haterade: the aces parter with the ADL & the nwsl says 'fuck DEI'

Thanks for being here! I am a full-time freelance sports writer. Paid subscriptions to this newsletter allow me to dedicate more time to this work, including hiring an editor to help me with longer, more involved posts.

Paid subscribers also have access to a Discord server where we chat queer women’s sports, as well as events like our monthly book club. You can upgrade here:

It’s been a rough week for the public image of the Las Vegas Aces.

It started with all the WNBA teams announcing which local charities they’d be playing for during this season’s Commissioner’s Cup. For those who are unfamiliar with how these partnerships work, this is the explanation from the WNBA website:

Among the community organizations selected by various WNBA teams were multiple branches of the ACLU, racial justice organizations, and organizations supporting women and girls. And then there were the Aces, who chose the Nevada branch of the Anti-Defamation League. While the ADL claims to combat antisemitism, in reality, they are one of the most influential American lobby groups in the support of Israel and the Zionist project.

The Aces announced this partnership on their social channels Monday, but those posts had been deleted by the next day. The overwhelming reaction from fans and commenters on social media had been negative. A discussion post in the WNBA subreddit was also deleted.

The deletion of these social posts seemed to come shortly after Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the national ADL, appeared on Fox News and appeared to call for the Trump admin to disappear YouTuber and left-wing political commentator Hasan Piker, as well as “these speakers at these graduations, it just happened the other day at MIT, spreading blood libels… we got to stop it once and for all.”

Greenblatt and the ADL have become increasingly right-wing and aligned with the Trump administration over the last several years. The ADL produces reports that claim to document instances of antisemitism, but those reports use flawed methodology that includes criticism of Israel and anti-Zionism as examples of antisemitism. Those reports are then widely cited by politicians and publicized by media outlets with little to no fact-checking or scrutiny of findings.

Wikipedia editors have added disclaimers that the ADL “has repeatedly published false and misleading statements” about the Israel-Gaza war, deeming them an “unreliable” source on the topic. Earlier this year, Jewish activists protested outside the ADL’s “Never Is Now” summit on antisemitism and hate.

Jewish Voices for Peace, an anti-Zionist organization of Jews and allies, has a #DropTheADL campaign urging communities to stop viewing the group as an ally to Jews and other marginalized groups. From JVP’s primer on why the ADL is problematic:

Even if the ADL was just one of the major lobby groups supporting the Israeli state, the Zionist project, and the ongoing genocide of Palestinians, it would be enough of a reason to refrain from supporting their work. But the fact that the organization has come out against movements for women’s liberation, queer liberation, and racial justice makes it deeply at-odds with the values that the WNBA and its players claim to espouse.

It’s possible that the decision to back the ADL is related to the undue influence that Israeli-American billionaire Miriam Adelson has in Las Vegas. Adelson is a Trump megadonor who helped Trump get re-elected due to her belief that Jews have a “sacred duty” to vote for Trump. She has also called Trump a “brother” to Jewish Americans. In 2023, Adelson’s late husband Sheldon was honored alongside Aces owner Mark Davis (who is also Jewish) during a "Game Changer" presentation at Wynn Las Vegas, where “those in the audience were treated to various displays representing the Adelson School, Las Vegas Raiders and Las Vegas Aces,” according to a press release. Adelson is a stauch supporter of the Israeli genocide of Palestinians.

And if giving money to the ADL weren’t a bad enough look for the Aces, they also announced that their players will be receiving $100,000 in Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority sponsorships for the second year in a row, despite the fact that the WNBA is still investigating last year’s sponsorships as potentially being in violation of the league’s salary cap. They’re also still in the middle of Dearica Hamby’s pregnancy discrimination lawsuit.

Any goodwill the NWSL may have built up with its existing fanbase regarding the league’s values continues to be eroded by Commissioner Jessica Berman. In a recent interview with Forbes, Berman said:

Watching Berman alienate the NWSL’s fanbase in real time has been astounding. In case you’ve missed her other recent missteps, they include seemingly stalled and opaque investigations into numerous abusive workplace allegations spanning at least two clubs; a recent settlement requiring the league to pay $5 million to abused players; a league partnership with former Barstool podcaster Alex Cooper; failure to speak out against and condemn transphobic bullying of Orlando Pride player Barbra Banda; a sexist and transphobic “Too Many Balls” launch campaign for the forthcoming Boston team; and more!

Being a league of marginalized players and having the commissioner say, “I do not actually see a world where [sports investment] could justifiably be viewed through the lens of DEI and social cause” is essentially saying the quiet part out loud and affirming many fans’ biggest fear: that the growth of women’s sports is not compatible with the ostensibly progressive values these leagues have long claimed to (or appeared to) promote.

Berman’s statement is also at-odds with recent research into the appeal of investment in leagues like the NWSL. “Under [Commissioner Jessica] Berman’s leadership … the NWSL has become a sporting beacon of social and political activism,” a 2024 report from SportsPro explained. Data from Luscid, a platform that tracks sport and entertainment data, measured “the league’s key marketing strengths”—which included “community impact” and “gender equality.”

Despite research showing that diversity and equity are actually strengths for the league when it comes to marketing, Berman seems to have chosen to align herself with the anti-DEI attitudes that have followed Trump’s election last fall. And while DEI policies were always flawed, the swift backlash to them is alarming, even moreso coming from a league made up entirely of marginalized athletes. While Berman is cishet and white, it would behoove her to remember that, as a woman, she is technically a diversity hire, too.

She comes from the world of men’s sports—the NHL and the National Lacrosse League—and clearly believes that applying the same lens to both men’s and women’s sports is the path to success. But many fans of women’s sports come to them because they are different than men’s. Men’s sports leagues were created by and for men and built on patriarchal systems of oppression; applying those same systems to leagues full of women just open them up to even more exploitation, abuse, and harm—as evidenced by the league’s ongoing workplace abuse crisis.

I can’t help but think of this recent piece by The Athletic’s Tamerra Griffin, where she asked a male NWSL fan and investor, JT Service, about “what happens if the league grows to such a size that it invites more people whose beliefs create an unsafe environment for others — queer people, for example, or people of color?” Service initially brushed off the question, saying something similar to what Berman said to Forbes, telling The Athletic:

“When push comes to shove, you have to ask yourself if this was beneficial, but if you look at a success story like the NBA or NFL, where there is a multiplicity of views and beliefs and not everybody is going to think the same way or have the same viewpoints, at that point you have a very successful league.”

But then Service attended his first WNBA game, the home opener for the new Golden State Valkyries. His experience caused him to reconsider Griffin’s question. “He told me he’d been thinking about inclusion since I interviewed him earlier in the week,” Griffin wrote, “and found himself noticing the finer details that contribute to a person’s sense of belonging in a sporting environment. At Warriors’ games, he’s used to fighting against the crowd for space, everybody elbowing their way against the tide to shuffle down a tight aisle or wind through a concession line. ‘But at the Valkyries game, it was all, ‘Come on in!’’ he recalled, gesturing with outstretched arms. Everybody was working together rather than in silos. ‘It just got me thinking,’ he said, trailing off.”

The strengths and appeal of the women’s leagues is that they are different from the men’s leagues, both in culture and makeup of who is on the court.

“Women on screen focusing, celebrating, succeeding, failing, giving full unequivocal effort to a project that men have no bearing on - it's just not a thing you see elsewhere,” reflected on Bluesky.

If the people running the leagues can’t see how these things that separate them from men’s leagues are what make women’s leagues worthy of investment, then what are they even doing at the helm? You should love the product you’re selling, not be trying to strip it of everything that makes it worthwhile.

Women’s leagues—including the players, the fanbases—have long been a testament to the fact that a better, more inclusive sporting world is possible. Losing that foundation would strip them of what truly makes them special and worth growing.