Clay Travis claims WNBA doesn’t want Donald Trump supporters as fans

The Golden State Valkyries and Atlanta Dream are set to play the first Game 7 in WNBA Finals history on Saturday. But for some conservative commentators, the bigger story has been what both teams do before the games even start.

Conservative sports commentator Clay Travis is the latest to weigh in on the two teams heading to the locker room during the national anthem. And he has a theory about why they do it, claiming that the league simply doesn’t want Trump voters, or white and straight stars like Caitlin Clark, getting too much attention.

Anthem Routine Draws Criticism

Neither the Valkyries nor the Dream have been on the court for the national anthem during the Finals, and that has drawn plenty of backlash from conservatives. That includes President Donald Trump, who took aim at the league during a rally in Iowa last week and called for fans to stop watching.

“By the way, what’s going on with the women’s NBA? What’s that all about?” Trump said, via ESPN. “You know, they’ll destroy themselves before they get started, because they just started to do good.”

But the routine is nothing new. The league suspended its anthem protocols late in the 2017 season in the wake of the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and many teams have left the court before the anthem ever since. A few teams, including Clark’s Indiana Fever and the Minnesota Lynx, stayed on the court for it this season.

Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase called it “part of our pregame” since the franchise launched, and players on both teams have brushed off the criticism, saying they’re focused on the series. And the series has gone the distance, with the Dream beating the Valkyries 80-69 in Game 6 on Thursday to force a Game 7.

‘They Won’t Embrace Either of These Women’

Travis discussed the anthem with Fox News host Lawrence Jones, who asked why the WNBA would invite another controversy when it already has issues with viewership.

“Yeah, it’s a great point. And this is where I would hammer it home. What’s really going on here is the WNBA has a far left-wing fan base that is fueled by identity politics. Lots of gay fans, lots of minority fans,” Travis said, in a clip he shared on X. “And when they brought in Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham started to get a lot of attention, they started to get the larger community that’s also interested.”

Travis argued that the league failed to seize the opportunity, comparing it to the PGA Tour with Tiger Woods, UFC with Ronda Rousey, and the WTA with Venus and Serena Williams.

“Now they’ve got Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham is connected to her and they won’t embrace either of these women,” Travis said. “I think it’s because they’re white and they happen to be straight and they don’t like the fact that Trump’s voters, Trump supporters might suddenly like their league.”

“And that’s why I really think they’re doing things like this anthem. They’re shooting themselves in the foot,” he added.

Jones agreed, calling it “such a disgusting thing” before suggesting that jealousy of Clark was to blame.

“I mean, you should be saying thank you for the private travel and all the other perks that you got,” Jones said. “But yep, it looks like they want to destroy their league.”

The obvious problem with this line of thinking is that the national anthem routine has been around since long before Clark entered the league, so it’s obviously not a response to the newfound attention from conservatives, as Travis suggests.