ESPN’s Ben Baby sparked major backlash after calling it “ridiculous” that reporters can’t enter WNBA locker rooms. Fans and former ESPN staff weighed in.
The WNBA has barely kicked off its 2026 season, yet one dispute over locker-room access has already blown up across social media, with the focus squarely on media rights and how the league is growing.
ESPN reporter Ben Baby. who covers the Cincinnati Bengals. questioned why reporters are not allowed inside WNBA locker rooms after games to conduct interviews.. Writing on X during the WNBA’s return over the weekend. Baby argued that coverage is being held back because the postgame access that many fans take for granted in other sports does not exist in the WNBA.. His specific criticism was aimed at what he called a “ridiculous” policy that keeps the media out of a space where players get changed.
Baby’s post landed at a moment when the league’s momentum is widely seen as accelerating.. The 2026 season began on Friday night and is being framed as a new era for the WNBA after a fresh collective bargaining agreement increased the budgets available to teams. allowing them to build deeper and more competitive rosters.. Alongside that financial shift. the rise of Caitlin Clark over the past couple of years has been viewed by many as a major factor in widening the league’s audience and influence across the United States.
In the immediate aftermath of the remarks, the backlash was swift and pointed.. Some responses suggested that media access is not actually necessary inside locker rooms. even if reporters can gather material through other means after games.. One reply pushed back sharply on the idea of “open” locker-room access. arguing that the media should not be entering athletes’ personal spaces.
Others offered a more nuanced version of the problem: they said the current setup can be less efficient for fans and coverage. especially if only a small number of players get to speak at press conferences.. That argument pointed toward the need for a formal mechanism that lets all players interact with media after games. rather than relying on a structure that may only feature a limited set of voices.
A number of fans also focused on the optics of the issue itself. with criticism directed not only at the policy question but at who was raising it.. Several commenters implied it was problematic for a man to complain about being kept out of a women’s locker room. while others argued that any discussion of openness should ideally come from the women who work within the league and are affected directly.
Still, the reaction was not uniformly negative. Baby also found support from former ESPN reporter Jemele Hill, who weighed in after his post. Hill said that when she covered the W, they had done so with open access, and she argued that it should be handled in a manner consistent with the NBA.
Locker-room access has been a recurring topic in major US sports, and the debate has surfaced elsewhere as well.. The report also referenced how NFL media access has been discussed. including comments tied to Travis Kelce’s New Heights podcast in 2023. when he questioned the level of access reporters receive in that environment.. Kelce’s remarks at the time included observations about how access works and the potential awkwardness of the process.
A year later. Kelce again addressed the topic with jokes about “meat watch” and broader claims that reporters had been caught looking at players while they were getting changed.. He also suggested on the podcast that the overall access level was not something he personally struggled with. and he framed parts of the exchange as encouraged by the league—though the tone of the discussion was clearly meant to be playful.
The comparison matters because the WNBA’s situation is different in practice. even if the underlying question—how much access media should receive—feels familiar.. The WNBA has the contrasting feature that reporters do not have locker-room access. but teams are described as typically being strong at making players available before and after games.
After some fans joked about the issue drawing him into WNBA coverage. Baby responded with a line that reflected the intensity of the online argument.. He later quipped back at a commenter with a playful message about the discussion not being “for the faint of heart. ” underscoring how quickly the locker-room debate became a larger culture-and-access story rather than a simple policy update.
For the WNBA, the timing is especially significant.. With the league’s 2026 season beginning under the backdrop of new collective bargaining changes and growing star power. any conversation about visibility—who gets access. what players can say. and how fans experience the sport—can quickly influence how the public sees the league’s next chapter. even when the spark comes from a single post.
WNBA Ben Baby media access locker rooms Jemele Hill Caitlin Clark collective bargaining