Elle Duncan Admits Covering The WNBA Is Incredibly ‘Toxic’

A while ago, former ESPN anchor Elle Duncan publicly complained about how the WNBA reporting space is “toxic.” This week she revisited those remarks and explained why she feels that way.

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In an interview with Front Office Sports, Duncan reiterated that she considered the WNBA similar to a “toxic relationship.” She explained that despite it being several years since the WNBA really started to accelerate and growth, the troublemakers haven’t gone away.

Duncan said that there remain multiple factions of people that don’t actually watch or care about the WNBA and simply use the news to push various narratives for one side or another in the “culture war.” As a result, it’s become very frustrating for her.

“The reason it’s toxic is because you love it so much, there are so many incredible things about it. There is this community that really, truly doesn’t exist anywhere else and you know how special it is. And to have it reduced to a culture war is disgusting,” Duncan said.

Fans Go After Duncan

While some users on X were quick to agree with Duncan, others took issue with what she said. Some accused her of feeding into the problem back when she was with ESPN:

“She contributed to the toxicity in 2024. Don’t hide your hands after you threw stones in 2024, Elle Duncan. You’re no saint,” one user on X declared.

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“Elle Duncan is a below average broadcaster, that thinks she’s bigger than what she is,” another wrote recently. “She has no clue that there are independent YT channels, that cover the league better than she does. Those channels literally discuss the WNBA all day every day, when ESPN chase trends.”

Jon Root of OutKick called Duncan “narcissistic” and declared that “most of its players, are just a bunch of woke, divisive, left-wing activists.”

But comments like that seem to demonstrate exactly what Duncan is talking about: The faction that doesn’t really care about the WNBA itself and either glued to a particular player or just want to use it to reinforce some other narrative.

The problem that longtime fans of the WNBA are going to have is that those voices tend to be louder than their own passion for it.

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This story was originally published October 13, 2026 at 4:25 PM.