Rapinoe condemns Green for his comments on women's sports
The United States women’s national team player told reporters that the series of tweets made by the NBA player were misguided.
Megan Rapinoe has always been very vocal when it comes to certain subjects like racial injustice and equal pay in sports. The two-time World Cup winner responded to NBA player Draymond Green, who last week blamed women for making “complaints” rather than taking action over equal pay and investment in women’s sports.
"It's really unfortunate, in the position Green's in, having all of the resources that he has and the ability to have a much more educated opinion, that he just hasn't," said Rapinoe. "And then, drag all these other people into it by tagging them and speaking at a time when the NCAA tournament is going on and all that we saw with the lack of resources and funding.
"That's frustrating, that's the take you have. You obviously showed your whole ass in not even understanding what we all talk about all the time, WNBA players and us on the national team. Like what Sue Bird said, you tagged the wrong people. You don't think we asked for more money? I mean, what are we screaming about? Nonstop!
"We are getting obnoxious to ourselves, to be honest. And then two or three days later, to completely double down on it is really frustrating. We know all this, about all social movements and all people who are marginalized, whether it's by race or gender, religion, sexuality, whatever it is, it is not just their job to be the ones fighting oppression. We need all of the other people as well. So to have someone who does know what it is like to be oppressed, in many ways, to heap that all back on female players, or people who play female sports, it is just really disappointing."
More media coverage
Rapinoe also made clear that she is not only advocating equal pay for women's sports, but also the amount of investments there is and the media coverage for each club, player and league.
"When we talk about equality and women's sports, we always talk first about investment, and funding and resources and marketing and branding and investing in not just the players but the support staff and coaching and media, TV media, print media, all of it," she said. "Those are the things that we talk about first, and I think anybody who watches us or follows us, or really has skin in the game and equal pay or equality in that sense, knows that that's what we talk about first."