Iconic American athletes — from Muhammad Ali to Colin Kaepernick — have used their platforms to share important messages, but no league has supported a cause quite like the WNBA has this season. A first-of-its-kind partnership between the league, the African-American Policy Forum, and the Say Her Name campaign means that players will have two names on their back: their own, and Breonna Taylor. A 26-year-old Black woman who was shot and killed by Louisville Police serving an erroneous “no-knock” warrant, Taylor’s has become a rallying call for ending police violence against African Americans.

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WNBA players have been at the forefront of social justice causes for years, sometimes with the support — and sometimes to the annoyance — of the league.

After the mid-2016 PULSE shooting in Orlando that killed 49 people and wounded 53 others in a gay nightclub, the WNBA responded by raising money for victims and their families. The entire league was involved with this promotion, and it received an endorsement from then-WNBA President Lisa Borders.

But the situation was different when Black Lives Matter protests flared across the country a month later. After a particularly deadly summer in which police killed several unarmed Black men in front of witnesses, sometimes on camera, the New York Liberty, Indiana Fever and Phoenix Mercury wore shirts with “Black Lives Matter” printed across their chests. Some players wore #Dallas5, in memory of five police officers ambushed and killed by Micah Xavier Johnson during protests.

The league responded by reminding players of the official uniform policy and, days later, fined them for wearing gear it deemed inappropriate. Outrage from the WNBA Players Association, fans and some NBA players on Twitter led the league office to rescind the fines.

“While we expect players to comply with league rules and uniform guidelines, we also understand their desire to use their platform to address important societal issues,” Borders said at the time.

The WNBA is one of the most selective American professional leagues. It has fewer teams and fewer roster spots. The NCAA estimates just 0.8 percent of women’s college basketball players make it into the WNBA. Why are these athletes, who have finite time and space to capitalize on their skill and athleticism, spending so much energy focused on social justice?

Atlanta Dream forward Elizabeth Williams protesting in favor of Black Lives Matter this summer (Instagram/@e_williams_1)

2020 will be remembered as the year of the coronavirus epidemic, but this summer also mirrors 2016 in some notable ways. The invisible threat that had Americans sheltering in place was new and it prevented tens of millions of people, including nearly all professional athletes, from commuting to work for months. That left a captive audience at home to bear witness to another round of police killings of unarmed Black people.

This led the Black Lives Matter movement to regain momentum, with massive protests in defiance of stay-at-home orders across the country with protesters holding signs in memory of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and others who died as a direct result of police actions.

          

Sydney Colson left protests in her hometown of Houston, Texas to join the Chicago Sky in the Wubble. "If this was just a regular season, I don’t know that I would have gone," said Colson.

      

Chicago Sky forward Sydney Colson joined protestors, explaining that the story of George Floyd’s murder “mustered up something in me that made me want to go act, to go out and be a part of something, a movement. It was very empowering ... It was a feeling I want to keep having. It makes me want to feel more involved.”

Colson is a member of the WNBA’s Social Justice Council. The Council’s mission statement is to be a “driving force of necessary and continuing conversations about race, voting rights, LGBTQ+ advocacy and gun control, amongst other important societal issues.”

With elaborate pandemic contingency plans in place, the WNBA prepared to start its season. Some players were reluctant to rejoin their teams in a protected basketball environment, concerned that the return of the game might take away from what felt like a historic social justice movement in the country.

“After going through (COVID-19), I was second-guessing whether or not I wanted to go into the bubble, because I didn’t know how confident I was in it being contained. I know they are trying their best, but I didn’t think it was necessarily up to them,” said Colson. “Obviously the health aspects were the biggest thing, but the social justice aspect also weighed in on me wanting to go be with the other players... if this was just a regular season, I don’t know that I would have gone.”

Players who opted to play would leave the activism of massive street protests, surrounded by thousands of people during a pandemic. Instead, they would travel to an exclusive sports environment, where they could compete as isolated from the coronavirus as possible. Some would trade face-offs with police in riot gear in their hometowns for stringent testing protocols before on-court battles tip-off in “the Wubble” — i.e., the women’s bubble — in Bradenton, Florida.

Elizabeth Williams lays the ball up in WNBA action in the Wubble (Instagram/@e_williams_1

There, on the IMG Academy grounds, the league expects players from the 12 teams to eat, sleep and relax in hotel rooms and villas on the grounds, and play in the two campus gyms. If they leave the grounds for health or personal emergencies, there are strict rules guiding their return.

Many players struggled with the decision to return to their profession. Some decided to wait until next season, but not forward Erica McCall, now of the Minnesota Lynx. McCall, who has played on three teams in her five-year career, speaks of the importance of social justice, but basketball is at the top of her mind as well.

“(Opting in) was something I needed to do for myself, for my mental, to get back where I needed to be,” she said.

Having been waived by the Indiana Fever and the Atlanta Dream earlier in the year, McCall noted that there are just a dozen teams with approximately 144 slots for players in the WNBA, so it is “very hard to get into. It’s very hard to play in this league, as is. For someone to have the courage to opt out because of Covid or social justice... it shows how strong the person is.”

When players first entered the Wubble, Colson wasn’t among them. Right before she was supposed to head in, she contracted Covid-19. At the time of our interview, she was quarantined at home. She later underwent additional testing and rejoined her team.

The Pandemic Season

The Wubble isn’t perfect. Connecticut Sun point guard Jasmine Thomas said there isn’t much recreation other than doing laps in the pool or playing golf, and there’s less time for athletes to rest and recover between games than during a normal season.

Atlanta Dream forward Elizabeth Williams said such a sheltered life helps to amplify the WNBA’s messages to the world beyond it.

Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler, who is co-owner of Atlanta Dream, co-owner has been a vocal oppponent of Black Lives Matter and the WNBA’s support of the movement. Amid accusations Loeffler is playing politics to keep her seat in November, players wore “Vote Warnock” shirts, in support of her opponent (Instagram/@e_williams_1)

"Let’s say someone has a certain idea,” she explained. “One, that idea is communicated with everyone that’s here. Two, let’s say it’s a shirt for example. You can physically see every team wearing the shirt at the same time. The 12 teams will play within 48 hours. Constantly in your face — and that’s how we want it.”

The Wubble may be surreal, but the games are real. The on-court intensity and desire are palpable. But while every athlete plays to win, they are also playing for the name on the backs of their jerseys.

The Black Lives Matter movement has grown significantly since its inception in 2016; however, it primarily focuses on Black men. Say Her Name’s mission is to ensure that Black women’s stories are visible too.

The organization’s founder, Kimberle' Crenshaw, said on a July 30 Zoom call that this partnership “is a moment where Black women can be at the center of the discourse instead of erased from it.”

As a member of Say Her Name, Gina Best considers herself part of the “sorority of sorrow.” Her daughter, India Kager, was killed when Virginia Beach police shot her in a botched SWAT team operation, of which Kager’s child’s father was the target.

Best says that the police used the “highest level of specificity, and none of the humanity it takes to recognize there was an innocent woman in the car with her baby.” According to Virginia Beach Police Chief Jim Cervera, the ordeal that claimed Kager’s life lasted approximately 15 seconds.

Kager wasn’t just a daughter; she was a mother, a sister and a friend. Kager had a legacy in life that was erased in her death. The WNBA is making a point to memorialize who these women were, instead of just recounting the worst moment in their families’ lives.

That’s one reason being able to speak to Tamika Powers, Breonna Taylor’s mother, was important to Connecticut Sun All-Star point guard Jasmine Thomas. Powers spoke with the Social Justice Council on a Zoom call prior to to the start of the season. The Council, of which Thomas is a member, wanted to learn more about who Taylor was before the night the police kicked her door down and shot her eight times.

“When she shared memories of Breonna she had the biggest smile on her face. That got to me,” Thomas said of Powers. “I get emotional every time I think about how this beautiful soul was taken from her and they still haven’t received an ounce of true justice.”

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“It’s important for us to amplify the stories of victims because police violence on Black lives happens even when it doesn’t go viral on social media.”

Thomas noted the stories of many people, especially Black women, go unnoticed “and we are tired of being left out of the conversation.”

So that’s why this under-celebrated league of mostly Black women is championing these Black women who in other circumstances might have gone unnoticed by the public in the past.

The WNBA, after all, is 80 percent Black. Crenshaw noted their connection to the Black women killed by police:

"Any of the women in this league could have been Breonna Taylor, could have been India Kager, could have been Korryn Gaines... it does feel like a new moment.