“Trans kids belong” is the T-shirt under a jacket that WNBA coach Cheryl Reeve of the Minnesota Lynx wore Sunday against an Indiana Fever team featuring league lightning rod Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham.
When the protector of women’s spaces advocate Riley Gaines showed up in an arena with hundreds of signs, hers reading, “Sophie. Thank you. – A Girl Mom,” the arena staff asked her to put it down.
The reference was to Cunningham’s answer to a question in a long-form interview with ESPN’s Hallie Grossman that published July 21, and backing up with emphasis within 48 hours when asked again.
Cunningham doesn’t believe boys saying they are girls should be playing in girls and women’s sports.
“I think that I am here to extend love,” she says. “But I also think with that love is truth, being honest. And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”
North Carolinian Payton McNabb, a friend to and advocate many times alongside Gaines and others, said the 6-foot-1 reserve guard’s handling of what has transpired the last two weeks has another layer. And McNabb knows the hurt, literally, from boys in girls sports.
“Cheryl Reeves wore that protect trans kids shirt, definitely a political statement and distraction,” the 21-year-old McNabb told The Center Square in an interview Tuesday afternoon. “Instead, she was getting broadcast time. She said she wanted to educate people, and that’s acceptable. Sophie just answered a question she was asked and didn’t start any of this. That’s where she got into it. And then she doubled down.
“They’re not excited about it,” McNabb said of the WNBA. “They’re trying to make an example of her, and she’s not playing that game. She’s standing up for the girls and the women. She didn’t wait until her career was safe, she did it now. It adds another layer on top of what she’s doing.”
Not a single WNBA coach – there are 15 teams across the country – nor the league itself has sided publicly with Cunningham.
“The league often says they have a problem with people like Sophie bringing politics into sports,” Gaines said in a network interview Monday following her Sunday visit to Minnesota. “The league doesn’t have a problem with politics in sports. They have a problem with conservative politics in sports.“
Before the 6-foot Clark, arguably the league’s best player, the WNBA didn’t turn a profit. This year, for the first time in its 30-year history, each team is getting an $8 million pool of money to distribute revenue sharing per the union contract.
Cunningham has become somewhat of an enforcer as opponents use physical play against Clark. Yet, she appears to be far from a political extremist or seeking to inject politics into the sport.
Instead, Cunningham grew up in a Christian home, was baptized as a child and again in April at age 29, and is considered a legend for the University of Missouri – four years of NCAA Tournament berths when it had not gone in the nine years before and now hasn’t in the seven years since she left.
McNabb, three-sport high school athlete whose career was ended by a spiked volleyball from a boy playing on the girls team, said Sunday was just another example of the WNBA failing.
“It proves everyday how unserious the league is,” she said. “It’s embarrassing. The biggest thing to me is women’s coaches, all have a chance to say something, and all failed miserably.
“They’re all complaining they don’t get as much as men, or the same press, and then in the next hand encouraging men to take over women’s sports. You can’t get people to take your league seriously.”
Officiating consistency, on-court physicality and online fan culture – inclusive of racism and misogyny – are chief criticisms of the league. Public relations problems are often self-inflicted, such as showing in a now-deleted social media video two standout players wagering on their games.
Gaines, on social media, gave the WNBA advice with a video of Cunningham doing photo-ops with about 300 kids at her camp.
“This is what it’s about,” the Kentucky All-American swimmer wrote. “If the league was smart, they’d lean in to Sophie. Fans love her and young athletes look up to her.”
McNabb agrees.
“I have a good feeling about her not backing down,” she said. “She’s such a powerful girl. It’s very courageous. I’m excited to see who she inspires to speak up.”
Perhaps the young children from her camp, or the many at the games, McNabb said.
And while she understands Clark declining to give verbal support, McNabb is hopeful she will join Cunningham in speaking out to protect women’s spaces.
“She should not be vilified for not saying something,” McNabb said of Clark. “Sports shouldn’t be a political place. It goes back to Sophie didn’t ask for any of it; she just answered a question she was asked. Whether they like it or not, they’re a part of the conversation. It’s not a good excuse to not say anything.
“I see both sides. And I can see why Caitlin doesn’t want to add more to getting beat up every night. But every kid in there had a Caitlin Clark jersey on. And that makes it really sad.”