After a tumultuous 2021 season, the Atlanta Dream were declared the unofficial winners of the 2022 WNBA Draft by basketball fans worldwide.
Hours before the draft, the team traded up from three to No. 1 pick Rhyne Howard, a 6-foot-2 guard out of Kentucky who was projected to be the top pick for the past two years.
Howard was expected. The Dream’s second pick, however, wasn’t.
Michigan forward Naz Hillmon fell to No. 15. Hillmon’s 6-foot-2 frame was doubted ahead of the draft, but her dominance highlighted by a 50-point, 16-rebound performance against Ohio State in 2021, is undeniable.
Despite the players’ collegiate accolades, most attention in the sport has gone to White players like UConn’s Paige Bueckers, Louisville’s Hailey Van Lith and Iowa’s Caitlin Clark. Bueckers and Van Lith reportedly have a social media post value of over $62,000 and $44,000, respectively. The nearest Black player on the list is South Carolina guard Zia Cooke, whose value comes in at $7,900 per post.
Days after being drafted, Howard and Hillmon stopped by the rolling out office to discuss rebuilding the Atlanta Dream and the disparity in coverage of White and Black athletes.
A stat reported by Power Plays‘ Lindsay Gibbs says White WNBA players received twice as much coverage as Black players in the 2020 season, despite Black players making up over 80% of the league. How do you feel about the coverage of Black athletes in women’s basketball?
Hillmon: I think just based on what you just said, it’s something that needs to be worked on, something that needs to be talked about because then it’s not going to change if you don’t talk about it. But I think that on all fronts it needs to be talked about. It can’t just be the athletes, because we’re not the ones promoting ourselves. People who are in charge of those stations, TV stations or radio stations, whatever it may be, those people who are working there need to have those conversations and make it a point to say I’m going to talk about the best players. The best players are being talked about, but make sure it’s always the best players being talked about, regardless of race.
Howard: Yeah, I agree with that. Even watching a couple of games, say a Black athlete is having a phenomenal game, doing everything right. They don’t talk about them after the game, they go and talk continuously about somebody else just because they’re a common name, and I don’t like that, honestly. I feel like we’re already a minority, and we already don’t get enough respect. I feel like when people are constantly looking for our White counterparts, I guess it hurts a little bit because we’re working equally as hard, if not more, to try to like, even be in the same conversations. It’s just weird.
