Hoopin’, Hollerin’, And The Continued Disrespect Of Black Women 

Megan Pete and Klay Thompson have officially been together for a few months. After making their relationship public over the last summer. 

Thompson, 35, is in his 13^th season in the NBA overall and his second with the Dallas Mavericks. He spent the first 11 years with the Golden State Warriors, where he was a five-time NBA All-Star and four-time NBA champion. 

Thompson is currently averaging just under nine points per game, fewer than half of his career average of 19. Megan Pete, of course, is the famous Houston rapper Megan Thee Stallion, an award-winning artist and international superstar. The 30-year-old’s awards include but aren’t limited to three Grammys, two Billboard Music Awards, and five American Music Awards. She is one of the most recognizable musicians currently.

Former NBA players Jason Williams and Patrick Beverley have a podcast together called Barstool Sports’ Hoopin’ and Hollerin’, yet another iteration of known players getting together to have their own podcasts in the name of authentic thoughts and perspectives that aren’t controlled by mainstream media. 

In a recent episode of the podcast, the topic of  Thompson’s struggles came up, and a claim was made that his struggles were being overlooked, perhaps due to his new relationship. Williams then made a bawdy comment about Megan, referring to her as “p***y,”  which Beverley and the other co-host found funny. Beverley also added, “His routine is thrown off. I’m not saying it’s her … I watch them on Instagram … The guy was juggling. It’s easy to juggle one thing, but when you put something else in there, it’s harder, (your) focus takes off a little bit.”

Thompson commented under the Instagram clip of the exchange and expressed his disapproval by saying, “How would y’all feel if I referred to your wives in such a way? @patbev21 … Do better fellas. Very disappointing.” Megan did not publicly address the situation.

The biggest issue with this, for me, is why Williams, a white man who prefaced his comment with his whiteness, felt comfortable discussing a Black woman in that way. 

That concern is closely followed by my absolute bewilderment that the two Black men sitting there allowed JWill to get away with making the comment without either one of them saying anything about it. There is no reason to refer to Megan that way, and there is absolutely no reason for a podcast with white people on it, even one run by Barstool, to feel comfortable with making it a clip titled, “Welcome to JWill’s Wisdom.” 

It’s one thing to joke about how love can noticeably flip someone’s world upside-down. A lot of R&B, for example, is built around that. But that kind of joking comes with the understanding that the love and relationship are having a positive impact on that person. That is not what these men were doing. They were insinuating that Megan is holding Klay back by being the love of his life.

This leads me to addressing the silly notion that love, especially when a man is happily in love, is in direct conflict with the state of his professional career and practical life. It’s as if the joy and comfort that comes with genuine partnership is sold to us men, generally by other men, as something we settle into—something we must do after our uncommitted times have come to an end. 

Relationships are posited as traps—traps laid by the very women cis-hetero men claim to be attracted to and want to pursue. 

Attraction is not the same as like and care, and that like all care should be extended to all women and not just the ones men may be attracted to. One can speculate, since that’s what the podcast is doing, that implying Klay is getting a pass for his shooting struggles because of either his relationship with Megan or the fact he’s head over heels for her in a way takes away from his ability to perform is hating, at best. 

Because there are plenty of instances, as with Bam Adebayo of the Miami Heat and all-galaxy WNBA player A’ja Wilson, where the relationship isn’t in the way of the partners’ successes.

The response to the clip has nothing to do with whether or not Klay is being affected by his relationship with Megan. That is as insignificant as Patrick Beverley’s career is in the annals of NBA history; even though it may have happened, it certainly doesn’t matter right now. 

Whittling Black women down to their genitalia is the most rotten of low-hanging fruit. If I were to say these are three dickheads confirming with their behavior that there is very little blood above their waists, then I would be insulting. 

Even if Williams is making a joke, it wasn’t funny, especially at the expense of a Black woman—that Black woman, in particular. That was a time when two former players could share insight as to how they dealt with slumps in their games, or at least provide a perspective on what can happen as professional athletes age. But perhaps, since neither Williams nor Beverley reached the caliber of accomplishments that Klay has, maybe that kind of perspective is a bit out of their range. 

The overall point I’m trying to make — one that Black women have been screaming for a very long time — is that making them the butt of crass jokes is tired, lazy, and harmful. Maybe, just maybe, we can finally move past incendiary comments and jokes towards marginalized people and stick to better ways to be funny. 

To quote Klay Thompson himself, “Disappointing, fellas. Do better.”

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