The Wonkette sportsball desk is here again for your sportsball pleasure with an ANT: Actual Nice Time. This weekend was a certified Big Sporting Deal, as a few of you here likely already knew. Hell, even delusional news outlets knew something big was up. Check out the FOX headline:
That headline, which now includes pushback from an ex-NBA star, once they found one, originally read,
South Carolina’s Dawn Staley draws strong reactions over remarks about trans participation in women’s sports
Staley and the Gamecocks take on Iowa in the women’s basketball national championship
FOX and I agree: Society grappling with the nature of gender and how to create a just society in a highly gendered society is really and truly important social upheaval. And Staley, who coached the University of South Carolina women’s basketball team to an undefeated regular season two years in a row (and would cap that with a national championship yesterday), on Saturday threw her Hall of Fame weight behind free and full participation of trans people in women’s athletics, one of the most talked about issues in our collective acts of recreating standards of gendered justice.
Outkick (Motto: “Kicking woke sports, politics & entertainment to the curb”) is a sports website that tries to be a conservative Deadspin and these days is almost as successful. They sent their reporter to ask Staley about the topic, prompting Staley’s stand:
The video itself is quite revealing. Staley had just answered two questions, one about the emotional growth of a player in incredibly difficult family circumstances and another about the historical importance of the upcoming game which would inevitably end either in an undefeated season for the Gamecocks or in Caitlin Clark’s last-chance national championship. So when she is asked about trans inclusion, she replies, “Damn, you got deep ones today.” (Or possibly, “deep on me, didn’t you?” Transcriptions differ.) After searching for some words, she then says:
I’m of the opinion of, of, if you’re a woman you should play. If you consider yourself a woman and you want to play sports, or vice versa, you should be able to play. That’s my opinion. Want me to go deeper?
When that wasn’t specific enough for Outkick, who seemed to want only a yes or no answer, Staley added:
That’s the question you want to ask? […] I’ll give you that: yes. Yes. So now the barnstormer people are going to flood my timeline and be a distraction to me on one of the biggest days of our game. And I’m okay with that. I really am.
And she wasn’t wrong. FOX and Breitbart both immediately collected opinions hostile to Staley, many from Xitter, though in other cases they went looking for quotes. The usual suspects are all here, Nancy Mace, Riley Gaines, Piers Morgan, Megyn Kelly, the Washington Times, the National Review. (Surprisingly Murdoch’s New York Post had an article up with no attacks on Staley in it at all.) Lesser known players like Sage Steele and Jason Whitlock — primarily sports commentators — also piled on.
But the real news here isn’t the right-wing losers who jumped on the back of a successful Black woman. The real news is that last bit of Staley’s statement. Contemplating the coming mob and how it might affect her, and thus her team, at a crucial moment, this woman said, “I’m okay with that. I really am.”
And you know who had her back? Women ballers. The WNBA is a league that already had its first out trans player in non-binary all-star guard Layshia Clarendon, and their experience handling trans issues showed. Women’s Basketball Hall of Famer (and wife of queer soccer legend and thorn in the side of Donald Trump Megan Rapinoe) Sue Bird tweeted a clap emoji. Brianna Turner, a current WNBA player, tweeted:
What Dawn Staley has accomplished in just 16 years at South Carolina is incredible. Some coaches wait decades to see her success. She’s transformed SC into a powerhouse program. Legendary player & coach! Mad respect for everything she’s poured into the game
When an internet rando insisted she must be trans to praise Staley, Turner hit back:
Actually, I am cisgender! My pronouns are she/her, and I am a proud ally of the transgender community. Trans people belong, period.
Cheryl Reeve, four-time WNBA champion as coach of the Minnesota Lynx, added more praise for Staley’s inclusive stance:
I’ve had the great fortune of being in @dawnstaley orbit since 2001. I have been amazed and proud of her ever since not only for what she’s accomplished on the court, but off. This is up there as one of the most proud times ever. Way to go Dawn!
They met when Reeve was added to the Charlotte Sting coaching staff as a primary assistant while Staley was their star guard. They know each other well and anyone who knows their relationship or even just knows Reeve knows how genuine those sentiments are.
But even that was not the most moving praise. Markeshia Grant played for Staley at the University of South Carolina from fall 2010 to spring 2012 when the team hadn’t yet reached its recent lofty heights. She won no championships with Staley. She just loves her:
love that my Coach is inclusive and accepting of everyone! I love that there is no limitations to how much she is able to empathize and connect with other HUMANS! I love that she is authentically herself and will always be a voice for the voiceless.
And even as Staley won another championship on Sunday, that is what most impressed this weekend: her fearlessness in speaking up because she could. She knew the haters would respond foully, and she knew she had responsibilities to her team to focus on the game. But watch the clip again. She thinks. She weaves her head. And she decides, “I can take it,” then plunges forward like Lia Thomas on her best day.
Make no mistake, this was a deliberate attempt to create bad press and distractions for Staley and South Carolina. Staley knew it was a trap. Hell, I think a lot of Black women knew it was a trap. But it didn’t make a difference. Because where Outkick saw a weak woman, she proved she was far stronger and savvier than the men applying their best attacking press. She beat it, as she has for more than 30 years, with her own incisive flair.
This is a big society. Trans people have always lived within it. But moments like these are crucial to transitioning into a society where as Turner said,
Trans people belong. Period.
Women’s basketball is just getting there a little faster, thanks to heroes like Staley.