The owner of the Phoenix Mercury has recommended that the head coach’s salary this month not be paid due to misunderstandings with two players.
The leadership of the Phoenix Mercury could have easily ordered T-shirts with a middle finger emblazoned on them. The result would have been identical.
A journeyman NBA assistant with no prior experience in the women’s game is now coaching a team that features two of the best players in the history of the game, Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner, who have won three WNBA championships and played for two more.”Not at a university, not as a WNBA assistant, nor even for fun at the neighborhood junior high.
It’s all okay, though, since Nate Tibbetts is everyone’s “Girl Dad!”!
After learning of the hiring of Tibbetts through a leak on social media, the Mercury chose to go all out and confirm the news with an embarrassing post. No less than one hour before the WNBA Finals’ Game 4 started. Put the Mercury squad up for sale if new owners Mat Ishbia and Nick U’Ren truly have such a negative opinion of their team and the women’s game in general. Not now.
Treating women as equals to men instead of objects to be patronised or, by default, pitied shouldn’t be too difficult. Here we are, however. Another time.
Apart from everything, Ishbia and U’Ren’s actions are especially depressing because they came to Phoenix with such promise. Ishbia declared earlier this month that he would spend over $100 million on a cutting-edge practice facility for the Mercury and Suns, as well as adjacent offices.
“We’re going to do it fast, and we’re going to do it right,” Ishbia declared.
But this is the furthest thing from right.
Tibbetts might wind up being an excellent coach. Though not highly enough to land a head coaching position, he is reportedly well-liked in the NBA. He is ignorant of the women’s game, though, and it is demeaning to everyone to say that it is unimportant.
Though the WNBA and NBA play by distinct regulations, basketball is basketball. Furthermore, unknown to Tibbetts is the staff, whether they are on his team or not. He has never coached before; hence, he is unfamiliar with the various difficulties that the women’s game will bring. Issues similar to pregnancy. Kids’ care. Sports injuries that are more common in women than in men.
The Mercury’s action made sense if there was no one else who qualified. Welcomed even. There are plenty who are, though, and anyone with an interest in the game could have easily provided a list to Ishbia and U’Ren.
Apparently for no other reason than that Tibbetts is a man, they looked about and concluded that a man with no experience was superior to a woman with years of it.
READ MORE: Mark Davis can teach a lot to a Mercury owner about what it means to genuinely respect the WNBA
“We need more women leaders who make the hiring and more male advocates,” retired Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw remarked on X. “Men are assessed on their potential, women on their achievements. We need to start seeing women’s potential.”
