You know a sport has reached the main stage when the conspiracy kooks start showing up.
Today's home truth, or something like it.
Also today's take after the New York Liberty won the WNBA title in Brooklyn yesterday, and the intertoobz were suddenly bloomin' with folks saying the whole thing was rigged, that the suits wanted the Liberty to win and that's why the officiating smelled like moldy tuna casserole.
Leading the charge was Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve, who's never been shy about flapping her gums and wasn't after the Liberty won the deciding Game 5 in overtime. Basically, Reeve said the zebras stole the title for New York.
No, wait. What she actually said was this: "This s*** was stolen from us."
To back up her point she cited the disparity in free throws -- the Liberty shot 23, the Lynx just six -- and the foul whistled against Lynx center Alanna Smith with 5.2 seconds to play in regulation, which sent Breanna Stewart to the stripe.
Stewart cashed both to tie the game, and on it went to OT, where the Liberty outscored the Lynx by five to claim the title.
"These guys shot 30 percent. Shot 30 percent," Reeve said of the Liberty. "The difference was the foul line."
Well, yeah. The conspiracy crowd could also point to the fact Lynx star Napheesa Collier scored 22 points on 23 shots Sunday, and never went to the line. She'd never before in her career shot at least 20 times without a free throw attempt.
The Liberty aided and abetted all this, of course, by playing like a bunch of goofs for most of the night. Stewart, who finished with 13 points and 15 rebounds, was 4-of -15 from the floor. Sabrina Ionescu, who saved the Liberty with a dagger trey at the end of Game 3 after New York had trailed the entire game, couldn't hit water if she fell out of a boat, going 1-for-19. The Liberty as a team bricked 50 of their 72 shots and 21 of 23 from the 3-point arc.
Little wonder the Grassy Knoll Brigade emerged from Mom's basement claiming evil sorcery was afoot.
Here's the thing, though: The fact they did so meant they were watching.
Last year hardly anyone was, but then Caitlin Clark came along, and people started paying attention. With the attention came the Grassy Knoll Brigade, and with the Grassy Knoll Brigade came the sort of interbooz shite-stirring that usually attends only marquee acts like the NFL or NBA.
All the black women in the league were ganging up on the white girl (Clark). They were intentionally trying to hurt her because they resented the attention she was getting (but also bringing to their league). And then the zebras let New York win the title because it was, you know, New York.
Most of this was nonsense, as it usually is. But it was the kind of nonsense a sport gets only when people are invested in it. And more people were invested in the WNBA than at any time in its history.
So, yeah, all the black-vs.-white garbage (driven mostly by perpetually aggrieved white folk, natch) was bad. But it was also good, sort of.
Oh, and speaking of garbage ...
About all that refs-screwed-Minnesota business.
In Game 4, which the Lynx won at home to stay alive in the series, the Lynx shot 20 free throws. The Liberty shot nine. Stewart shot one free throw. Jonquel Jones, the eventual finals MVP who led the Liberty with 21 points, shot only three. And it was Liberty coach Sandy Brondello who wound up griping about the home cooking instead of Reeve.
Know how I know this?
Because, like a bigger chunk of America than ever before, I was paying attention.
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