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DALLAS (AP) — WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert denounced people she said are trying to “sow divisiveness” as the league grapples with a debate over transgender athletes.
Engelbert made the comments Thursday before the Indiana Fever's 91-85 loss to the Dallas Wings at the home of the Dallas Mavericks.
Demonstrators showed up outside American Airlines Center, as they have at other venues since the Fever's Sophie Cunningham voiced support for barring transgender girls and women from girls' and women's sports in an extensive ESPN profile.
The league issued a statement last week criticizing efforts to make an issue about the eligibility of transgender athletes in the WNBA. Engelbert's comments in a pregame gathering in Dallas were her first since the league called out what it said were bad faith efforts to use the debate to “demean or marginalize others.”
“People are trying to use the league to sow divisiveness,” Engelbert said Thursday while sitting alongside Wings CEO and managing partner Greg Bibb.
“We’re being the center of political football for people who have never watched the WNBA, never have written about the WNBA or reported on the WNBA,” Engelbert said, echoing NBA Commissioner Adam Silver's recent use of “political football” to describe the debate that has engulfed the WNBA.
The league’s collective bargaining agreement states that “only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA,” but it does not include any more specific language about gender identity or sex assigned at birth. Earlier this month, two former NBA players, Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White, declared themselves eligible for the WNBA draft, saying they identify as women.
Engelbert sent a memo this month to team presidents and general managers saying the league would discuss the subject of transgender women in women’s basketball.
“There’s always going to be haters out there and we denounce it,” Engelebert said Thursday. “But that’s what happens when you have made it as a legitimate sports media and entertainment product.”
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