Jemele Hill Says 'Too Many' WNBA Fans Have Same Problem

As the WNBA continues to grow in popularity, it continues to receive more and more media coverage. Of course, not all media coverage can be positive. However, it seems like WNBA fans think it should be.

Too many WNBA fans see the media as part of the league, rather than a group that's covering it. They get angry when the media asks tough questions of players. They don't like it when the coverage is critical, rather than praising.

Jemele Hill believes this is an issue for "too many" WNBA fans.

The former ESPN host sounded off on the problem with WNBA fans during a podcast appearance this week.

Hill opened up during an episode of her podcast Flagrant & Funny, talking about the ongoing problems with WNBA fans.

She believes that too many of them don't understand what the media is supposed to be and do.

Hill sounds off on WNBA fans

Hill said that the issue for too many WNBA fans is the same.

"The issue is that, I think for a long time, not every journalist but a lot of the journalists that covered women's sports and covered the league, the fans saw the journalists as a ‘we' and not a ‘they,'" Hill said.

‘Now they're confused, because … there's more people covering the league now, it's under more scrutiny, and (the fans) have had the expectation that the journalists are supposed to be extensions of teams. And the journalists are not supposed to be that. And unfortunately, because of how everything is covered in this country … people can't even recognize what journalists are supposed to do."

Hill said that they expect WNBA journalists to be "cheerleaders" for the sport.

"They expect our jobs to be to support the women," she said. "And while the support is, to me, in the fact that we have built an entire podcast around discussing women's sports and all the culture and the issues and all the things that come with it, they expect the journalists to be cheerleaders."

But, of course, that's not how the media works. WNBA fans need to understand that.

Copyright The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This story was originally published May 14, 2026 at 9:24 AM.