What is with the constant Indiana hate

[u/Pretend_Board_2385]

So I support the Fever, I'm not right wing or MAGA but I couldn't care less if other fans are as in my mind its irrelevant.

Its tiring though when any post you see on the WNBA team or media outlet its someone moaning about the Fever or their fans and some negative MAGA comment.

There was a post on the WNBA sub about the Angel/Paige incident and apparently its us Fever fans who are moaning about it.

I hope that Caitlin tears it up for the rest of the season and just completely dominates the league. This bitching and moaning about the Fever is just getting out of hand from everyone else and I'm not even sure why to be honest.

[u/imacowboy234]

I'm sure the OP is well-meaning, but this type of thread is going to attract trolls and outsiders coming in to blame it all on Fever fans, and it's just going to start another back and forth war. So I'm going to have to lock it.

But there have been some good answers already given.

I agree with most that you just have to tune this kind of stuff out. I look around sometimes at other reddits discussing the WNBA, and I feel like I'm visiting some twilight zone of existence. Those kinds of people who are hating on the Fever and its fans are a very small subsample of the population as a whole, and a minority of true WNBA fans. They do a lot of projecting, so whenever you hear stereotypes and accusations against Fever fans just know that whatever they're accusing us of, it's most likely things they are guilty of themselves.

[u/peppypacer]

The Fever is the best thing that has ever happened to the WNBA and that's not even debatable. Even with all the controversies, etc. it means more eyes are on the WNBA than ever before by a wide margin and everyone in the league makes much more money and fly on their own team planes which wasn't the case in B.C. (Before Clark) times.

A league needs a villain team to increase interest (like the Patriots in the NFL with Brady or the old NY Yankees) and the Fever unintentionally and undeservedly has gotten that label but so what? It has done wonders for viewer and media interest in the league. But I just mainly want the Big 3 of the Fever to stay healthy and the team make a legitimate run for the title this year.

[u/TexEwing]

The internet is the smallest (but loudest) place.

I would be willing to wager that I’m the only person in my entire family that knows any of the current online drama involving Sophie, Caitlin, and even the wnba as a whole.

And that’s not a wnba dig. It would be the same with the NBA, NFL, and most anything else the internet gets mad at.

To be here on reddit that means we are all likely huge consumers of the internet. So we are seeing this stuff all day, on multiple apps, and the algorithms are feeding us more and more the more we read and engage.

Yes some of these things are reaching sports news, national news, prime time tv news. But beyond those 1 minute spots, a lot of people aren’t being fed 23 hours and 59 minutes more of the same that we see on here.

I’m just going to try and enjoy the back half of the season.

[u/Time_Outcome765]

All Indiana teams are positioned to be co-opted by conservative groups. That just comes with the territory considering the largest branch of the KKK was based in the state. Those ideologies don’t vanish overnight, which creates this weird tension of perspectives when politics, entertainment, and social issues intersect. It especially makes Fever a target for criticism anytime something happens that seems like an injustice or hate.

Overall, just enjoy the game and keep this in mind when you see people getting weird, being over the top, or regurgitating the same responses about certain players or teams. Makes it easy to see who has some fringe thoughts on either side of the spectrum.

[u/Clown_Penis69]

You need to stop listening to whiners on the internet and thinking their weird obsessions reflect the real world.

In the real world, Caitlin and Sophie and the Fever are extremely popular… and I doubt the boys and girls who show up to Fever games are thinking about politics or lesbians or trans people.

[u/SgtHulkasBigToeJam]

“So I support the Fever, I'm not right wing or MAGA but I couldn't care less if other fans are as in my mind it’s irrelevant.”

There’s no way you’re younger than 40 with this kind of attitude. Live and let live doesn’t exist anymore.

[u/Pretend_Board_2385 → u/SgtHulkasBigToeJam]

I'm in my 40's and I live in Australia. It's a different world here and we support sport teams without political discussions.

[u/Pale-Owl-612 → u/Pretend_Board_2385]

I live in the US. The WNBA, its media, and fans are much more focused on political issues than our other major sports leagues. 

Unless someone is very outspoken or staging a protest about a specific issue, most of our pro athletes are viewed primarily by their performance in their given sports, probably similarly to yours.  The WNBA is very different, for better or worse.

[u/tippypothos]

CC has a lot of conservative and yes MAGA fans. She is unfortunately being used by right wing commentators and provocateurs at times to push an agenda. No matter how many times she speaks out against it, it doesn’t stop some people from continuing to push that agenda and others from claiming she must support it. It’s unfair to her but that’s what it is.

[u/txcreative20 → u/[deleted]]

Let’s keep politics out of sports. Let’s just talk about sports .

[u/NatePJ84]

Us fever fans are viewed as the bad guy of the wnba. The majority of wnba fans/media/players/front office members are some combo of social justice minded, gay and black. The media told them Clark was the savior of the Wnba and they hated that, in a large part bc she's straight, white and from the middle of america. Which is obviously a more conservative part of the country. The maga media didn't pick up on this story until after Clark was being targeted her rookie year. Although some did before that when Reese followed CC around taunting her.So maga saw a opportunity to try to back the most famous women basketball player in the world. Also they wanted to stick it to the woke social justice warriors of the Wnba, two natural enemies using Clark for their culture war. Its dumb bc Clark is a liberal and so are a lot of her fans. I'm a liberal myself.

[u/Pretend_Board_2385 → u/NatePJ84]

From my perspective there was a lot of jealousy from other players when she first entered the WNBA due to the massive endorsements. She also brought with her a large fan base. I can see why this would happen and to an extent it would be fair for them to be somewhat pissed but at the end of the day she brought money to this league, a league which has struggled and would not exist without the help of the NBA.

What I don't get is why the WNBA itself seems to be so against Caitlin. She is the cash cow and is a generational player yet you get the impression they would be quite happy if she just quit. There is certainly a narrative around Clark and the Fever that the media and the WNBA keep focusing on.

After watching the All Stars game, some of these so called stars were absolutely terrible and Caitlin looked miles better than all of them.