The WNBA (Women’s National Basketball Association) began operations in 1997 following the popularity of the 1996 U.S. Women’s Olympic team that went undefeated and won gold at the 1996 Atlanta Games. The league had eight original franchises, and early stars included Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie, and Rebecca Lobo. Hardly household names, the league has been around for a generation but experienced significant growth when Caitlin Clark joined the league in 2024. Clark, a star at the University of Iowa, never drifted far from home, having been born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 2002. Drafted by the Indiana Fever, Clark has sparked a cultural surge known as the “Caitlin Clark Effect,” bringing unprecedented media coverage, higher TV ratings, and sold-out games to a league that once endured anonymity, despite how hard large media entities like ESPN tried to make the league something special. Clark’s arrival meant new revenue sources, and every player benefited. She became what one would call the “meal ticket” for the players, coaches, and executives who found employment with specific teams or in league offices. Strangely, she has elicited resentment from many players in the league. Older players seem to be jealous of her moniker as the “face of the league,” resenting her fame and popularity despite being in the league for a short time while many of them laboured in front of empty seats and small paychecks for years. As a result, she has received a lot of rough treatment that veterans claim is natural for rookies, but fans see as open hostility.
More contentiously, many WNBA players are black and identify as part of the LGBTQ community. Clark, a white heterosexual, does not represent most of the league but sucks up most of the league’s popular coverage. This leaves many questioning the root of the dynamics, pointing to racism and white privilege as an underlying symptom. Fans have become polarized, and although Clark seeks to be politically neutral, her fiery competitiveness has led many fans to take sides. One of Clark’s teammates, Sophie Cunningham, a 6’ 2” blonde, has become her protector on the court and an outspoken defender of women’s sports for biologically born women. In recent days, this has created a furor among some in the league who have waffled on whether transgender women should be allowed to play in the league. Three head coaches, Cheryl Reeve of the Minnesota Lynx, Natalie Nakase of the Golden State Valkyries, and Stephanie White, Clark’s and Cunningham’s coach on the Fever, have all come out in defence of transgender athletes. Reeve wore a shirt while coaching a game that read, “Trans Kids Belong.” When asked about it, she replied, “We need to protect trans kids… To me, it’s a human rights issue. Every kid has a right to sports.” She claimed her biggest concern was inclusion. Nakase fully backed trans inclusion, saying, “For me, sports is about belonging. It’s about inclusivity. It’s about allowing everyone to be their authentic selves.” She claimed that her own experiences, including criticism about ethnicity and height, drive her thinking. As for White, if anyone has a chance to watch her dialogue, it’s not hard to recognize how carefully she wants to avoid anything controversial, yet she hoists her own petard. In an attempt to be circumspect, she said she was not “sufficiently educated from a scientific standpoint” to give a definitive answer regarding transitioning individuals in the WNBA. She called for more discussion and studies and knew that “exclusion” was not the answer. Interesting.
What followed next was predictable. The lack of honesty among those in preeminent positions in women’s sports boggles the mind. Shelving common sense and science, these progressive engineers pretend that their so-called inclusiveness makes them likeable and virtuous to the public. Sadly, it threatens women’s sports and creates tremendous division where none need exist. Allowing biological men who identify as women to play women’s sports has varying degrees of unfairness and danger. A biological male, like Lia Thomas, who won the 2022 NCAA Division I National Championship, towered over her female competitors but posed no physical danger. The sport does not demand contact, and the girls swimming were safe, if prevented from competing fairly. In other sports, like basketball, a biological man claiming to be a woman could severely injure anyone getting in his way. The absurdity hit home when Enes Kanter Freedom (K-F), an 11-year veteran of the NBA, recently posted on Twitter that he was declaring himself eligible for the 2027 WNBA Draft. K-F claims to have carefully reviewed the rules and argues, according to Yahoo Sports, “that because the WNBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement dictates that ‘only women are eligible’ but lacks strict scientific criteria (such as hormone levels or sex assigned at birth), he satisfies the criteria under a purely self-identification framework.” In his tweet, K-F writes, “I know my presence on the court will stir up strong opinions…I’m simply asking that the current rules be applied to everyone–the rules that represent the very values many WNBA players and coaches have publicly advocated for.” K-F would prefer the league hierarchy step up, admit its foolish doublespeak about inclusion and protect the league, the players, and the integrity of women’s basketball from a noxious dose of wokeism that most people in North American society don’t understand and care very little about.
Clay Travis, a conservative commentator and part of the Clay and Buck Show, which replaced Rush Limbaugh after Limbaugh died in 2021, has offered a two-part gambit to satirically prove how absurd the WNBA sounds when it discusses inclusion. Travis has offered $10 million to the winner of a game between the WNBA All-Stars (or championship winners) and a top boys’ high school basketball championship team. The WNBA would look foolish either way, proving his point. If they refuse the game, it proves they know they would lose, and if they play the game, it shows how men would dominate a women’s league. The second part of his gambit proposes an expansion team called the Nashville Balls, made entirely of trans athletes, also proving how men would dominate a women’s league. Without touching science, common sense dictates that the WNBA needs to make some quick admissions and protect its league, its players, and the fans of women’s basketball. As the famous Trump ad stated in the fall of 2024, “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.” Does the W mean anything in WNBA? If so, let’s hope someone with common sense and decency ensures the girls have the right to play guaranteed under Title IX, a landmark civil rights law intended to create a legal foundation for drastically expanding opportunities for women in high school and collegiate athletics. Liberals have often argued that ideology should not eclipse science. It’s time they took a good look in the mirror on this issue and more. Holding inquiries about who is a woman speaks to a loss that threatens to end women’s sports more than the prejudice or ignorance that once prevented girls from participation, the thrill of victory, or the opportunity to access economic prosperity. In the 21st century, who would have thought that a debate about generations-old biological facts would prove that science remains unsettled and that a man might be a woman?
Dave Redekop is a retired elementary resource teacher who worked part-time at the St. Catharines Courthouse as a Registrar until being appointed Executive Director at Redeemer Bible Church in October 2023. He has worked on political campaigns since high school and attended university in South Carolina for five years, earning a Master’s in American History with a specialization in Civil Rights. Dave loves reading biographies.
