I don’t know why Anna-Megan Raley blogs for CBS Houston under the name Claire Crawford, but after last week, I assume it’s because it allowed her to get away with writing incendiary click bait with headlines like, “Is This Girl ‘Too Chunky’ To Be An OKC Thunder Cheerleader?” Yeah, sh*t just got real.
First, let’s consider some actual talking points for the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round of the NBA Playoffs. For starters, there’s the question of how the team plans to return to the Finals with Russell Westbrook out for the playoffs after knee surgery. One step further, there’s the timing of Kevin Durant’s Sports Illustrated cover, on which he claims he’s ready to be the NBA’s No. 1, as he must now carry the Thunder on his back. And there are obviously many more angles one could run with, but Raley believed that a Thunder dancer’s muffin top was the Pulitzer magnet.
Raley drew the ire of her site’s readers and beyond when she asked the aforementioned question of Thunder dancer Kelsey Williams, who you can see in the banner image.
Of Williams, Raley originally wrote:
The Rockets looked terrible in Game1, but some say they weren’t the only bad-looking people on the court.
We’re not trying to be ugly. We are just discussing what men like in women, specifically NBA cheerleaders.
This pretty blonde has been criticized by some folks in OKC for having “pudginess” around her waistline. But if she’s comfortable wearing that tiny outfit and dancing for NBA fans, then good for her.
By itself, that’s not necessarily terrible, except that she doesn’t mention who “some folks” are before building the case to defend Kelsey from those folks. For all we know, Raley could have overheard Champ Kind and Brian Fantana talking about Kelsey in the CBS Houston office and she thought, “Eureka! People will love this!” Except, her editors have since conveniently scrubbed all of Raley’s “between us girls, this is what the bros like” commentary from her article and replaced it with “We think she’s beautiful. What do you think?”
However, enough people read the original version to know what was written, including this particular gem: “I wish she had a little more on top, if you know what I mean.” Haha, you’re so edgy, woman who hides behind a fake name. But for the sake of being fair, here’s a photo of Williams free from airbrushes and photoshops:
And here is one of Crawford/Raley:
Susan B. Anthony would be proud.
