WNBA Rescinds Uniform-Violation Fines for Players Wearing Black Warm-Up Shirts

With many WNBA players continuing their support of the Black Lives Matter movement, league president Lisa Borders is finally speaking out on the situation.

In an official statement posted on the WNBA's official Twitter account Saturday, Borders announced the league has rescinded previously announced fines for players who wore black T-shirts during warm-ups:

Earlier in the week, the WNBA announced fines for the Indiana Fever, New York Liberty, Washington Mystics and their players for wearing black shirts during warm-ups following the tragic shooting events both by and against police officers in Falcon Heights, Minnesota; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Dallas.

The WNBA players did not stop trying to deliver their message even after the fines. On Friday, per Nina Mandell of USA Today, Mystics players staged a media blackout following their game against the Los Angeles Sparks by only answering questions relevant to social issues in the world.

Per Mandell, Mystics guard Natasha Cloud explained their stance:

"

We’re allowed to wear whatever we want to the games, to and from the games, so if they’re going to take away our right and our voice to advocate for something so important to 70 percent of the league which is African American, we’ll find other ways to do it and other ways to do it is to wear our shirts to and from the game and use the media to (express ourselves).

"

The WNBA players received support for their efforts from New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony. 

"I don’t see why there would be a reason for those ladies to get fined," Anthony said, per Kelley D. Evans of The Undefeated. "Everybody has freedom of speech. This is a platform right now where everyone is affected and everyone shows their frustrations in different ways. And I don’t even think it was frustration on their behalf."

Evans pointed out that LeBron James and Derrick Rose wore "I Can't Breathe" T-shirts during warm-ups in honor of Eric Garner in 2014 and that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said that "he supports the players for their personal views but prefers they’d adhere to on-court attire rules."

At the ESPY Awards earlier in July, James, Anthony, Dwyane Wade and Chris Paul said they needed to use their platform and influence to help enact change in the world, like athletes such as Muhammad Ali and Jim Brown did throughout their careers.

The WNBA players took that message and ran with it. They were fighting for what they believe to be right, and their league is now finding a way to support them.