Draymond Green recently put out a lengthy Twitter thread with what he thought was a radical idea on how women in sports can put action behind calls for equal pay, saying they need more storytelling and to drive interest in order to gain investment into the sports to raise revenues and increase pay. Soccer star Megan Rapinoe picked apart his thread, pointing out the issues with it to no real response from Green.
On Wednesday night, he was asked about it again and doubled down on aiming the criticism at the women in sports calling for equality, and not those in positions of power.
“I’m really tired of seeing them complain about the lack of pay, b/c they’re doing themselves a disservice by just complaining.”
Today Draymond talked about his Tweets about women’s sports that received criticism from athletes like @mPinoe & @Layshiac @kron4news #DubNation pic.twitter.com/7iUQ982jx9— Kylen Mills (@KylenMills) April 1, 2021
Green’s complaint that he’s tired of hearing women “complaining” without laying out the steps shows that the issue is simply that he hasn’t really dug in on the situation or listened, because women have been calling for more investment and more coverage for years from the major networks and brand partners. There has been some progress recently, particularly for the WNBA, but there’s still a long way to go. There are plenty, like Rapinoe, who have laid out those steps that Green says he wants to see, and they’ve gone so far as to launch their own media outlets, like TOGETHXR, to provide that storytelling and access that they don’t get as much from major outlets and networks.
Towards the end of his comments, Green does get towards the heart of the issue which is that there are so often companies that say they support women but don’t show it in action. Making sure that vague statements of support turn into actionable response is important, but that’s something to be taken up with the powers that be, not the women playing the sports who call out the inequities they face. Green wants to see himself as an ally in this situation, but the “tough love” approach that he thinks he’s taking by telling them to stop complaining isn’t the right way to go about it. Listening to them, seeing that they are offering solutions, and backing them on that would be far more helpful and effective, because making them out to be complainers only exacerbates the issue.