It’s been over a month since Las Vegas Aces point guard Chelsea Gray shared the vitriol she received online after playing in a game against the Indiana Fever. It’s been around six weeks since Alyssa Thomas spoke out about the death threats she received following her suspension for committing a Flagrant 2 foul against Caitlin Clark. And somehow, since all of this, the tension has only continued to build.
Now coaches are getting threats online as well, namely Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White. And in recent weeks a host of bad faith actors have inserted themselves into the WNBA’s space, including conversations about the league for their own gain.
These actors have emerged following an ESPN feature on Fever wing Sophie Cunningham where she addressed her beliefs when it comes to transgender athletes participating in women’s sports. “I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men,” she told ESPN.
Following her comments, two former NBA players announced that they would be entering the 2027 WNBA Draft as a joke, mocking the league and its stance on issues regarding transgender athletes.
There have been calls for the league to respond more proactively to these situations. This week, following a meeting of the Anti-Hate task force established in 2025 to combat hate and vitriol toward players and teams, the league issued its strongest statement on the matter this season.
“Today’s meeting covered a wide range of topics, including ongoing discussions on transgender athletes and the continued hate and vitriol directed at players online. We will continue to engage all league stakeholders in the coming weeks and months. We will approach these important conversations thoughtfully and in alignment with the values of our league. There are no immediate eligibility matters affecting the WNBA and we strongly denounce the bad-faith efforts to use these topics to demean or marginalize others.”
How did we get here, and how are WNBA’s players and coaches responding as outside forces threaten to overshadow the league’s growing popularity?
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How did outside groups become involved?
The ESPN feature on Cunningham came out right before All-Star weekend, and once league play resumed less than a week after the profile came out, rallies in support of her views popped up wherever the Fever played. This began on July 28 when the Fever played in Seattle and has continued as the Fever have traveled to other cities.
When the rallies began in Seattle, two young girls attended the game with tickets provided by a “generous donor” and shared messages about protecting women’s sports from transgender athletes. Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton confronted the girls over their messaging and was later suspended by the league for the team’s next five home games.
When the Fever traveled to Minnesota to face the Lynx, Cunningham took pictures with activist Riley Gaines and Jennifer Sey, founder of XX-XY Athletics, a brand that advocates for excluding transgender athletes from women’s sports.
Those involved have acknowledged trying to use Cunningham’s profile as a WNBA player after learning in 2024 that she shared their views.
This general narrative around the league led to more attention-seeking behavior that took place last week when two former NBA players decided to declare themselves for the 2027 WNBA Draft, and made claims that both were going to transition.
The two former players weren’t being serious but instead were mocking the fact that the WNBA’s rules within the 2026 collective bargaining agreement state that people eligible to play in the league just have to be women and transgender women aren’t explicitly excluded.
How are coaches, players and the league now starting to fight for the dignity of the league?
When the Storm’s Keaton was suspended, many wondered what the league was going to say and do when it came to acknowledging the transgender athlete part of this discussion. Players and coaches have now faced questions from reporters who don’t typically cover the league about whether transgender athletes should be allowed to participate in women’s sports.
Before the two former NBA players even made their attention-seeking announcements, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert sent an internal memo to teams which has been reviewed by NBC Sports. In the memo, Engelbert added transgender athlete participation in women’s basketball to the list of topics for the Anti-Hate task force to discuss. While the league wasn’t vocal yet, Engelbert and her staff had been paying very close attention to the rallies that were happening across the country, and the media coverage the discussion more broadly had been getting.
On that same day, the Players Association made a lengthy public statement that stated that players “will not be used as political pawns.”
WNBA players union leadership released a statement, I suggest everyone read it. This is the message of united union leaders: hate will not be tolerated and trans inclusion IS protecting women’s rights to play sports This is excellently crafted. Proud of Nneka, Phee and the rest of WNBPA leaders
— phoenix (@phoenix-rights.bsky.social) 2026-08-08T14:55:56.642Z
A day before the league task force met, Fever head coach Stephanie White spent her pregame press conference making a two-minute speech instead of taking any questions.
For context, when the Fever played the Sky on August 8, Cunningham was fouled hard by DiJonai Carrington, someone White previously coached with the Connecticut Sun. When White was asked postgame about the play that became a Flagrant 2 foul, White noted that she believed the call was correct, although she didn’t believe that the player she had previously coached intentionally went after Cunningham.
Those comments sent the internet ablaze with fans of both the Fever and Cunningham sending hateful messages assuming that White didn’t support Cunningham. To be clear, this had been building all season, as White has also received hateful messages from those who have increasingly used Caitlin Clark as a symbol in broader cultural debates.
Stephanie White with an opening statement that was her entire pregame media session today: pic.twitter.com/mY1BtVTQ2u
— Tony East (@TonyREast) August 11, 2026
“The reality is with me, I will always lead with love,” White said toward the end of her speech. “I will always lead with grace. I will always lead with humility. And I will always lead with integrity. Doesn’t mean I will always get it right. I’m also human. The hate, the fearmongering, the divisiveness, the stuff that’s trying to hijack our league will not win. It won’t win. We are united. We are connected. We will not be divided. Every day, these women put their ass on the line. Every day. When they go low, we go high. Love will win. Grace will win. Humility will win, and kindness will win. I stand by them. I will always stand by them. Everybody else can go to hell.”
White’s impassioned speech was an example that all of these issues, the online vitriol and the bad faith actors are all connected and are all impacting the people who work in the WNBA.
And then just two days later, the league made sure to get out their message in a more forceful way after the Anti-Hate task force convened. According to a source familiar with the situation, the league’s stance is that the WNBA won’t be giving oxygen to those that mock the league or go after its dignity in addition to efforts that demean or marginalize others.
How will the WNBA’s multi-decade identity remain intact?
Many coaches including but not limited to the Storm’s Sonia Raman, the Fire’s Alex Sarama, the Valkyries’ Natalie Nakase, White and Minnesota Lynx head coach and president of basketball operations Cheryl Reeve all were asked questions about transgender athletes and all replied noting that they believe in inclusion.
Reeve in particular was quite open about her stance and her beliefs. In addition to wearing a shirt that read “trans kids belong,” she explained that she believed that there are some in this country, possibly referencing Cunningham, that aren’t as educated on what the full nuance is when it comes to transgender athletes participating in sports. When the Fever came to play the Lynx, Reeve made sure she had a public person-to-person conversation with Cunningham prior to tipoff.
Reeve didn’t share the discussion but elaborated on why she publicly decided to talk to Cunningham with fans and cameras nearby.
“I think both of us understand that we have platforms,” Reeve said after the August 2 home game against the Fever. “And we both talked about wanting to more than anything educate and there are some things that we have in common and maybe some things you differ on, just like any issues. And I think it’s how you handle things. It was nice to be in person.”
Sparks head coach Lynn Roberts was refreshed by White’s mic drop speech and appreciated her passion and willingness to call a spade a spade. But Roberts has grown concerned that the league’s increased visibility hasn’t led to more discussion about the actual basketball being played. At the same time, she acknowledged that the W is a league founded by mostly Black women and women in general who like to speak up about issues that are important to them.
Sparks star and Players Association president Nneka Ogwumike reflected on all of the outside noise that has been infiltrating the league as of late. She expressed concern simply because a lot of the exclusionary rallies and rhetoric that have happened involving the WNBA is directly in contrast to what the league itself has been branded around.
“But what I really do hate is that we are using a very nuanced conversation and evolving conversation to continue to marginalize these groups that we advocate for,” she said on Thursday. “And I couldn’t even imagine being like a trans fan in the WNBA right now. It really breaks my heart to think about how these conversations may be affecting people who have supported us for so long and it’s just saddening. It’s saddening, but I don’t want to succumb to it taking over.”
Sue Bird, a retired legendary point guard who works on NBC’s WNBA broadcasts, recently acknowledged that the league has always been about fighting for something throughout its 30-year history. The fight continues in a much more public, front-facing way now that the league’s footprint is larger than ever. As a result, there are bad faith actors who are using the WNBA’s place in popular culture as a cudgel in broader social and political debates.
To be clear, political activism isn’t new to the WNBA, especially when the players dedicated their 2020 season to the #SayHerName Campaign, the Black Lives Matter movement and the effort to elect then-Senate candidate Raphael Warnock, who was running against one of the league’s former owners. Kelly Loeffler, the former owner, took issue with WNBA players dedicating their 2020 season to a cause like Black Lives Matter.
“We fought for so many years — but in 2020 especially— to get to a point to where we were talking about the basketball,” Bird said on a recent NBC broadcast. “And somehow, now the basketball is being used against us.”
The question that lies ahead besides public statements and leaked memos is will there be any sort of unified “drop the mic” movements akin to White’s from Tuesday night? That remains to be seen. When the players organized in 2020, everyone was all in one place, the WNBA’s COVID-era bubble in Florida.
How can the league move past this and regain its respect? What will it take for these bad faith actors to step aside? It could be some unified organizing. That worked quite well six years ago.
