The WNBA has found itself in the culture-war crosshairs as it attempts to navigate Sophie Cunningham‘s comments calling for transgender women to be kept out of women’s sports.
If the league had hoped for the topic to change or for the spotlight to shift, it doesn’t appear that’s going to happen anytime soon, especially as Cunningham has continued to stand by her initial comments.
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Before and after Friday’s game between the Indiana Fever and the Portland Fire, coaches and players were asked directly about transgender athletes’ participation in women’s sports, and more specifically, in the WNBA, by a reporter from the Fox-owned OutKick.
Before the game, the two head coaches, Indiana’s Stephanie White and Portland’s Alex Sarama, offered support to the transgender community and called for inclusivity.
As for the game itself, Fever superstar Caitlin Clark recorded the fourth triple-double of her career in a 112-98 win. She finished the game with 26 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists, and 2 steals while becoming the fastest player in WNBA history to reach 1,500 points and 500 assists (in 78 games).
It would stand to reason that Clark would be at the Fever post-game press conference, as league rules state each team must provide their head coach plus two key players (usually the leading scorer and another major contributor). However, Clark was absent from the team’s presser, with Aliyah Boston and Makayla Timpson speaking with reporters instead. The two spoke with the media for about five minutes, but when the OutKick reporter tried to ask them a question about transgender athletes, a representative ended the presser.
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The Atlantic’s Jemele Hill, who has called out the WNBA over its media restrictions in the past, said Saturday that the league does its players a disservice by shielding them from situations like this.
“Caitlin Clark should not have to answer to something her teammate said. That said, if she is asked the question — a fair one — and opts to say no comment, or I don’t have enough information, or a non-answer, that’s fine, too. Or if she just says what she feels,” said Hill on X. “These teams do their players a disservice by doing things like this because it creates a bigger story. If y’all don’t have her prepped for these moments, what are you even doing?”
Hill was also quick to note that the concerns over transgender athletes in the WNBA are overblown (nonexistent, to be exact). But she’s right to note that attempting to put everyone’s head in the sand when there are motivated provocateurs attempting to turn you into the villain isn’t a smart strategy in the modern media ecosystem. Unfortunately, this is a red-meat topic for right-wing journalists, and the more the WNBA attempts to shield itself from honest stances and conversations, the more those people will push and pry and provoke.
It’s not the responsibility of every WNBA coach or player to take a public stance on this issue, but running and hiding from these opportunities won’t shield anyone from the conversation forever. And it certainly doesn’t send the message that you stand arm-in-arm with a community the league has made it clear it wants to be seen as supportive of.
The post Jemele Hill: WNBA teams ‘do their players a disservice’ shielding them from tough questions appeared first on Awful Announcing.
