As the WNBA watches the right continue to hijack narratives around the sport for political gain, Stephen A. Smith is urging the league to take a stand.
Last month, Smith posed the irrational question of, “What if an NBA player decided to transition to playing in the WNBA?” To be clear, there has never been a transgender athlete in the WNBA; there has never been a transgender athlete who has fought for the right to play in the WNBA. But Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham’s recent comments on transgender athletes opened the door for more bad-faith commentary around the discussion.
Enes Kanter and Royce White recently took the insincerity around the discussion to new heights by “declaring” for the 2027 WNBA Draft, which the right has treated as some sort of “told you so” moment. But this has been the recent playbook for Republicans. They attempt to utilize the WNBA’s growing popularity to fuel culture-war debates. And according to Stephen A. Smith, it’s now on the WNBA to put an end to it.
“You got to have rules and regulations. You got to have law, you got to have order. You can’t have this. Sure, the right is maneuvering its way through the terrain in making and politicizing this issue,” Smith acknowledged on his SiriusXM Radio show Monday afternoon. “It doesn’t negate the fact that the WNBA left the door open for it to happen. They have dropped the ball! I’m talking about the league office; I’m not talking about the players. And now it’s gotten to the point where everything about them is gonna be politicized.”
Smith went on to cite Republican Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier recently threatening to charge WNBA players with assault in the wake of Chicago Sky guard DiJonai Carrington committing a hard foul on Sophie Cunningham. Even a flagrant foul in the WNBA is at risk of being used for political fodder.
“The time has come for folks to stop whining about how stuff is being politicized and do something about it so it can’t be politicized,” Smith continued. “Do something or suck it up! You don’t have a choice other than those two. You gotta take a stand at some point, because folks are coming. Because it’s an opportunity to point out flagrant hypocrisies, and they’re not gonna pass it up. No matter what folks say.”
Current WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert has overseen immense growth for the league, but she’s also done a terrible job of putting out any fires within it. And while it’s fair to blame the WNBA for allowing certain narratives around the league to be usurped for political gain, it’s unfair to ask them to fight every fight they didn’t pick.
The WNBA has not been fighting with transgender athletes. Similarly, transgender athletes have not been fighting for the right to play in the WNBA. And if the WNBA is going to have a conversation about transgender athletes, then they should have it with people who are legitimately affected by the discussion, not people such as Enes Kanter and Royce White who are attempting to gain attention by mocking the league.
About Brandon Contes
Brandon Contes is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He previously helped carve the sports vertical for Mediaite and spent more than three years with Barrett Sports Media. Send tips/comments/complaints to bcontes@thecomeback.com