The Golden State Warriors choose to empower rape culture over women and sexual assault victims

“I love female empowerment because I think it brings an element that involves more humanity,” Steve Kerr said back in 2021 when asked about an upcoming all-female broadcast.

To Kerr, that need for more humanity is the likely result of what he called “the dominance of this male bravado.” Of course, Steve Kerr has long been a vocal critic of one symptom male bravado — or at least of male anger and aggression: Gun violence.

In fact, following the string of mass shootings in California this week, Kerr pre-empted his pre-game press conference to once again decry gun violence in the country.

While there is certainly nothing wrong with Kerr using his platform to draw attention to this country’s desperate need for gun reform, it does accentuate Kerr’s silence on issues related to female empowerment.

One such example would be Kerr giving no time to the subject before or after the game wherein the Warriors unveiled their new woman’s-suffrage theme jerseys.

In the pre-game press conference, however, he does spend a quarter of the time praising two-way player Anthony Lamb, which obviously is why we’re here.

Steve Kerr and the Warriors care more about protecting the image of a two-way player than about protecting survivors of sexual assault or about empowering women. The way they’ve handled the sexual assault allegations surrounding Anthony Lamb is evidence of that.

When first pressed on their signing of Lamb, the Warriors’ rationale was basically, “Well, he hasn’t been charged with anything, and other NBA teams signed, so… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.”

At that time, Lamb had only been named in an anonymous social media post, and so it was easier to see how the Warriors would be so willing to brush that off. An accusation of sexual assault by a Twitter egg doesn’t rise to any sort of legal or even ethical obligations surrounding sexual assault—though their response at the time was still disappointing.

Fast forward a few months to December when Lamb was officially named as an assailant in a lawsuit brought against the University of Vermont (UVM) over the university’s mishandling of Title IX regulations.

The official complaint lays out a graphic and disturbing narrative of Lamb’s alleged actions, which include Lamb publicly berating the victim at a party at his house before then going back to his bedroom with her and anally raping her. In the words of the complaint, the victim “pleaded with [Lamb] to stop, telling him ‘no’ over and over. Ignoring her unequivocal demands, [Lamb] told her to ‘just take it’ and continued to rape her.”

The complaint also details the aftermath of the alleged rape: The victim became withdrawn from friends and family and had thoughts of suicide to the point that she “reached out to a suicide hotline.”

Lamb denies the event ever occurred, saying in a statement put out by the Warriors, “I have never committed sexual assault.”

The Warriors issued their own statement, which was effectively just copied-and-pasted from Bob Myers’ earlier press conference.

“Anthony is not a defendant in this recent lawsuit and, to our knowledge, he has never been charged with any wrongdoing in any legal case,” the Warriors statement said. “Prior to signing Anthony in September, we did our due diligence with the NBA and his prior teams, as we do with all players. If any new information comes to light, we will certainly evaluate it and act accordingly.”

And then, Steve Kerr — ever the social justice warrior— doubled-down on that statement and Lamb’s innocence. “As an organization, we put out a statement that captures everything that we believe,” Kerr said at the time. “And so, I will stand behind that statement and leave it at that.”

Now, this all reeks for a number of reasons, some of which I’ve already expanded on — like the fact that sexual assault survivors rarely go to the police, rarely get any sort of relief if they do, and are often accused of lying despite most claims of sexual assault being largely credible.

But if those simple truths made the Warriors initial rationale smell like bullshit, then this latest round of excuse-making smells more like they’re shoving our heads in the bull’s ass.

Here’s why:

1. About 80% of rapes are perpetrated by someone the victim knows, according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network.

The victim, Kendall Ware, dated Anthony Lamb for six months. In fact, the two had broken up just months before the alleged rape took place.

2. Although very uncommon, false accusations do happen, but they tend to have a motive.

A 2017 study published in the journal Sexual Behavior reported that 60% of false accusations examined were motivated by “emotional gain.” Most prominent in this category was the accusers need for an alibi or for attention.

Let’s apply that standard to Kendall Ware. Perhaps, she is making this all up to cover up her actions for that. But, the complaint makes it clear that she was at the party in question. So, an alibi for what? For engaging in consensual anal sex that she regretted after?

Maybe.

What about the attention angle? Well, the initial complaint was anonymous and the lawsuit is against UVM, not Lamb. If attention was the motive, why stay on the fringes like this?

In Asking For It, Kate Harding describes false accusers as typically having “previous claims of rape, mental illness, [and] intoxication.” In service of this description, she reviews a few of the more famous false accusations, including the case of Crystal Magnum and the Duke lacrosse team. In these examples, there are clear patterns that implicate the accuser’s credibility.

“Not what passes for ‘credibility issues’ in rape culture, like a history of drinking and having sex voluntarily,” Harding clarifies, “but actual credibility issues, like changing major parts of your story, identifying a man who wasn’t there as one of your attackers, and showing up to a meeting with special prosecutors so high on prescription medications you’re slurring your words and unable to walk in a straight line.”

Given the larger circumstances, what are the credibility issues with Kendall Ware, a college athlete herself who is currently pursuing her master’s in communication studies and disorders?

3. Lamb hasn’t been charged in part because his accuser never went to the police.

This is a multi-pronged point. The first of which is that, according to the complaint, Ware was “dissuaded” from pursuing a “formal investigation” by UVM’s Intake and Outreach Coordinator Taryn Moran, Title IX Investigator Kate Spence, UVM Athletic Director Jeffrey Schulman and Associate Athletic Director Krista Balogh.

The second is what constitutes a “formal investigation” in cases that involve Title IX is not clearly defined. Title IX stipulates that “A school has a responsibility to respond promptly and effectively” to accusations of sexual assault. But, that response and the underlying policy it serves get to be developed by the school itself. Ultimately, that school can choose to handle the investigation internally—with say campus police—or they can refer the case to local authorities. They are not obligated to do the latter. In either case, a “formal investigation” doesn’t mean a criminal investigation.

Since Ware went to the university, that “formal investigation” was always going to be limited. A university, for example, doesn’t have subpoena power, which means they can’t force a witness to testify or put that witness under oath—problematic in a case that has two primary witnesses. So, really, what kind of investigation could UVM have done and to what effect?

Lamb was in the middle of his senior basketball season, one that would earn his second consecutive America East Player of the Year award. Would it be improbable for a group of UVM administrators, half of whom oversee the university’s athletics programs, to downplay Ware’s accusations in hopes of shielding the most prominent athlete in their most profitable sport?

As Lester Freamon always says in The Wire, “Follow the money.”

In the end, it is clear that Steve Kerr, Bob Myers and the Warriors don’t care about the realities of the accusations surrounding Lamb. They care more about the financial benefit gained from Lamb’s two-way contract and his performance on the court.

That’s okay, I guess.

I’m not suggesting that Lamb shouldn’t be playing for the Warriors. Folks make mistakes—some way bigger than others, no doubt.

I’m saying that Steve Kerr, Bob Myers and the Warriors should be called out for the hyprocrits they are. They clearly don’t care about female empowerment because when they have the chance to talk meaningfully about a normalized prejudiced faced by survivors of sexual assault, particularly women, they choose silence.

Or, worse, they choose bullshit excuses.

They choose to rely on the fact that Lamb’s never been charged with a crime despite, as the facts presented here show, victims rarely get relief from law enforcement. Plus, in this particular case, the victim was convinced not to file a police report by powerful administrators at UVM.

They choose to tell us that they did their “due diligence” because they talked to the NBA and to Lamb’s former teams. But, in what world is this due diligence? If there was a crime committed and two witness saw it, wouldn’t due diligence at least include talking to the two witnesses? Well, God knows they didn’t reach out to Kendall Ware. But, could they have at least reached out to UVM? Could they have reached out a Bay Area-based expert on sexual assault or something? Could they have done anything other than just calling the Rockets and Spurs?

After all, what are the Rockets or Spurs gonna tell the Warriors about the accusation? What’s the NBA going to say? They weren’t there, right? They are just as complicit in perpetuating rape culture as the Warriors are, so why would they do anything other than cover their own tracks?

The franchise was recently awarded the Inclusive Innovation Award for their work in the 2021–2022 season. This award is granted to organizations that “advance inclusive practices.” While it is true the organization might throw money behind initiatives that promote inclusion, that money might as well just be budgeted under “marketing strategies.”

In this situation, the organization has the opportunity to meaningfully engage the community in difficult conversations and, well, “inclusive practices” around rape culture and sexual assault. Instead of seizing that opportunity, they’ve decided to ignore sexual aggression and to amplify rape myths. They have, in short, chosen to discredit women and all sexual assault survivors. In doing so, they’ve reinforced a culture that seeks to suppress women.

The City Edition jersey is cool though. So is the award. Steve Kerr’s lectures on social justice issues are nice, for sure. They all make for positive fodder in the local radio and print media — no doubt. It’s just a shame that despite all these accolades and achievements, no-one is brave enough or cares enough to do the right thing or to have the hard conversation or to even lend the smallest amount of credibility to a woman who claims she was anally raped by an ex-boyfriend, who happens to be an employee of the organization. So it goes, I guess.