lotteries or both. They might look like a respecatable team and everyone might be complaining that the Liberty are the worst team ever. Heck - where would Seattle be if they didn't win the Loyd and Stewart lotteries? Probably still in the lottery.

Fever do need to make some changes - firing Stanley would be the first step.

As for the media coverage - I don't think many people read it and the owners of teams probably care little about it. The volume of coverage has increased in the past few years - so much in fact, I don't really have the time to read 90% of it.

As for why the WNBA is not taken seriously, aside from racism, sexism and homophobia, it is probably due to players showing up late due to overseas jobs, taking off during the season for NT duty, and players just sitting out for weeks, months, even years for "rest", blatant tanking, overseas play or whatever. Plus, the short season means a lot of injuries that would not be that crucial in the NBA are season ending in the WNBA.

[pilight]

[Milks26]

Every sports league have historically bad teams with many not even recording a dub for their season.

But, The Fever should've fired Stanley by now. Even if you hug Catchings because of who she is to the franchise - nothing is owed to Stanley.

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~College WBB & the "W' need other tv networks covering the important stuff...Espn is beyond tired~

[Luuuc]

Personally I just don't think it makes for a particularly interesting story.
They suck really hard. About the only thing I want to read about it is ideas about how they can dig their way out of this predicament.

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Thanks for calling. I wait all night for calls like these.

[Richyyy]

It's not nearly as bad as it used to be in terms of people willing to write about things that are bad in the league, or take the teams/players seriously as sportspeople who can be good/bad/indifferent, rather than pretty little girls we all have to protect like the delicate flowers that they are. If you're willing to dig a little deeper into the coverage to people like myself or Winsidr then people will write about teams or players that suck. Many of us wrote about New York last season when they went 2-20, for example. Personally I just hadn't got around to Indiana in depth yet (I did have a small part about how they had to start playing the younger players more last week). It is a little difficult to say anything that's hugely more interesting about their current state than "Wow, they really suck. In lots of ways." Digging out of it could well just be time and draft luck, which isn't exactly deep either, but could at least involve some slightly more interesting stuff.

So basically, yes, the kid gloves with which the WNBA is still covered to a certain extent are still somewhat annoying. But it's gotten better. The lack of local coverage for the Fever (which is another worrying aspect for the franchise) probably doesn't help in finding anything detailed about this particular subject.

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Independent WNBA coverage: http://www.wnbalien.com/

[myrtle]

[pilight]

[FrozenLVFan]

Giving Indy the #1 pick isn't going to help them if they have the same people making the decisions that they did in the last draft.

[PUmatty]

[ClayK]

Stormeo is right on, and the discussion about Indiana is just a digression.

Aside from Richyyy and a few others, commentary on the league is and always has been worshipful. They are Our Girls, and should never be criticized -- and those willing to criticize the league as any other major sports league is criticized do not get major media platforms.

I agree that this is an issue, as if the people who cover the league for the most visible outlets don't take it seriously enough to criticize it, then why should anyone else take it seriously?

The TV commentators just can't bring themselves to say that the coaches make a mistake, or the players make bad decisions. It's as if they say anything negative, it justifies all the critics of the league, so they're always positive, which is worse, in my opinion.

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Oṃ Tāre Tuttāre Ture Svāhā

[Stormeo]

[Silky Johnson]

I think that the league has a coverage problem, but the case laid out in the OP is not indicative of that. As @Luuuc pointed out, the Fever are sorry. And, even worse, they're boring and sorry. Every other team in the league is either good, or interesting, or has at least one player worthy of national attention. The Fever aren't even sorry in a fun way, with a diva athlete, or an irascible coach, or obnoxious fans... they're just plain sorry. Who wants to talk about that?

[Stormeo]

[mercfan]

[Richyyy]

[UK1996]

I occasionally listen to KSR and radio show that focuses on Kentucky sports, but they talk about sports news and things going on in (mostly) Kentucky and the world.. They do an excellent job covering Football and Basketball, however I cringe every time they mention women’s basketball. They usually have a couple articles on their website but the radio show has four hosts and none of them know what they are talking about. When they discussed Kim Mulkey leaving Baylor they got so many facts about her tenure wrong. I wish on of the hosts would make an extra effort to follow women’s basketball news and look up information before they discuss it. I think this is just an example of women’s basketball coverage that many of us people who follow men and women’s sports see daily.

[FrozenLVFan]

This is just another facet to lousy media coverage of the WNBA and WCBB in general, starting with horrendous TV announcers, pontificating male analysts who know nothing about the teams, lack of newspaper coverage, and 4 year old news clips on ESPN's WNBA webpage. Sad but not surprising. Probably the negative Neanderthal feedback they receive online about any coverage of women's sports doesn't help.

[tfan]

Wikipedia doesn't have their schedule/results, and ESPN deleted the page Wiki references, but I recall the 2017 San Antonio Stars as starting out at a historically bad pace (like 1 - 10) . They were heading for 1998 Mystics or 2011 Tulsa Shock "3 wins bad". And they ended up just regular bad: 8 - 26.

But I don't see why Stanley is the problem if everyone appears to agree they don't have sufficient talent.

[Richyyy]

[tfan]

[johnjohnW]

I mean, wasn't Stanley specifically hired to oversee the tanking process? She wasn't hired to be a winning coach. I don't see the point in firing her. Let it run its course.

[awhom111]

Speaking of tanking, are there any good names for future tanks at this point? If not, I nominate Puking for Paige.

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https://wbasketballblog.com/author/awhom111/