Former WNBA broadcaster Michele Tafoya says she believes the league has shifted away from promoting basketball and become too focused on activism, via Fox News.
Speaking with Dan Dakich on “Don’t @ Me,” Tafoya reflected on her experience calling games during the WNBA’s early years and said she no longer recognizes the league.
“I’m losing faith in this league. I have talked about this when this league had its inaugural first three, four seasons, I was one of the three play by play voices. It was Robin Roberts, Hannah Storm and myself and I worked with Reggie Miller and we had a blast. And it was a celebration of these women. This league has now somehow morphed into something that feels like activism on display.”
Tafoya referenced demonstrations outside a recent Minnesota Lynx game, where supporters and opponents of transgender participation in women’s sports gathered.
She said protesters repeatedly interrupted those speaking in favor of female-only competition.
“They (pro-trans protesters) were loud,” Tafoya continued. “They had bullhorns. They would press their little siren button and just blast us so we could never talk. It’s just hard to believe that we are still conflating this idea of women having their own sport, but trans women somehow having access to that sport when they aren’t biologically female.
“This is not an anti-choice, transphobic movement at all. God bless Sophie Cunningham and you know it as well, if not better than I do. She’s got a spine. And she is a hero of mine.”
Tafoya also criticized Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve for wearing a “Trans Kids Belong” shirt, arguing that the issue has become a distraction from basketball.
“I hope it opened the doors for others. But you know what? It’s going to be a very narrow group. And the way that the WNBA is responding with Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve wearing a T-shirt, trans kids belong. By the way, this has nothing to do with kids, and I’d love to leave kids out of this entire ideology altogether.”
