Indiana Fever Fan Favorite 'Doesn't Care' About Social Media Hate
The women's basketball social media community has been buzzing over the past few days due to several public statements made about the prevalence of racist, bigoted, and hateful trolls in the WNBA's fanbase this season.
As the WNBA experienced a surge in popularity this year, these extra fans also brought more trolls into the sport's orbit. And because a huge portion of this attention is coming because of Indiana Fever rookie sensation Caitlin Clark, the general assumption is that many of these trolls are either Clark supporters or pretending to be Clark supporters as a way to disguise their blatant hate within the lens of fandom.
The Fever are conducting their end-of-season exit interviews on Friday. While Clark already shunned these trolls spreading hate during her interview, one of her teammates doesn't seem as bothered by the comments as many of the WNBA's other members.
Fever teammates Erica Wheeler and Kelsey Mitchell were interviewed together. When this hot-button topic was brought up, Wheeler said, "We don't condone any of those things... Eyes have been on us since [Clark] got drafted. So for us, our ears have been blocked out longer than most people, if that makes any sense."
Wheeler continued, saying, "Like I've said before, it's a lot of things that try to come into this building and try to pull us apart that we just didn't let. However, we probably got [hate] too, we just don't care about it. Because what's the point is this organization and us winning games, and that's what we did.
"But for the most part, we don't condone that. I don't care about it... because it's a fan who's probably sitting on the couch doing nothing. So I don't care," Wheeler concluded.
Kelsey and Erica when asked if they have received racist comments from the Fever fanbase.
— Ken Swift (@kenswift) September 27, 2024
Based on their answer, it’s pretty obvious how this team always kept the main thing, the main thing, and kept it professional. #WNBA #FeverRising
Full Video Here:… pic.twitter.com/d2WkTV5itR
That's certainly a mature stance for Wheeler to take.
Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.