Carleton shines on and off the court
Lynx forward says fight for racial justice is a key piece of season
Bridget Carleton didn’t even have time to text her parents last week before she made her first WNBA start.
The 23-year-old from Chatham, Ont., learned 30 minutes before tipoff during the Minnesota Lynx’s pre-game meeting with coach Cheryl Reeve. Sylvia Fowles was a late scratch due to a sore calf, and Carleton’s phone was already turned off.
“(Reeve) just said ‘You ready for this?’ ” Carleton said. “I’m like ‘Yup.’ And that was about it. Probably was better (to receive no notice). No time to really think about it. Just get out there and play.”
Carleton was spectacular in her first start, scoring 25 points and grabbing seven rebounds in Minnesota’s 92-66 win over fellow Canadian Kia Nurse and her New York Liberty. Carleton became just the third WNBA player in 20 years to have at least 25 points and five rebounds in a debut as a starter.
Carleton is one four Canadians playing in this unique WNBA season at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. The others are Nurse, Lynx forward Kayla Alexander and Indiana Fever forward Natalie Achonwa.
Carleton’s solid performance comes after a rocky rookie season that saw her drafted then waived by the Connecticut Sun after she’d played just four games. The Lynx signed her last summer.
Like their NBA counterparts, the WNBA’s 12 teams are playing in a bubble which poses different challenges during the pandemic.
It’s far better, the former Iowa State star said, than not playing at all.
“Obviously it’s good to be playing, good to be doing what we love, doing our jobs again,” Carleton said.
The most impactful piece of the WNBA’s season, however, is the dedication to social and racial justice issues. The league said in a pre-season news release that all aspects of the game and player outfitting would be dedicated to Black Lives Matter and to honour victims of police brutality and racial injustice.
“That’s the most important thing about this season, bringing awareness to the injustices that are going on throughout the whole world really, just having these conversations, bringing light to what’s going on … being leaders in that aspect,” Carleton said.
WNBA players were already among sport’s most vocal athletes. Back in 2016, WNBA players protested the killings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling by police officers. They wore shirts proclaiming “Change Starts with Us” and “Black Lives Matter.” The entire Indiana Fever team knelt and locked arms for the U.S. anthem.
This WNBA season tipped off with the Seattle Storm and Liberty walking off the court during the anthems. They held a 26-second moment of silence for Breonna Taylor, the 26year-old who was killed by police when they broke into her home with a battering ram on a no-knock warrant. Every starter on the Liberty’s roster was listed as “No. 26, Breonna Taylor.”