The WNBA finds itself in the middle of a societal scuffle over trans athletes and their rights. This is a self-inflicted wound; the league did not have to chime in; but it has. Now with former NBA males saying they will declare for the WNBA Draft if all they have to do is proclaim their womanhood, the league is conferring to see what to do next. That “conferring” has been ongoing for a week or more.
My position here is unchanged. Post-pubescent males are on average much bigger, stronger and faster than post-pubescent women; to allow most post-pubescent women to stand a chance in competitive sports involving strength and speed, society has created “women’s leagues” in baseball, football, basketball, soccer and ice hockey. That the women’s leagues would be severely damaged if transgendered males were allowed to play seems as self-evident to me as were the truths that Thomas Jefferson identified in the Declaration of Independence.
And as the WNBA continues to discuss and debate its future position(s) here, the league has become a laughingstock on social media. Someone who identifies himself as “@matteubanksonline” posted something that sums up where the WNBA is about now:
“The WNBA: Women, running a women’s only sports league, are meeting with other women to make a decision on what a woman is, so that they can then decide whether to let fake women compete in a league specifically created for women.”
There is no need for pejorative or stigmatizing language there; so, other than the words “fake women”, I think that posting sums up the situation very well. Bonne chance to the league officials and other conferees in coming up with something that will appease everyone in this matter so that the league can get on with doing its primary function – – entertaining an audience.
Moving on … Back in 2017, Charles Oakley was “escorted out” of Madison Square Garden allegedly at the instruction of Knicks’ owner James Dolan and Oakley filed a suit against Madison Square Garden and Dolan over the matter. The charges against James Dolan were dismissed by a judge in 2020, but the action against MSG continued until earlier this week when a judge issued a summary judgement and said the case was over. Not so, say Oakley’s attorneys who will appeal that judgment and seek an “immediate jury trial”.
This matter has been “backing and forthing” for nine years now; how could either side assert the need for anything labeled as “immediate”? Oakley claims he was assaulted by the security guards that escorted him out of the venue back then and he was barred from entering the Garden for a short time at the instruction of James Dolan. That ban on his entering the Garden was reversed in 2017, but Oakley has chosen not to attend Knicks’ games ever since because he demands an apology from Dolan.
Frankly, this sounds like a schoolyard clash of personalities carried out by two chronological adults and not by two teenagers…
Finally, author Margo Jefferson provides a fitting epilogue to today’s topics:
“We Americans are childish about our celebrities and icons. We worship, then we denounce; we identify passionately with them and then, if they do something – anything – we dislike, we cast them off.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………