In case you forgot, it’s a monumental year for America. We’re celebrating our 250th anniversary as a country. It’s a tremendous occasion, which includes recognition from America’s professional sports leagues. The way those leagues have shown appreciation and recognition of this historic achievement is by wearing USA 250 patches on jerseys.
The WNBA hasn’t quite made up their minds, though. That should be of little to no shock to any of you that know about this league. The Seattle Storm officially endorsed Kamala Harris for president during the 2024 election cycle, Brittney Griner and other athletes wore “Kamala Harris For the Culture” t-shirts during warm-ups, and the league is objectively the most left-leaning professional sports league in America. They’ve made that very clear, which would make sense of why they aren’t too fond on the idea of being excited and all-in on the idea of commemorating the country’s birthday.
On Thursday, after an article from Sportico announced America 250 patches would be worn by players during the July 25 WNBA All-Star Game hosted by the Chicago Sky, it caused quite the uproar from players, fans and media. The WNBA then provided further clarity about nine hours after it was published saying, “Like other major sports leagues, we are exploring how best to commemorate the country’s 250th anniversary. Nothing has been finalized at this time,” the league said.
The most notable criticism was from Las Vegas Aces forward Brianna Turner, treasurer of the WNBA player’s association. Turner claimed that slavery should cause the league to refrain from using the patches.
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“Whoever called for the WNBA all star uniforms to have the USA 250 patch should have thought that through considering no WNBA players would have been free 250 years ago. The majority wouldn’t even have their freedom 100 years ago,” Turner wrote on X.
It’s true that blacks weren’t free as the nation was founded as they are now, but this just tells me that Turner doesn’t care about the progress made throughout our nation’s history and is unwilling to educate herself on the history of the Democratic Party, which stifled much of that progress toward freedom.
Yes, women weren’t allowed to vote when America was founded, but I doubt her “freedom” fixation was on voting rights, if I had to take a guess.
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But hey, you don’t have to worry about having to wear the patch, Brianna. Players that average just over one point per game don’t make the All-Star team, so you don’t have anything to worry about.
As Sportico stated, “The WNBA was not part of the formal January announcement when the NBA, NFL, MLB, UFC and NASCAR—among others—announced that they would feature the patch on uniforms or the 250 logo in venue during various big events.”
As you tune into the NBA Finals, you’ll clearly see the players on both the San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks wearing the USA 250 patches.
Sports should be, and in large part, have been the best place to come together as Americans, regardless of race, religion, or political affiliation. These patches show pride in a country that is the gold standard for justice, peace, freedom and prosperity the world has ever seen. If the WNBA can’t get on board with that, they are just furthering the political divide and come across as being opposed to Trump, rather than coming together to recognize the semiquincentennial of America. We’ve come a long way as a country, and we can go further if league’s lay down their liberal arms and come together to unite America under the flag. Just as the national anthem before games is a time to come together and recognize the blessing it is to live and play a kid’s game freely, these patches should be a simple way to recognize those facts for one weekend.
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Do the right thing, WNBA. Wear the patches. Honor the nation that allows you the freedom to play the game you love. This isn’t about partisan politics.
The WNBA has not responded to emails about Turner’s comments or about whether they have made up their mind about the patches.