When Tina Charles heard the news about a caregiver being shot in North Miami while he reportedly was trying to help an autistic man, she knew she couldn’t be silent.
So when she went to accept her award for the league’s Player of the Month, she turned her black New York Liberty shirt inside out — and that was just the start of her team’s protests on Thursday.
“When I heard that news I couldn’t be silent,” she said. “Just knowing my status, knowing the player I am representing this organization. If anybody was going to wear it, I knew it had to be me. For me personally, it’s all about me continuing to raise awareness. I have no problem wearing this shirt inside out for the rest of the season until we’re able to have the WNBA’s support. So just in my position, I’m going to continue to do that.”
After the Liberty’s game against the Indiana Fever on Thursday, other than a short statement by Liberty veteran Swin Cash, players from both teams refused to answer questions about basketball. Instead, they protested the WNBA’s decision to fine them $500 each for wearing t-shirts supporting Black Lives Matter and honoring slain police officers and vowed to do more to continue to raise awareness about what’s happening outside of the basketball court.
The Liberty, Fever and Phoenix Mercury were fined $5000 and each player was fined $500 after wearing the t-shirts for multiple games, the league announced on Thursday.
“I’m not surprised. They sent out memos to let us know,” Liberty guard Tanisha Wright said of the fines. “I’m surprised when it took place because we had been already wearing shirts for four games in. So to me it looks like they decided that they’re going to do it just because. If you’re going to do something, stand strong on it. Stand firm on it. Do it from the beginning.”
Fever forward and WNBA players’ union president Tamika Catchings said the players were inspired by the statements Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade made at the ESPYs earlier this month. “I think it’s important that us as players being able to utilize our voice,” she said. “And being able to basically stand united for what matters to us.”
Charles, who is heading to the Olympics next month with Team USA, said she is going to reach out to other WNBA teams to see if they’ll participate in a media blackout as well.
“If they’re trying to silence us on our platform wearing our t-shirts, then we can use [the media] as a platform and just use you guys to try to force this matter,” she told reporters.
Cash added that the team was especially frustrated by the fines because they took extra steps to try to make sure to not do anything that would jeopardize their sponsorship from Adidas. She pointed out the team wore all black Adidas shirts.
“We would just hope the league would be more open to working with the players,” Cash said. “Because like Tanisha said, the majority of our players are passionate about this. The majority of our players care about this. The majority of our players are affected by this. And it’s something that has to change.”
