The WNBA is in the midst of a firestorm as sports fans have rallied around Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham and her stance that women and girls shouldn’t have to compete against males.
WNBA coaches, columnists and media pundits have continued to miss the mark on Cunningham’s comments and have said everything from sports should be inclusive to labelling Cunningham “anti-Black” and against transgender people.
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In the midst of the heated conversations on social media, President Donald Trump’s comments about being a WNBA coach resurfaced on Tuesday night. Trump was making a speech at the America First Policy Institute in July 2022 and said he would be the greatest women’s basketball coach ever because he’d ask LeBron James if he had any “desire to be a woman.”
“I’ll tell you what – I’d be the greatest women’s basketball coach in history. Because, I don’t like LeBron James. I like Michael Jordan much better. But I’d go up to LeBron James, it doesn’t matter, I’d say, ‘LeBron, did you ever have any desire to be a woman? Because what I’d love you to do is star on my team that I’m building up. I’ll have the greatest team in history. They’ll never lose. Nobody will come within 70 points of this team,’ Trump said at the time. “No, we have to change that. We have to make it OK to talk about it.”
The clip took new life ahead of the Fever’s game on Wednesday night against the New York Liberty. It will be the Fever’s second home game since her remarks were published in an ESPN feature.
Since then, women’s sports activists have rallied around Cunningham and have held events in support of her outside of arenas.
The latest was in Minneapolis ahead of the Fever’s 108-100 loss to the Minnesota Lynx. Pro-tans activists seemingly got wind of the rally and attempted to shout down at those in support of Cunningham.
One man waved a sign with a derogatory message toward those in support of Cunningham.
Still, Cunningham has not backed down from her comments.
“I said what I said. I think it’s kind of common sense,” she said back on July 22. “I think I’ll always believe in that. I think it’s really important to protect children and that’s little girls who are also involved in that category. So, I stand on what I said and I’ll always believe that.”