WNBA Proves Yet Again Why Patriots Loathe It As Players Refuse to Take Court During National Anthem

We’re officially supposed to care about the WNBA.

I’ve been told that by the media, anyway. If you don’t watch women’s sports on principle — not because they’re boring, but because they tend, more often than not, to be a vehicle for some sort of political message — you’re some kind of deplorable conserva-chud who needs to officially repent of your white supremacy and burn a picture of Shane Gillis for good measure.

How dare you not be preached to?

In all seriousness, the league does have a golden opportunity afforded to it by the hype Caitlin Clark and the draft class of 2024 created. Not that they like Clark — too much conservatism, too much privilege — but the fact is that she’s correlated with higher ratings. Otherwise, 30 years into its run as a supposed major league, and nobody really cares about the WNBA.

On Monday night, the league again showed you why.

It should have been about the action on the court. The Atlanta Dream managed to even up the WNBA Finals at a game apiece, scoring a 79-65 win over the Golden State Valkyries. Angel Reese had 30 points for the Dream, and this time she didn’t go viral for missing an easy layup. (Something Reese is never, ever known to do, of course.)

ANGEL REESE MADE HISTORY IN GAME 2 🔥

She led the @AtlantaDream to their FIRST-EVER Finals win with a monster performance, dropping 30 PTS, 16 REB, 3 AST & 2 BLKS on 10-16 shooting!

#WNBASeason30 | #2026WNBAFinals https://t.co/YueB9Z7M1j

— WNBA (@WNBA) October 20, 2026

So that should have been the news. Instead, the Dream and the Valkyries made news for vacating the court during the national anthem — sung by Alanis Morissette — and then coming back on afterwards:

Same league. Same disrespect.

The Atlanta Dream and Golden State Valkyries skip the anthem AGAIN before Game 2 of the WNBA Finals, then stroll back out when it’s over. 🇺🇸 https://t.co/fWHzYGFyjt

— OutKick (@Outkick) October 20, 2026

And yes, he said again. Here’s what they did for Game 1 on Saturday, from Dan Zaksheske of conservative sports outlet OutKick:

Both the Dream and the Valkyries left the court prior to the playing of the National Anthem before Game 1 of the WNBA Finals. https://t.co/rqxDUvZwoQ

— Dan Zaksheske (@RealDanZak) October 17, 2026

Zaksheske said in an OutKick piece after Game 1 that this could hardly be construed as accidental, given the history of the league and the teams in the Finals.

In its Aug. 2, 2020, game notes, Atlanta included messaging from the WNBA players’ union explaining anthem protests. The statement said “the anthem does not represent freedom, justice and liberty for all Americans” and indicated that protests would continue in different forms.

That statement was made six years ago, during the 2020 WNBA season. The reasons for Atlanta’s and Golden State’s absences Saturday were not immediately clear.

But the timing was. If this was about pregame preparation, what required both teams to be off the floor for those two minutes?

Yeah, gosh, I wonder why.

As Men’s Journal noted after the Game 1 debacle, the WNBA rulebook actually addresses this, requiring players and other personnel “to stand and line up in a dignified posture along the sidelines or on the foul line during the playing of the National Anthem.”

According to the Monday report in Men’s Journal, the league hadn’t issued a statement after the first game. Don’t expect them to issue one after Monday night’s game, either.

Instead, look — celebrities showed up!

A star-studded event 🤩

Check out the stars that popped out to the Bay for Game 2!

#WNBASeason30 | #2026WNBAFinals https://t.co/r8RcqbxgSR

— WNBA (@WNBA) October 20, 2026

Celebs! Rejoice, plebs: Your superiors have shown up to pump up the woke factor!

Celebrate together with entertainment royalty, and let the ladies thumb their noses at the country that not only allows them to make obscene amounts of money playing basketball, but insists that they must be paid those obscene salaries no matter how bankable the WNBA is!

What are you — some kind of MAGA-t?!

That’s basically the subtext. America got it.

You don’t hate the WNBA enough!

— Vince Langman (@LangmanVince) October 20, 2026

This entire league is a joke.

— Pradheep J. Shanker, M.D. (@neoavatara) October 20, 2026

Nobody cares. Nobody watches this garbage. And now I have another reason not to.

— Mooney Owns You (@MooneyOwnsYou) October 20, 2026

This is why nobody watches the WNBA absent Caitlin Clark, and why nobody ever will: It’s effectively an NBA-sponsored sinecure for a coven of wokeistas high on their own groupthink.

It’s like if roughly 250 Megan Rapinoes were allowed to touch the ball with their hands.

And we’re supposed to care about this like it’s the NBA, if we listen to the media. Meanwhile, the league just spits in our collective faces, as a nation.

You’d think the WNBA had run out of ways to loathe heartland America — but they keep coming up with them, and repeating them if they’re successful at offending us.

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